The 7 Best Local SEO Practices for 2022

When it comes to the question How to do Local SEO?, you want to do many different local SEO techniques to get your website ranking in that #1 spot.

Local SEO for small businesses and large businesses alike is essential for a company to survive.

Below we have listed seven questions and answers to help put you in the right direction!

Google My Business

Getting your business on Google My Business, or GMB, is and will be one of the top ways to get listed in local search engines.

Connecting a business directly to Google will mean that anytime an internet user searches something along the lines of “Plumber Near Me,” any business in the surrounding area under the category “Plumber” will show.

Google My Business is the top local directory for a business these days.

Connecting your business to GMB will:

Allow you to be discovered

Whether you are a Brick and Mortar Storefront, Services Only Business, or an Online only location, the more customers can reach you, the better.

Getting onto GMB will place you in front of online users who might not have otherwise known your business exists.

Google My Business will keep your customers informed!

After you have signed up for Google My Business, or GMB, the potential customers that are searching for your goods or services will have up-to-date business hours, phone numbers, website, along with any other information you wish for them to know at the tips of their fingers.

Boost New Customer Confidence

New customers love to see reviews. Anytime most people purchase new products or services, Google Business Reviews are generally a huge deciding factor. Getting Good reviews on Google is extremely important to get more business from online sources.

Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest Business Pages

Social Media is the fastest growing way to connect your business to new customers.

Business Social Media pages will not only connect you to more people looking for your services but give you new avenues to promote yourself and your products.

Having many active social media pages is a must-do for a successful business.

Consistently adding relative and helpful content to people will keep your brand in their minds when they are looking for your good or services.

If you do not have the time to run all of the necessary Social Media pages, hiring a Social Media Manager is a great direction to go.

Create Relative Local Content

Relevant content on your website is the number one way to rank high in Search Engine Results Pages (SERP).

This, however, is an SEO process and takes time, effort, and consistency to build up Domain Authority for your website.

See our SEO Frequently Asked Questions Post to find out what Domain Authority is.

The content and information on your website will tell Search Engines what your website is and what you offer.

When creating content, be sure to use well-placed and thought-out Keywords specific to the niche and area you are looking to attract clients from.

When researching and creating Keywords, always think of Long-Tail Keywords and location.

Ex: Emergency Dentist for Crown Replacement in New York City

Creating “Services” pages on your website will help with this process. Listing the different areas you service for each page and the services you offer will tell search engines what you do, for what areas.

Be sure to also list the areas just outside your town in an attempt to attract new business.

When creating compelling content for your website, be sure to add proper tags to the heading sections of each area.

Using Title, Subtitle, and H1-H6 tags will tell Search Engines what the article and each area of the articles are about. This process is like writing a book; it has a title, preface, index, and chapters.

When you have done better SEO on your website than your competitors, you will rank higher than them on the SERP. In turn, this will create more customers for you.

Content is king when it comes to Local SEO!

Citations on websites such as Yelp & Yellowpage for Local SEO

Websites like Yelp and Yellow Pages are great ways to connect to new customers.

On top of connecting to new customers, these pages also help your website and brand gain more domain authority in the eyes of Search Engines.

Some of these citation websites may not allow you to place your website on the listings directly; however, this does not stop your website from gaining authority.

When you place your Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) in some regions of the internet, this will help with authority.

Here is a small list of the citation websites with the most traffic:

Some of these citation websites are paid for. However, if you are on a budget, we recommend looking through the free ones!

Also, this is just a starter list as many more should always be added to!

Backlinks and Link Building

Backlinks are a fundamental way to tell Search Engines that your website holds Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness (EAT).

The more EAT you have for your website, the higher it will rank on Search Engine Results Pages.

Figuring out how to get Backlinks is most likely one of the most complex SEO tactics there is. This process is never-ending and takes a lot of time.

One of the best ways to get backlinks is to contact websites and blogs and ask if you can do guest posts. It takes time to build a relationship with bloggers, but the ball will continue to roll once you get started.

After you have a few blog posts on websites, you can showcase these blog posts to gain more confidence from new websites to get more posts.

The backlink process is always ongoing that you should consistently be trying to implement.

Optimize Your Homepage

Be sure to add local search keywords to your homepage.

For example, “New York City Dentist” is important to put onto your homepage if you are a dentist in New York City as, again, it will tell Search Engines where you are located and what you have to offer.

Be sure to add the following to your home page:

NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number
Opening Hours
Map location of your address
Reviews from different websites
The correct schema (see below for schema)
Call-To-Action buttons frequently – ex: “Contact Us!” – “Sign up for our newsletter.”
Schema Markup for Local SEO

Schema Markup is coding that gives google, and other search engines more information about your website, directly from your website.

Google has provided businesses with a tool to create schema here:

Google Structured Data Markup Helper

They will also help you along the way to place this HTML code into your website.

Conclusion

These 7 Local SEO Tips will get you moving in the correct direction to rank your website on search engine results pages!

Please remember, when it comes to SEO, these processes take time and lots of effort!

We hope this helps, and if you have any more tips on Local SEO or any questions/comments, please feel free to comment or contact us for help with your Local SEO!