If you run a multi-location or small business and want nearby customers to find your business through search, you must optimize your ads and business for local searches. By doing so, you’ll connect with highly motivated customers who need what you’re offering.
Local search engine optimization (local SEO) entails optimizing your business’s web presence so that it shows up when nearby customers perform a search related to your business.
Optimizing your business and ads for local searches is essential because local search intent is specific. And, consumers look for businesses near them that can offer them something specific. For instance, someone in San Francisco searching for a dishwasher doesn’t want to find a business in Alaska. They want to find a business that’s in San Francisco specifically.
By using targeting in your marketing strategies, you can leverage local SEO to connect with these customers.
How to Optimize Your Ads and Business for Local Searches
So, how can you optimize your ads and business for local searches? Here are four simple local SEO tips:
- Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile-Friendly
When your website is mobile-friendly, it’s responsive and it can adapt to any screen size. Mobile sites perform better in local search, and they offer a better user experience.
Mobile responsiveness is crucial for local searches because many consumers use their mobile devices to search for local businesses. BrightLocal found that over 77% of consumers use mobile devices for this purpose.
Mobile-friendly websites are easier to navigate; this leads to visitors spending more time on a site, which improves conversions. Also, this can send positive behavioral signals to Google, which boosts search engine rankings.
To know if your website is mobile-friendly, run a technical SEO audit, or you can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.
- Add Your Company’s Address to Your Site
To help Google and other search engines know your business’s location, add your physical address on your website.
- If you have one location, add this address to your website’s footer and the contact page.
- If you have many locations, create location pages that display the addresses of each location and create a separate page for each location.
- On your location and contact pages, add a Google map showing the company location.
- Also, add location-based structured data on your site.
This information will help search engines associate your company with a specific area or region.
- Have a Google My Business Page
This is a free listing that you can create for each of your business locations. Google My Business pages appear as rich results on SERPs. And they can appear as a map or a list of businesses.
Google My Business rich results may also display information about a business location. This includes the address, operation hours, phone numbers, and call-to-action buttons such as to visit the website, contact or get directions.
So, if you want your business to appear in these rich listings, you must create a Google My Business page for each of your locations.
Creating a Google My Business page is just the first step in optimizing your ads and website for local searches. Optimizing and interacting with your page can boost its visibility. Update your page regularly and engage with it by creating posts, adding photos, engaging with reviews, and adding FAQs.
- Optimize Title Tags and Meta Descriptions for Your Category and Location
Meta descriptions and title tags are meta tags that help search engines understand what a page is about.
A title tag is a part of the page title that displays on SERPs. And the meta description is blurb that describes a webpage. To optimize your ads and site for local searches, you need to optimize your title tags and meta descriptions for a category and business location. Follow these tips:
- In the homepage meta information, add your area, city, or region, and your business category, in both meta description and title.
- On location pages, add the city and category in both the description and title.
- Always limit your title tags to 60 characters.
- Always limit your meta descriptions to 320 characters.
Optimizing for your business and ads for local searches helps you get the most out of search marketing by connecting them with consumers who matter the most — local customers and buyers who are looking for nearby businesses.
Next time, we’ll give details of some great tools to help you optimize for voice search.
Until then,