Local SEO tips for your website

Local search results can help you attract customers who are searching within Google Maps and performing other local searches. Local search results are often part of campaigns but can get lost when not enough attention is paid to them. In this article we will give you the tips you can use to get the most out of local search results!

There are a lot of different things that can make you perform better in local search results. This always requires, just like any other work for Search Engine Optimization, that quite some effort is put into it. Search engine optimization is not a set up and forget as any other work on a site can be. But it needs to be maintained on an almost daily basis. Let's cover the tips in the rest of this article.

Join and use Google My Business

Google My Business is an important part of being better found locally within local search results. Both through Google Maps, and the local search results, this listing comes up. Google My Business can be a way to share posts, promotions and other further information such as opening hours and contact options for your business. So this can be a good way to have a certain interaction with your customers or potential customers in addition to being found better through Google My Business.

You can also advertise locally and more functions become available when you become a member. Becoming a member of Google My Business is easy; you only need to provide a physical location in the form of a business address. You will receive mail which you should use to become a member.

Address local search terms in your content

Local search terms are also an important part of making your website visiblein local search results. With a focus on local keywords, there are also more chances of scoring for perhaps better search results for local websites. An example can be given with legal practice. Everyone would like to rank for best lawyer, however this is an investment of time, effort and money that not everyone can make. However, it may be easier to rank for a search term such as divorce lawyer in Apeldoorn. Where local results are also better in this case, people obviously do not go from Apeldoorn to Maastricht for this.

In this way you can anticipate what the potential customer best suits, and research can be done on what these exact terms are, how to respond. And what existing search results exist for this. And how you can be better at this than your competition.

Customer reviews

Customer reviews can be used to show that you run a reliable business. With many recent reviews you can ensure that people can quickly see that your services or products meet their expectations. This also sends a positive signal to search engines to rank your business higher in local search results. Customer reviews can also be collected through Google My Business and take a prominent place there. So make sure when you receive new reviews that you react to them in time. If it is positive then of course you put down a thank you, if it is a negative review then you should do your best to respond with an appropriate solution. Or compensation to give it a positive spin.

Website not optimized for mobile users

With a website that is not optimized for mobile users, you miss a lot of local opportunities. Most local searches are performed with the mobile phone, because people quickly look for a store on the spot. Or they want to find out what's going on in a particular town or location. With a mobile optimized website you can best serve these customers and therefore get the best results. Most websites created with a Content Management System such as WordPress will already have a theme suitable for this. Also make sure when creating the website that the theme used also looks suitable on mobile devices. With most themes this will already be the case by default. Check this periodically on different pages with a mobile screen, so you do not miss anything.

Poor quality content on your website

Content is and will remain an important part of search results, as the algorithms of the search engines get smarter it will become more important to see the difference. Make sure your content contains no or hardly any spelling mistakes, is easy to read and challenges people to continue reading or perform an action on your website. People who stay longer on your website and go to multiple pages also get a better result in Google search results.

So take these tips with you when working on your local search results and raise your website to new heights! For more tips and tricks, keep an eye on our social media for more information.