Do you have a local small and medium business (SMB)?
If so, you know how difficult it is to be found and to stand out in increasingly competitive search results.
Local SEO strategies must adapt to new features and algorithm updates by major search engines that affect local search results.
Most local SEO tactics fall into the following three categories.
In this column, you’ll find over 50 specific things you can do right now to help improve your visibility in local search results, broken down into the above categories.
Optimizing Local Listings & Citations
Let’s start with your NAP data (Name, Address and Phone Number).
To be listed and ranked on Google Maps, you need to be a legitimate business, and in some areas you will need a business license (depending on the type of business you are in).
This NAP needs to be consistent and listed the same everywhere or you will run into problems later on.
Before getting started with local listings and citations, you will also need the following:
The main strategy for local listings and local citations is to get as much as possible in the right category, with consistent information such as your NAP data.
Author’s screenshot, March 2022
Local citations are mentions of a local company, which includes NAP data. Local citations may or may not include a link to your website. There are generally two strategies for getting local citations:
Taking the time to get local quotes can be a really big project, especially if you’re in a competitive industry in your area.
Competitors can have up to hundreds of thousands of local citations, which is nearly impossible to do manually.
If you’re a local business (SMB) in an uncompetitive market, getting a handful of local citations manually is a good strategy. If that’s the case, a non-competitive local SEO strategy for local citations is to get these listings:
The last two on the list are specific to certain industries, and you will want to search certain directories specific to your local business’ industry.
They are usually easy to find – they will rank in the top 10 search results (on the first page).
BrightLocal has a list of the top local citations for the US that they maintain.
Submitting to directories (and getting listed) will allow your local business to take advantage of what is often referred to as “barnacle SEO”.
Your business is listed on pages on other websites that rank well for a particular keyword you are targeting.
So for [Dallas carpenters], Google lists sites like Yelp.com, homeadvisor.com, thumbtack.com, houzz.com, and angi.com.
Being listed on these sites will bring in the business leads as they rank well on Google.
After securing (and verifying) these local listings, the next local SEO strategy is to be listed with the top data aggregators. There are three:
Data aggregators will take the local business information and aggregate it (make it available for literally thousands of websites to use).
Make sure you are using the correct NAP data and website URLs as once the data aggregators get your data it is difficult to correct and update it and can take some time.
Using A Third Party For Local Citations & Listings
Another local SEO strategy is to outsource local citations and listings.
Several third-party companies allow you to submit your local business listing to them (the NAP data, short and long descriptions, URLs, etc.), and they will use your connections to get this data from other websites.
Many have agreements with certain data providers and can efficiently obtain hundreds, thousands, and even hundreds of thousands of local citations.
These third-party services include:
Some of these services are better than others, mainly because of the agreements they have with other sites and their technology.
Some only submit to 30 sites, and others, like Advice Local, end up receiving thousands upon thousands of local citations for a local business, many of which include a link to the site.
Be wary of third-party websites that set up a local listing on behalf of the local business, but do not provide the local business with the login and password for these listings.
Reviews Are Key
Getting reviews of your local business, especially on Google, will help rankings and encourage others to visit your business.
People read reviews online, especially for service companies (hotels, resorts, carpet cleaners, home inspectors, carpenters, and even car dealerships).
So whether your local business is a service-type business or another business where reviews are important, creating a good strategy for handling reviews is critical.
Local businesses need to solicit and encourage their customers to leave a review.
There are many ways to encourage customers to leave a review.
Some companies put a sign at the company asking for reviews. Other small and medium-sized businesses encourage reviews by offering a “prize” every month to a random reviewer (a local business I frequent gives an Apple iPad once a month to a random reviewer).
The local business must respond to reviews as quickly as they are left, regardless of whether it is a positive or negative review.
If it’s a positive review or comment, thank the customer for leaving a review.
If it’s negative, deal with it quickly and offer to take the issue offline to minimize any future issues and the negative review getting out of hand.
Even if you stop responding to a review, it’s okay to respond to reviews left several months ago.
If the review appears and can be seen easily, I recommend replying to the review.
