Dominate the local market: find out how to do Local SEO

Want to get your local business to the first page of Google? Know how make Local SEO it's the solution. Read our strategies and best practices to optimize your online presence, increase your local visibility and attract more customers to your area. Start improving your search engine rankings now!

In fact, indexing on Google is essential to obtain a large following on the internet. The more people click on the pages of your site, the greater the chances of obtaining a conversion and, consequently, increasing the financial reach of your business. But when it comes to positioning on Google, it is not enough to simply appear at the top of the search engine results page, the so-called SERP (Search Engine Results Page). What really matters is being visible in the searches that users do in your area. And for this reason it is important to know how to do Local SEO.

What is Local SEO

Simply put, Local SEO refers to the optimization activities of the website and online content to achieve greater visibility and positioning in local search results. This means that if you are a local business, it helps you to be found more easily by your potential customers in local searches.

This is a particularly important tool for companies and freelancers who operate in a limited geographical area, such as local shops, service businesses and restaurants. Realities that largely depend on the people who live or work in the area, and who therefore need to reach this specific target of consumers.

Why is local SEO optimization so important for local businesses?

The answer is simple: local SEO can help improve your online visibility and bring more traffic to your website, which results in greater exposure of your brand and, ultimately, more sales. An increase in inbound traffic that relates to a specific geographic area, namely your area of interest.

For example, if a person searches for “Japanese restaurant in Milan”, Local SEO helps the city's Japanese restaurants appear in the first search results. If your restaurant is optimized for local SEO, your potential customers will be much more likely to come across it find you easily and choose you over your competitors.

But it's not just limited to the website, as it also involves other factors such as customer reviews, online mentions (names, addresses, and phone numbers), social media presence, and more. All these factors help create a complete image of your online business and improve your visibility.

How to do Local SEO

Local SEO is therefore a search engine optimization activity that aims to improve the visibility of a local business online. But how to implement such a strategy and discover how to do Local SEO effectively? There are several actions you can take:

1. Create a Google My Business profile: This is a fundamental step. Creating a profile on Google My Business allows you to appear in local search results and provide detailed information about your business such as address, hours of operation and customer reviews.
2. Optimize your website for local searches: Insert relevant local search keywords into your website pages, including your “About Us” page and “Contact Us” page. Also include the name of your city or region in your website title and meta description. This means identifying the relevant keywords that local customers use to search for businesses like yours
3. Make your website mobile-friendly: Make sure your site is easy to navigate on mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. This is important as more and more people are using these devices to search for local businesses.
4. Create local content: Write articles or blog posts on local topics relevant to your business and geographic area. This will help you position yourself as a local expert and improve the visibility of your website
5. Build a strong local social media presence: Participate in local social groups and pages and regularly post content relevant to your business. This will help you reach a large local audience and increase your online visibility
6. Request reviews from customers: Positive customer reviews can help improve your position in local search results. Invite your customers to leave a review on your Google My Business page or your Facebook page
7. Use structured data: Structured data can help search engines better understand the content of your website and provide detailed information about your business in local search results.

Examples of keyword research for Local SEO

Let's see some practical examples for choosing keywords from an LS perspective for your web content:

• Location: if you manage a pizzeria in Milan, you could include keywords like "pizzeria in Milan", "pizza at home Milan", "pizzeria with home delivery in Milan", "pizzeria near me Milan", "pizzeria with free delivery in Milan”, “vegetarian pizza Milan”, “gluten-free pizza Milan”, etc.
• Offered services: if your business offers a specific service such as home delivery, you can include keywords such as "home delivery Milan", "pizza delivery service Milan", "pizza home delivery Milan centre", etc.
• Product type: if your menu includes specialties such as pizza margherita, pizza quattro formaggi or pizza with cooked ham and mushrooms, you can include keywords such as “pizza margherita in Milan”, “pizza quattro formaggi in Milan”, “pizza with ham cooked and mushrooms Milan”, etc.
• Competition: if there is another popular pizzeria in your area, you can include keywords like “pizzeria comparison in Milan”, “best pizzerias in Milan”, “pizzeria reviews Milan”, etc.
• Seasonality: For example, if you offer holiday specials like Easter pizza or Halloween pizza, you can include keywords like “Easter Milan pizza”, “Halloween Milan pizza”, etc.

Using these keyword examples, you can create a list of keywords relevant to your business and geographic area and use them to optimize your website, your Google My Business page, and your local social media pages for Local SEO.

Conclusion

In summary, if you are a local business, being knowledgeable about how to do Local SEO is a key element of your strategy to digital marketing. Investing in proper optimization for local search can lead to great benefits, including increased traffic to your website, increased exposure of your brand, and ultimately increased sales.

Of course, this strategy takes time and dedication, but if done correctly, it can generate a big impact on your company's online visibility and revenue.