A Comprehensive Guide to Local SEO in 2022

Staying competitive in today’s market can be challenging if you don’t understand the “how-to” strategies to remain relevant online. Our complete guide to local SEO is a free tool providing an accessible way to increase your website and foot traffic, creating more sales. We love our simple, comprehensive guide to local SEO to improve the website’s organic traffic. It provides a basic structure on how to stay relevant within your local area, and if you do these basic steps, it will give your website the upper hand versus your competitors.

A comprehensive guide to local SEO will drive traffic towards your website, creating more sales and increased profits. Ultimately, your goal is to generate more sales for a more significant profit. Allowing your website to stay competitive with your competitors will give your website the drive it needs to stay ahead of the fast-changing market.

Our complete guide will provide clear instructions to gain more significant organic traffic onto your website and increase search engine rankings locally. As your website increases rankings on search engines, it’ll enhance your chances of accumulating more of an audience viewing your website and visiting your physical store.

What is SEO?

Understanding the basics of regular SEO is the first step. SEO refers to a search engine optimization strategy used to interact with search engines to increase organic site traffic. Increasing your website traffic promotes more of an audience to look at your website. More of an audience creates a greater probability of more sales and inquiries for your business. 

Why is Local SEO different from regular SEO

Local SEO is the same strategy as regular SEO; however, it’s directing your website content towards your local community. Creating local SEO will allow your local neighbors to view your website online in hopes of bringing them physically to your location, giving your local customers easy access to interact with your product and store. 

Defining your ideal client

Looking at your website as a giant picture is overwhelming. Begin breaking down your website’s business as a store. Picture your customers walking in and greeting them. Ask yourself simple questions to understand the customer you are trying to sell products to help with their problem. Here are a few examples:

• Who is your customer?
• What are their values? Do their values align with the type of products they buy?
• What problems are you hoping to solve for them? 

Building your website for your desired client will help direct your messaging and products. 

Set up your Google Business Profile

If you have a business where you interact physically with customers face-to-face, you can set up a Google Business Profile. Examples would be restaurants, stores, and even delivery services. 

Setting up your Google Business Profile is a straightforward process. Optimizing your profile assists with interacting more with Google’s search engine to increase your website’s traffic and rankings. 

It’s a free profile allowing your website to interact more with Google by presenting the services your business sells. 

Required information for your profile:

• Business name
• Location
• Category

Suggested additional information:

• Photos of products and services
• Inventory
• Events

Set up your Google My Business Profile

After completing your Google Business Profile, go onto the next step and set up a Google My Business profile. 

Yes, your Google Business Profile is different from Google My Business Profile. Google Business Profile is an informational page laying out all the information about your business. Google My Business Profile permits you to manage and enhance your Google Business Profile. 

Creating both free accounts is a free optimization tool for your local business to increase higher rankings on search engines to boost your website traffic. 

Taking action and utilizing free tools such as Google My Business will help your business establish credibility within Google. It’ll help you interact with your customers with an online presence.

Keep your website content consistent

It can be frustrating for a customer to find discrepancies throughout your webpage. These discrepancies can lead to a lack of trust within your business and product. Continuously keeping your information consistent will help secure the bond of trust between you and the customer. Slight discrepancies can also cause conflict within search engines.

Comb through your webpage and verify that all phone numbers and addresses are consistent and correct. An updated, consistent contact information will help your customer find your store. 

Build your social media presence

Your social media presence is another way to gain more trust within your business. The customer will see a visual representation of your product, understanding the purpose and how to use it.

Additionally, gaining positive online recognition with your content will positively interact with google. Search engines recognize when other social media platforms acknowledge your product and content. Every time a different social media presence mentions your product, it helps increase the ranking of your product on search engines. So, increasing the visual attraction to your product can increase the probability of someone inquiring about your product locally.

Integrating your local social media presence with your Google Business Profile are two methodologies to help bring traffic to your online and physical store.   

The power of linking

As other websites begin linking your content, it establishes authority and trust within your website for search engines. Linking is when a different website or article references your information from your site. Linking is an SEO tool that helps dominate authority within your products and webpage. 

 Establishing an authority will assist with increasing the value of your product and creating more positive interactions that drive more sales. Linking creates additional power on your website. Finding ways to link to other platforms or locally will help drive website and foot traffic to your product.

Write local content to gain domain authority

Here’s how to establish domain authority within your community. Begin creating local content describing methods to resolve your surrounding neighbor’s problems. 

If your product or service can resolve a local issue, advertise how your product can help. Your neighbors are most likely searching for ways to fix the local problem. Writing about accurate resolutions to your neighbor’s problems will help bring them into your storefront. 

You’re creating a more powerful trust bond between your potential customers and your business with accurate content. A stronger bond will keep them on your page and increase the search for your page more. Search engines will recognize the behavior and pattern and improve your website’s rankings when searched. 

Audit your SEO

Start searching for your business and see how your business interacts with your website. You can pay other professionals to do so. If you take an hour to search your website, you can see where your website ranks without paying someone. You can also ask friends and family to quickly explore and give unbiased opinions.

In Summary

Local SEO appears to be a complicated and stressful process where you feel like pulling your hair out—our comprehensive essential guide will help solve your problem. 

Once you begin breaking down your local SEO into small steps, the big picture of SEO isn’t too complicated. You have everything you need. Each step you take towards updating your SEO methodologies creates power, loyalty, and trust locally within your product and brand.