Many local businesses will take the time to verify their local listings, but will not properly handle reviews and respond to them in a timely manner.
Local businesses should take the time to develop a strategy to encourage reviews, let employees know what that strategy is, and designate one or two people to respond to reviews.
Here are other ways to manage reviews:
Reviews sent directly to the company can be posted on the company’s website (with the customer’s permission). Comments left on a third-party website (such as Google, Yelp, etc.) cannot be copied and posted on the company’s website.
Comments on third-party sites have, in fact, been given extra weight recently by Google. So sites like these where customers can leave comments and feedback can help with local rankings on Google:
Another way to get more local reviews is to create a postcard or flyer that you deliver to customers.
Tell them you’d like their feedback and use that feedback to make your business even better.
They can leave a review on your website or any of these third party websites (list the websites you would like them to leave a review on).
Optimizing Your Local Website’s Content
Without going into too much detail on how to optimize a local website, there are several on-site local SEO strategies that are important to consider:
Author’s screenshot, March 2022
Optimize For “Near Me” Search Queries
In the past, there were more people using “near me” in the number of search queries, like [restaurants near me] or [pharmacies near me].
These two search queries assume that the search engine knows where the searcher is located.
While “near me” isn’t necessarily gaining in popularity like it was five years ago, it’s still used quite often.
I recommend doing your own keyword research and specifically checking if “near me” is used in search queries in your area.
If there is a significant amount of searches, you may want to optimize at least one page on your site for “near me” related keywords.
Local Ranking Factors
Advice Local has come out with its 2021 list of local ranking factors, which are worth reviewing.
Specifically, they found that local SEO experts who contributed to the list of ranking factors said these are important:
A properly optimized GBP listing is the most important ranking “factor”.
Therefore, it is important to optimize your Google business profile listing.
Reviews are important, as is the response to those reviews.
So one of the important factors “on the rise” is the optimization of the pages of your site, which is the “On-Page” referred to above.
For example, make sure your site has the proper Local Schema tag code and that the NAP data exactly matches the information in your GBP, especially the name.
Work towards getting more backlinks specifically to your individual location pages that include “city name + keyword” in the anchor text of the links.
Be A Local Content Machine
One interesting tactic or “local SEO strategy” I’ve seen lately that works well is becoming a local content machine.
Essentially, by adding a blog to your local business website and writing about local news and events, you are producing content that other townspeople will want to read and share, especially on social media.
While you are not necessarily writing about your local business, you are branding the business locally. When someone wants or needs the services of a company, they will think about your company first, as they have seen it so much online.
A local auto accident and personal injury attorney hired a writer to write everyday articles about accidents in his town.
Although they didn’t target the actual victims they wrote about, social media shares increased dramatically and the lawyer got his name out in front of people in town.
These social media shares ended up linking to the site, which in turn helped with local rankings.
Buy A Local Website Or Blog
If you want to quickly add a lot of content to your local business website, consider purchasing a local website that already has the content you need.
It could be a local hobby site with local news or articles, or it could be a local blog that has the content.
Maybe the owner doesn’t have the guts to keep up with the content like they used to, or they could just use the money.
Approach a local website or blog about purchasing their website and embedding and moving your content to your local business website.
Setting up redirects from the old domain name to your local business website will help pass on any heritage and link history to your local business.
Optimizing And Working On Links
Links to your website have always been an important ranking factor in search engines and will continue to be so in the future.
Google’s algorithm has always favored links to a website.
But in 2016, there was a stronger emphasis on links when Google released its Google Possum algorithm update.
Local links or links from other local businesses and organizations have been important for years and are still a very important part of a local SEO strategy today.
Greg Gifford, vice president of research at SearchLab.com, recommends that you can “find easy linking opportunities by looking at the relationships you already have.”
Local sponsorships, local volunteer opportunities and local offline groups can all lead to local links.
Need more ideas for local links? Use Majestic.com to review link profiles of similar businesses in another city.
Another local SEO strategy for local links is to get links from competitors.
Use a web crawler like Screaming Frog SEO Spider to crawl the site and review all your competitors’ outbound links.
