How To Optimize Your Site for Local Search

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Sep 26

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For local businesses, showing up in Google Search is one of the most important ways to drive new clients and sales - especially since 76% of people who search for a nearby service or business on their phone visit a business within a day!There are multiple ways that you can optimize your site and online presence to get your local business ranking on Google!

Include your city name, region, or neighbourhood in page titles, meta descriptions, and site content. Especially if your location is an important factor in your business, make sure it is visible to searchers in your page title and meta description.
Embed your map into your About or Contact page. This allows Google to connect your business to a local address or location. But be careful, putting multiple locations or creating thousands of location landing pages can be seen as spam! Keep it accurate and authentic. Here’s a link with instructions on how to embed a map location on your website.
Ensure NAP is prominent and consistent across the site and web. The most important things you can include on your website are your business name, address and phone number. You can include this information in your footer, header, and contact page. Not only should this information be accurate and formatted consistently across your website, but also across your web presence. As a business owner, decide on one ‘true’ way to write your business name, phone number, and address, and ensure that every online profile has the same version of your NAP. For example, if you’re on Maple Street East, will you spell street St. or use E in place of ‘East’? For your business name, will you include Inc. or LLC at the end? These need to be exactly the same across your search presence to improve your relevancy and authority.
Create locally relevant content. I’ve talked before about how local content is a great way to come up with blog post ideas. If you own a business that serves a particular area, then creating blog content that refers and links to locally relevant content will help boost your keyword density in your site, and improve your rankings while driving traffic to your site from a new page. For example, if you have a salon in downtown Toronto, you could write a blog post on how to have the ultimate girls’ day in your neighbourhood. If you have a restaurant, make a list of different suggestions for things to do on a date (that includes stopping in for dinner, of course!).
Take advantage of Google My Business. Make sure your services and keywords are featured both on your website as well as your Google My Business page to increase your relevancy for local search, and to have the chance to be featured on Maps and the Local Pack.

I hope this was a helpful kick-start in ranking your local business on Google! Looking for a helping hand?