Local SEO is crucial for the success of small businesses that offer products or services in certain areas. Local SEO services can become cost-effective advertising solutions for many different types of local businesses. With local SEO, you will find it a lot easier to target the local market and reach the right type of target audience for your local business.

Local SEO services have many great benefits over traditional SEO for small businesses. These include:

  • Local SEO has lower competition comparing to traditional SEO.
  • Local SEO keywords have higher conversion rates comparing to general keywords.
  • Local SEO services provide a better return on investment comparing to traditional SEO services.
  • It takes less time to optimize local business site’s web pages for local keywords.

It’s worth noting that local search engine optimization is an ever-changing industry. If a local SEO strategy works well today, it may not work efficiently tomorrow. That means that you should constantly make changes to your local SEO strategy.   

Are you planning a local SEO strategy for 2021? If so, you are likely to face the question – how will a local SEO strategy look like in 2021? Let’s try to get the answer right now!

In this blog post, I will provide you with a local SEO checklist for 2021. So, you’ll know exactly what SEO works you need to do for your local business in 2021. Then, I will dig deeper and provide you with insights into local SEO services. I’ll walk you through each step of the local SEO optimization process. Finally, you will get SEO tips to boost your success and get the most out of your local SEO efforts.

Read on to learn more about local SEO. 

Table of Contents

Local SEO Strategy for 2021

Start with a Local SEO Checklist

A local SEO strategy always begins with a local SEO checklist. First and foremost, you have to create a checklist for your local SEO strategy. Once your checklist is ready, you should try to execute a local SEO strategy and try to accomplish your goals.

Now, I would like to give you an example of a local SEO checklist for 2021.

It all begins with local SEO keyword research. First of all, a list of local SEO keywords has to be created. You should pick keywords that people use to find businesses like yours in Google’s local search.

Plus, you have to identify the target areas for your local business. In other words, you have to decide in which locations your local business has to be promoted.      

After identifying keywords for a local SEO strategy, you need to do local SEO optimization for your local business.

There are two types of local SEO optimization: on-page local SEO optimization as well as off-page local SEO optimization. 

Be sure to first download your own Local SEO Checklist here

     

Your on-page local SEO checklist has to include the following:

  • Perform an SEO audit of your local business site.
  • Optimize the site’s logo for local SEO.
  • Optimize URLs, titles, and descriptions as well as content on site’s pages for local SEO keywords.   
  • Add your business name, business address as well as a business phone number to your site’s home page.
  • Perform SEO audit of a local business site.
  • Make your local business site mobile friendly.
  • Create geo pages on your local business site.
  • Add a blog to your local business site and publish fresh local SEO friendly content on it on a regular basis.
  • Use a blog to do internal linking on your local business site.    
  • Integrate Google maps into the local business site’s Contact Us page.

Your off-page local SEO checklist has to include the following:   

  • Create and optimize Google My Business page for your local business.
  • Add your site to Yahoo Small Business local listings.
  • Add your site to Bing Places for Business.
  • Add your business to Yelp.
  • Include your site in local online business directories.
  • Create a page for your local business on Facebook.
  • Create a Twitter page for your local business.
  • Create a Pinterest page for your local business.
  • Create a YouTube channel for your local business.
  • Develop an effective video marketing strategy for your local business that works.
  • Get reviews for your business on Google and other sites.
  • Reply to all reviews that people have left about your local business online.
  • Get local citations for your local business.
  • Get brand mentions for your local business.
  • Build quality backlinks for your local business.

Local SEO Services

You need to hire local SEO experts who can do all different types of local search engine optimization works such as keyword research, on-page local SEO as well as off-page local SEO.

Take advantage of a full local SEO services package to get an effective solution to any your local SEO needs.

What to look for in local SEO services? In fact, there are many things to consider when doing local SEO for a business. Now, let’s take a closer look at each stage of local SEO optimization.

Local SEO Keyword Research

A local SEO always begins with local SEO keyword research. First and foremost, you have to figure out what local keywords people choose to use to find your products or services in the targeted areas.

It makes sense to do competitor research in order to identify local SEO keywords. See what local keywords your competitors target and consider them for your local SEO keyword list. It’s a good way to do local SEO keyword research. By doing so, you’ll be able to find a lot of good keyword suggestions for your local business website.    

Local On-page SEO Optimization

When the list of local keywords is ready, it’s time to do local SEO optimization. The main goal of local on-page SEO work is to make local business site’s pages relevant to local search terms.

Creating Landing Pages

It’s impossible to optimize a local business site’s homepage for all the necessary local search keywords. So, the additional pages on your website have to be created.