Then see if there are any links you can get from sites your competitors are linking to.
Essentially, these competitors are passing link credit or PageRank to the other site that passes it on to your site.
Additional Local SEO Tips
These are some local SEO strategies that will help with local search engine rankings.
But if that wasn’t enough, here are more local SEO tips and tricks you might not have thought of yet.
Local Listings
Without a doubt, the number one local search ranking factor is “company proximity to search point”.
How far is the company from the person doing the research?
For example, Google knows where the searcher is (especially if they are using a cell phone).
The closer the business is to the person doing the search, the more likely they are to appear on Google Maps and Google’s local listings in search results.
Some companies are known to get a “virtual office” location (or multiple virtual office locations) just for this reason, especially if the customer never visits their location.
While this is a local SEO strategy that I don’t endorse, it’s a local SEO strategy that’s worth noting – as a company’s competitors may be doing this.
Keep your local online listings up to date.
If you know you have an update to your NAP data, make sure it is changed online as soon as possible.
If you’re moving, start updating your local listings.
Once you know the new address, start updating local listings online.
It can take months for sites to update their listing, so the sooner you start, the better.
Just as you update your “snail mail” with the US Postal Service when you move to a new location, you should also make sure your local listings are up to date.
As mentioned earlier, the address with the USPS must be the exact same address used in your local listings.
Search engines likely have access to USPS data, and inconsistencies can lead to local ranking issues.
Consistency is key when it comes to NAP data and your company’s ability to rank well locally.
Make sure your local listings are consistent and the same as on your website.
Inconsistent NAP data across multiple sites is one of the issues I see a lot.
Auditing your local citations to ensure your NAP is consistent everywhere can really help local SEO.
You may have multiple phone numbers, different versions of your address, or even a different address on some websites that list your NAP data.
Removing duplicate listings and updating inconsistencies can make a huge difference.
Add regularly updated photos to local profiles.
Schedule regularly to take new photos of your location and business. Add new photos to your Google business profile, your Facebook page, and other photo-accepting sites like Yelp.
Use Google AdWords to target specific locations and potential customers in your area. Google is now offering ads on Google Maps listings, so setting aside a budget for these ads will pay off.
It’s always a constant battle to get more reviews online than your competitors – but it’s worth it in the long run.
Ask customers for reviews – in-store, at your location, and even via email if you have your customers’ email addresses.
Ask a review on Google, Yelp and TripAdvisor if you’re a hotel or resort.
Always respond in a timely manner to all reviews left, whether positive or negative.
On-Site Local SEO
Add the schema.org code tagged to your NAP on your website.
The name, address and phone number on your website must be tagged with the appropriate code.
This won’t affect how it appears on your site, but the schema.org code will tell search engines exactly that – which is your name, address, and phone number.
You can also add markup in JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data) code, which can help Google know your NAP.
Add the appropriate link to your phone number.
Adding a type of “tel://” link to your phone number listed on your website will allow mobile visitors to click the link and call you.
This can also help search engines display your phone number in the phone call extension area in mobile search results.
Speed up your site’s loading time.
Optimizing your site for mobile devices can seriously (and quickly) help rankings.
I’ve seen Google send more traffic to a website just because the website loads faster than before. This could mean moving web hosts, redesigning the website, or using a CDN.
All your business photos must be tagged with the appropriate location information and keywords.
Use an EXIF editor to add location information, keywords and descriptions to each photo. Each image file can be updated with this information, which can include geotagged location information.
Multiple locations? Create a section on your website for each location.
Don’t just create one page for each location, add additional content if possible.
Each location will have its own unique personality with its location and staff. Why not consistently add relevant content to each location? Add a blog and add photos to make it relevant.
Use proper syntax and keywords in your URLs.
For each location, use a format like www.domain.com/location/. Link to each location in your site’s main navigation, but don’t link to subpages in each location.
Consolidate separate sites for each location into one main site.
If you’ve set up a separate domain name and website for each location, move those websites to your main website.
Redirect domain names with 301 redirects and move content to subsections on your main site.
