Did you know that 46% of all Google searches are local? Despite this fact, so many industries fail to make the most out of their local listings. Growing your visibility online starts with making sure you’ve got a bunch of relevant, optimized local citations. Take this as your guide to local SEO and find tips for your industry.
What Is Local SEO?
Local SEO revolves around optimizing your website and web properties to rank better for a local audience. It gives you the opportunity to target the location you’re aiming for.
If your office, shop, or service is in one location, it’s absolutely necessary to build a strategy for local SEO. Optimize for your city or town and you’ll likely gain more local traffic to your site.
Make it so those searching know where you are and where to find you offline. Most often, local SEO benefits businesses with a street address in a region or city. However, many directories allow you to select a service area if you conduct business online or remotely, or if you do not have a brick and mortar for people to visit.
Restaurants and cafes
Of course, if you own a restaurant, coffee shop, or cafe, local SEO is imperative. If you want to bring in more customers, you have to be more visible online.
Restaurants and cafes, in particular, can benefit from local SEO, because most people will search “restaurants near me.” Your business needs to be in those search results.
Don’t forget to include your niche when optimizing your business listings. The more keywords you include, the more people can potentially find you. For instance, if you serve vegan food, include that in your listing. That way, when people search for “Vegan restaurants in LA,” they can discover you more easily.
It’s essential to be specific.
Remember, customer reviews and five-star ratings also help you rank a little higher. Encourage those who eat or drink at your establishment to leave a review.
Below you’ll find a few essential international directories for restaurants and cafes you should consider adding your site and business details to:
Retail
It doesn’t matter if this is a local or national store—retail shops should always tap into local SEO. Thousands of retailers use local citations to gain more traffic from their target audience.
To do this, you need to use keywords. Again, you should make this especially niche.
Let’s imagine you’re a cycling shop. You should opt to use long-tail keywords like “bike parts in Homer, Alaska” rather than just “bikes.” Remember, you’re not only competing with other retailers, you’re competing with travel bloggers, YouTubers, and social media posts.
Start with Google and Bing listings. Then, create more directories on popular sites that will grow your reach.
Product descriptions always help with local SEO, too. As with all things SEO, make sure to include keywords in your product descriptions.
Retail stores should ensure that their site and store details are listed on the following business listing services:
- Google+ Local
- Yelp
- Bing Places
- Yellow Pages
- Yahoo Local
- Foursquare
Transportation
The transportation industry is also incredibly popular. To use various methods of transportation, one needs to know where you’re traveling to and from. In your web content and your citations, list the main locations you’re based in.
If you’re a taxi firm, you can also create a Google listing and Bing listing. This will display your contact details, as well as your ratings. Keywords in the copy are the best ways for transportation businesses to list better.
Keywords in the copy are the best ways for transportation businesses to list better. If you’re a transportation company, consider adding your business to the following directories:
- TransportReviews.com
- FleetDirectory.com
Technology
If you own or work for a tech company, SEO is arguably more important than ever. If you look professional and rank high on Google, you can gain more trust as a tech company. Also, the majority of your target audience will use a search engine to find you over traditional methods.
Make sure that you make listings and use specific keywords. For instance, use the particular service and location that you’re based in.
Agriculture
Although it may not seem like it, local SEO is still important for the agriculture industry. Start by optimizing your Google and Bing listings. Ensure that your website data, phone number, and social media are all up to date; this enables everyone to find you easily.
Consider using blogs, keywords (throughout the blogs and website copy), and guest posting. Then, make sure your business is on the following directories
- AgriculturalLink.com
- Quirks.com
- USDA’s Local Food Directories
Education
Creating a strong local SEO strategy can help attract more people to your education facility, whether it’s a college or university, or tutoring services.
For example, instead of focusing on “German classes,” get more location-specific and use “German classes in Las Vegas.” Obviously, the more specific the location, the more targeted your potential audience.
Education is always being sought, using specific rather than popular keywords will help you achieve your local SEO goals. It’s worth saying that when people search for educational classes or help, they’ll often know exactly what they want, in the area that they need.
Here are a few essential education-specific directories:
- WashDiplomat.com
- HepInc.com
Construction
With construction, the location is essential—the more specific, the better. People tend to search in targeted areas and neighborhoods, sometimes a specific as the street. Users want to find the closest construction company for convenience.
For construction companies, the name, address, and phone number also affect the local SEO. You need people to be able to not only find you but quickly contact you.
The majority of searchers will make their way through the contact numbers that they can easily find. Making sure that you have this listed will ensure that you’re successful.
Here are a few directories relevant to the construction industry:
- ConstructionCrowd.com
- Digital Construction Industry Directory (cidd.com)
- MDM.com
Healthcare
Local SEO for healthcare companies is essential. Medical organizations rely on SEO to curate a patient’s online experience. It starts with the initial research, all the way to an appointment request.
Make sure you have a great website, with a fantastic UX and clear navigation paths. This will ensure that those who find you, stay on your site.
You should also create specific localized content, such as blogs and videos. Make sure you use cities and locations throughout your website and copy.
Manage your local listings by making sure that everything is up-to-date. This is arguably more important for healthcare companies than any other industry. Don’t forget to ask your patients for reviews, if it’s appropriate.
There’s also a variety of medical directories that you should consider linking your site and clinic to. We strongly recommend looking into MedicalHealthSites.com and HealthGrades.com.
General Tips for Local SEO
With industry-specific tips out of the way, here are some great general tips for local SEO:
- Set up Google My Business: This free local tool for businesses and organizations allows you to manage your online presence.
- Create local listings: Reputation has become one of the most critical factors in the ranking of your site.
- Reviews: Always try to get reviews for your company or services. This will help you rank.
- Use local keywords: Of course, for SEO, keywords are especially important.
- Consider using established SEO tools like Ahrefs and Moz, in order to get an in-depth understanding of the market and your competition.
- Consider publishing well-researched and properly edited content. There are now many online tools and services like Hemingway, Pick The Writer, Grammarly, and TrustMyPaper.
Build Your Local Strategy Today
Following the above tips will help you master the art of local SEO, regardless of your industry. Local SEO is often undermined by many local business owners, they feel that they don’t see the result, or that technical SEO is more important.
While it’s true that SEO might take a little bit of time to get moving, it’s very much worth the wait. Organic searches can help your business in the long run, much better than any type of advert.
This guest post was written by Bridgette Hernandez is a tech writer, and contributing blogger at Best Essay. She has more than five years of experience writing on topics such as tech careers, marketing, and SEO.
