Most people, including small business owners and webmasters, do not fully understand the factors that make local SEO tick simply because they do not know what Google holds as important. Hover, multiple studies, as well as experience, indicate the most important considerations for effective local SEO. While the 2018 local search ranking factors survey conducted by Moz indicate that there have some changes in the importance of off-page factors, on-page considerations. It is like keyword relevance, mobile responsiveness, and quality of content remain as important as ever. A quick look at some of the most important on-page SEO factors that you need to audit:
Optimization of Home, About, and Contact Pages of the Site
It is vital to make sure that the home page, about page, and contact page of the website are optimized to contain complete information about the location. It can be really surprising that very often one or more of these pages are not optimized with this information. Even though it is perhaps the most important for local businesses. Apart from putting in the NAP (name, address, and phone number) information on the contact page, you should remember to insert the details of multiple locations in the footer section. To increase conversion rates by up to 50%, you can insert powerful calls to action in the footer section. It is along with the location information. Embedding Google maps of your locations is also a good way of encouraging local traffic.
Ensure Consistency of NAP Information
Even though it may seem innocuous, it is vital that you have the same NAP information across all the places in your site wherever it is inserted across the website. That is also in all off-site resources like directories, yellow pages, etc. To a human, there is no difference between A1234 Somewhere Street and A1234 Somewhere St. but the search engine will view them differently. It can create havoc with your SEO when they are used interchangeably. The good thing is that you can check for this inconsistency using one of the many available online tools.
Make the Phone Numbers Clickable
Already more than half of the internet traffic comes from mobile devices. According to https://www.perficientdigital.com, 58% of site visits were from mobile devices in 2018. This makes it not only vital for you to have a website that is optimized for mobile phones but also to make the phone numbers in the NAP information clickable. You will spare the mobile user, the hassle of copying the number. That made the call, so you can expect your conversions to increase substantially. By also including a clickable button, in addition to making the numbers clickable, you can further increase the call-in rate.
Optimize the URLs with Location Keywords
By making incorporating words that mention the location of your business in the URL itself. You can make the task of the search engine bots easier. When you have URLs with location words, it is more likely that your business will get included in the 3-pack of Google SERP. You can add more punch to the rankings by ensuring that the naming system is consistent. It is user-friendly for all the location pages and regional pages being created.
Optimize Title Tags, Descriptions, and Image Tags
The optimization of title tags is a common and very effective method of boosting rankings. So, you can make it deliver results in local searches by including the location in the title tag. Just ensure that the location words are within the first 60 characters as anything beyond that will get truncated. Page descriptions are extremely useful to make users click on your link after it has been displayed in the SERPs. This is why a compelling description of what the user can expect on the webpage is easily among the most powerful SEO tactics. Local businesses can harness this power by including location words. It is in the description so that users looking for local products and services will automatically be incentivized to click on the URL.
The description has a word limit of 160 characters so be sure to stay within the limit. Make it a point; however, to refrain from stuffing keywords into the descriptions as users will get turned off assuming that the content too will be equally spammy. Even though Google has become quite smart in detecting the location of businesses by interpreting photos that you post. You can help the process by including geotags or location words in the alt tag.
Create Location Pages and Regional Pages
Even though you have a business with multiple locations, it is more than likely that you will have only a single website. However, to maximize the chances of getting superior ranks for each of your locations, you should ideally have one page dedicated to each location with the page optimized for that specific location. It should be in the title tag, description, and even the image tags. Include the NAP information; however, be very careful that you provide the specific details associated with the location. It is for which you are building the page. To take advantage of Google’s capabilities to sniff out local businesses, you can also build regional pages. It is when your business has a presence spread out across several states. To avoid messing it up, you should create a sitemap that logically structures your content across pages and locations.
Make Your Website Mobile Responsive
With mobiles accounting for half of the internet traffic and increasing by the day, websites need to be optimized. S0 you can display and operation on mobile devices. A mobile-friendly website is all the more critical for local businesses since they need to cater to users who are trying to get details of local resources. That is typically while they are on the go. Making your NAP information highly visible ensures that you will have better CTR rates. That chances of increasing the volume of store traffic and sales.
Conclusion
Apart from ensuring the above-mentioned optimization tactics are implemented, you should ensure that the site loads very quickly. It should on both mobile phones and desktops. Keeping the content of the pages fresh and updated is also crucial to attracting the attention of searchers and encouraging physical traffic to the store. Try to make your call to action as compelling and location-specific as possible as you can so that the website traffic is encouraged to visit the store and make the purchase.