Each site will feed off the authority of the main site to become more powerful. Don’t forget to update the local listings for your location so they also point to the new URL on the main site.
Some local search queries may trigger featured snippets.
Depending on your topic, you can increase your site’s traffic and visibility by appearing at “position zero” for some search queries.
Position zero is the “featured snippet” that Google shows above all other search engine listings.
Use SEMrush.com to review the keywords you are currently ranking for and see if any of them include a featured snippet.
Optimize content to appear in the featured snippet. Other search queries can also trigger the knowledge graph, instant response, local package carousel, or images that you can optimize.
While you may not be carrying credit cards or personal information on your site, moving your entire site to an SSL secure server will give you an edge.
HTTPS is now a search engine ranking factor for Google, and many local businesses still haven’t switched their sites to HTTPS.
So switching to HTTPS will put you ahead of the competition. It’s important to make sure that links you’ve had for a while, such as local quotes, point to the HTTPS version of your site.
Write blog posts regularly about local news, local issues and local events. Post them on social media and link them to your blog post.
Photos are always appreciated by locals and are often shared.
Local SEO Audits
Audit your site.
There are several different types of audits available, including link audits, on-page audits, and local citation audits.
Local citation audits are good for identifying duplicate listings and inconsistent NAP data.
I’ve recently seen a wave of negative SEO being done on local listings, with some companies getting listings being created “for them” with bad data courtesy of competitors.
A local citation audit can identify many of these issues so you can address them properly.
Link audits are important as local map algorithms increasingly rely on link data.
Having low quality links and off-topic links pointing to your site can hurt your rankings.
On-page audits are also important to identify areas for improvement on your site.
Fixing issues like formatting, metadata, header and even page load speed can improve rankings.
Off-Site Local SEO
Get your customers’ email addresses and use that data to target them on Facebook or in an email newsletter.
You can send your customers’ email addresses and phone numbers to Facebook and target them with ads.
Then create a similar Facebook campaign to target even more people with the same demographics as your current customers.
More people are using voice search to find local businesses. They use voice search to help them find a business near them.
For example, they might ask, “Where is the nearest Italian restaurant?” Check out the Local SEO Guide study on “near me” local SEO ranking factors I mentioned earlier. It’s an interesting read.
For your top keywords (the ones you want to rank for), take a look at who is currently ranking – and it might not be your own website.
If you can optimize your listing or appear well on another site that is currently ranking for your keyword, you will still see some traffic and get business.
If a Yelp, Home Advisor, Thumbtack, Angie’s List, or BBB page is rated, make sure your local business is listed on those pages.
Participate in and sponsor local events, organizations and non-profits.
This will increase your local visibility and will often include a link to your website, which ultimately helps your search engine rankings.
Final Thoughts
It takes a holistic approach to optimizing your site for search. The combination of on-site optimizations and outbound listings and links will help increase your SMB’s visibility in local search results.
Featured Image: Olivier Le Moal/Shutterstock
To find this information, go to Semrush Traffic Analytics Overview reports. Enter up to 5 competitors to compare in the input fields at the top of the report. With this report, you will have an immediate view of your traffic patterns.
How do I see competitors keywords in Semrush?
First of all, pay attention to the titles of your pages (by pressing Ctrl+U you can see the page code; from there you should find the Title meta tag. In this meta tag you will probably see your competitors’ keywords).
How do I find competing keywords? The 8 Best Tools for Finding Competing Keywords
- WordStream’s free keyword tool.
- BuzzSumo.
- Unhurried.
- Spyfu.
- Ahrefs.
- Google Auction Statistics.
- Seed keywords.
- Tag clouds.
How do you use Ahrefs for SEO and competitor research?
Use a Content Gap Tool Connect your site to Ahrefs Site Explorer and go to the Content Gap tool. Enter your competitors below where it says “Show keywords that targets below rank for”. Click “Show Keywords” to see the results.
How do you add competitors to Ahrefs? Assuming you’re already on Rank Tracker, select the project you’ve previously created for your Dashboard. Finally, click on “settings” to view information about 1) Scope, 2) Ownership Verification 3) Site Audit, and 4) Competitors. Click on the “COMPETITORS” tab and add your competitors accordingly.
Can you find competitor backlinks with Ahrefs?
We crawl so fast, in fact, that Ahrefs’ crawler outperforms Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex. The bottom line? You can use the Site Explorer Backlinks Report to check backlinks to any website or webpage. So if you enter a competitor’s website, you will see all of their backlinks.
How do I find competitor backlinks manually?
To find competitor backlinks, search the site URL with a backlink checker tool to find out the site’s authority. Then take a look at your inbound links. The best link opportunities to look at are external backlinks. Then you can check which pages are the most popular on your competitor’s site.
How do I see competitors backlinks in Ahrefs?
Here’s how: Enter one of your spreadsheet domain-level competitors – preferably one marked as a “direct” competitor in the final column – into Site Explorer. Then go to the Backlinks report (and add a dofollow filter). You will now see all backlinks pointing to your competitor’s homepage.
Which is better Semrush or Moz?
Moz’s link intersection tool is slightly better than Semrush’s because it allows you to compare your site’s backlinks to five other sites, while Semrush limits the comparison to four other sites. Semrush’s ‘backlink gap’ feature.
Is Moz the Best SEO Tool? I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention MozBar, the free Moz Pro browser extension for Google Chrome. Ahrefs, SEMrush, and SpyFu also offer browser toolbar extensions, but MozBar is without a doubt the most well-known and popular SEO toolbar on the market.
Is there anything better than Semrush?
One of the best free Semrush alternatives is Google Keyword Planner. Using the tool, you can find keywords by-products, domain or services. You can also use the ideation tool for your SEO campaigns. You can even access historical data like average monthly searches and perform competitor analysis.
What is the alternative to Semrush?
| SEMrush alternatives | Initial price | GHS Review Score |
|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs | $99 / month | 93% |
| Moz Pro | $99 / month | 87% |
| WebCEO | $39 / month | 86% |
| SEO Powersuite | $320 / year | 85% |
Is UberSuggest better than Semrush?
Ultimate choice of UberSuggest and SEMrush As mentioned earlier, these two tools can help you improve your knowledge and understanding of SEO. But the best overall SEO tool is SEMrush.
Is Semrush the best SEO?
Verdict: Semrush is a top-notch SEO tool used and trusted by SEO gurus around the world. If this is your first time investing in SEO software, Semrush is the tool to go for as it allows you to perform advanced SEO tasks with ease.
Is SEMrush good for SEO?
Semrush can power your keyword research and content optimization with an incredible amount of SEO intelligence. For example, using Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool, you can find and target the keyword phrases that are likely to generate the most search traffic.
Which is the best tool for SEO SEMrush or Ahref in 2021?
Semrush provides a lot of data related not only to SEO but also to PPC – if you want a tool that covers both areas, it is a better option than Ahrefs. Semrush’s ‘keyword intent’ tool is great for identifying the keywords most relevant to your business (or those most likely to lead to purchases).
How do I get a refund from Semrush?
Our refund policy offers a 7-day money-back guarantee on any Semrush subscription. Send us a request via mail@semrush.com or our contact form and we will refund the payment made if the request is made within 7 days of signing up or renewing.
How do I downgrade my Semrush account? To downgrade your account, please contact our support by submitting a request to our support team. There are no restrictions on the number of downgrades, but you can lose your existing projects. Please note that we keep your projects data for 30 days after downgrading in case you choose to upgrade again to recover your data.
How do I remove my credit card from Semrush?
You can change your credit card information if you have an active recurring subscription. To make these changes, access your subscription information in my profile settings, under the billing information tab.
How do I stop my SEMrush payment?
If you sign up for Semrush and you don’t think it’s a perfect option, please log in to your user account and submit a cancellation request via this form. You can also send us the cancellation request by email to mail@semrush.com from the registered email address.
How do I deactivate my SEMrush account?
You can delete your free account at any time by submitting a request to our support team at mail@semrush.com as described in our Terms of Service (6.4 Unregistration).
Can I cancel my Semrush subscription?
You can unsubscribe from SEMrush by sending an unsubscribe request to mail@semrush.com. It’s best to email customer support from the email associated with your SEMrush account. Otherwise, include your SEMrush email in the message.
Can I cancel a subscription and still use it?
What happens after you cancel. When you cancel a subscription, you will still be able to use it for the time you have already paid for.
Can you cancel SEMrush at any time?
You can cancel your subscription at any time. Cancellation will take effect at the end of the prepaid period or, for unpaid trial or free subscriptions, within 7 days of receipt of your request, in each case provided that the request has been made in accordance with these cancellation.
How do I deactivate my Semrush account?
You can delete your free account at any time by submitting a request to our support team at mail@semrush.com as described in our Terms of Service (6.4 Unregistration).
Is it easy to cancel Semrush?
If you sign up for Semrush and you don’t think it’s a perfect option, please log in to your user account and submit a cancellation request via this form. You can also send us the cancellation request by email to mail@semrush.com from the registered email address.
Can I cancel Semrush free trial?
Canceling your account subscription Our customer service will contact you shortly. Alternatively, you can log into your account and navigate to the Subscription Information page. Find the link that says “active” next to “recurring” and follow the “contact us” link to the cancellation form.
Is SpyFu better than Semrush?
Final Verdict: Semrush vs SpyFu Semrush is an all-purpose SEO tool, while SpyFu is more focused on analyzing the competition. But based on my analysis, even from a competitive intelligence standpoint, Semrush is a far superior tool.
Which is better SpyFu or SEMrush? SpyFu has over 10 years of competitor data while SEMrush dates back to 2012. SEMrush has much more features as an SEO platform while SpyFu is more limited to competitor analysis. SEMrush has a Traffic Analysis tool, while SpyFu does not. SEMrush has a better overall keyword research tool compared to SpyFu.
What is SpyFu used for?
SpyFu is a keyword research and competitive intelligence tool used by digital marketers to improve their online search performance. More specifically, SpyFu can be used to identify the most profitable search terms in your competitors’ paid and organic search campaigns.
Is SpyFu legal?
SpyFu lives up to its name. It is a tool that allows you to spy on other companies. But it’s all perfectly legal industrial espionage.
What is Semrush tool?
About Semrush Semrush is an SEO tool that does your keyword research, tracks the keyword strategy your competition uses, runs an SEO audit of your blog, looks for backlink opportunities and much more. Internet marketers around the world trust Semrush. It is also used by a number of companies, large and small.
Is there anything better than SEMrush?
One of the best free Semrush alternatives is Google Keyword Planner. Using the tool, you can find keywords by-products, domain or services. You can also use the ideation tool for your SEO campaigns. You can even access historical data like average monthly searches and perform competitor analysis.
Is Ahref better than Semrush?
Advantages of Semrush over Ahrefs If you intend to do a lot of backlink or keyword research every day, Semrush is considerably better value than Ahrefs. Semrush provides a lot of data related not only to SEO but also to PPC – if you want a tool that covers both areas, it is a better option than Ahrefs.
Is UberSuggest better than Semrush?
Ultimate choice of UberSuggest and SEMrush As mentioned earlier, these two tools can help you improve your knowledge and understanding of SEO. But the best overall SEO tool is SEMrush.
Is SpyFu any good?
SpyFu is one of the most well-known names in the SEO game due to a deep set of features, excellent reports, and solid support for digital marketing and advertising. While it can be a bit complex for beginners, it remains an excellent choice for Editors’ Choice.
How good is Ahrefs?
Solid data: A tool like Ahrefs is only as good as its data. Whether it’s search volume, backlinks, ratings or social shares, the data on Ahrefs is VERY good. Excellent Site Audit Feature: I think Ahrefs’ site audit tool is one of the best on the market. And even on par with specialized website auditing tools.
How reliable is SpyFu?
Over time, we’ve made many improvements, including the example of taking into account purchases, videos, and other results. Realistically, nowadays, you can expect our roll-up estimates like ad budget and SEO clicks to be accurate about 90% of the time. That said, we have a good sense of scale.