Creating Local Content for Local SEO

Content creation is part of a local SEO strategy. You need to create content that will help you attract a lot of potential customers to your local business site.

We also build what we call City Pages. To learn more about them, check out this video:

Getting Local Citations

Citations are incredibly important for local SEO. That’s why it’s so important to focus on local citation building. As a result, you’ll get a lot of local citations for your local business.

Building Local Links

As you probably know, incoming links play a very important role in the search engine optimization process. If you do local SEO, then you need to focus on building local links.

You should aim to attract backlinks from high quality relevant local websites. Such backlinks will drive targeted traffic to your website and positively affect your local search engine rankings.   

Google My Business

Google My Business plays a very important role in local SEO. So, local business owners should never ignore this important aspect. You need to create and optimize Google My Business page for your local business.   

Google Map Citations

Google map citations help your local business to rank high in local search. There are different types of Google map citations. These include business name, business address, business site URL, etc.     

Google Local Listings

Google local listings are a section that is displayed near the ads section on Google. And of course, you should do your best to add your business to Google’s local listings. If you do local SEO for your site, the chances that your site will be displayed in Google local listings will increase significantly.

Google Search Localization

There has been a lot of talk about the importance of Google search localization for local SEO.

The truth is, sometimes Google searchers would like to get localized search results for their queries. So, they use localized Google. Localized search makes it possible for users to see Google search results for different locations.

That means that Google search localization will allow you to get the additional local search traffic for your business.   

Sometimes, certain site’s pages have to be localized. Localization involves creating localized versions of your local business site’s pages. In other words, you have to create language-specific pages or location-specific pages on your local business site if such a need arises. As a result, your local business site will have multiple versions of certain pages. So, the user will see a page that meets his/her needs in the best possible way.

If Google search localization is done right, your business will be displayed in localized search results.   

Reputation Management

Customer reviews are one of the most important local SEO ranking factors. That’s why you need to do reputation management for your local business on a regular basis.

Mobile Responsive Design

The reality is, the vast majority of local searches are performed by mobile devices. It’s also important to note that mobile responsive sites rank higher in local search. That’s why it’s so important to have a local business website that looks great on all types of mobile devices.

Optimizing a local business website for mobile devices needs to be a part of a local SEO strategy. It makes a lot of sense to invest in mobile responsive design. The reality is, mobile responsive site’s pages are automatically adjusting themselves to different screen sizes. So, everyone will be able to open your site’s pages and see their content.

But most importantly, mobile responsive sites prove better user experience and, therefore, they have a better chance to achieve higher rankings for the necessary keywords in local search.

Google 3 pack for local SEOGoogle 3 Pack

Google 3 Pack is the way that the search engine provides searchers with the top 3 results in local search. The reality is, the top 3 most relevant sites are displayed in Google’s Local 3-Pack search. And of course, these 3 sites will get high amounts of local search traffic.

Google 3 Pack optimization needs to be a part of a local SEO strategy. As a local business owner, you should try to optimize your site for Google’s 3 Pack local search results.

If local 3-Pack optimization is done right, searchers will be able to see your business on the Google map results. Also, you should aim to dominate Google Maps 3 Pack to get more local search traffic as well as customers and sales for your local business.           

Local SEO Tips

There are many ways you can improve your local SEO. Now, I would like to share some tips that you need to follow in order to improve your local SEO and increase your local search traffic.    

How to Do Local SEO Keyword Research

Your local SEO keyword list has to contain different types of keywords, including:

  • location-based keywords
  • long-tail keywords
  • local search terms

A local keyword has to contain a keyword phrase that’s related to your products or services as well as an area that you target. Such a keyword is likely to convert well.

Optimize Your Local Business Site’s Pages for Voice Search

Oftentimes, people use voice search when trying to find local businesses near them. Buyers may even take advantage of a voice search to perform the search when they are on the go. So, it would be better to optimize a local business site’s pages for voice search terms like keyword + near me, keyword nearby, etc. Without a doubt, voice search optimization will generate additional traffic to local businesses.   

Get Positive Customer Reviews for Your Local Business

As I have already mentioned, customer reviews are incredibly important for local SEO optimization. So, you should do every single thing possible to make your customers happy.

The more happy clients you have – the better. Happy customers will leave positive reviews for your local business online. They will leave 5 start feedbacks and say good things about your local business online.

Positive reviews have a positive impact on conversions. It goes without saying that more people will decide to deal with your local business if they see that your business has a lot of positive customer reviews.    

Another important thing that you need to be aware of is that not every happy client would like to like to leave a positive review of your local business. So, if you find that a customer is happy about your products or services then it would be better to ask him/her to leave feedback about your local business. From my own marketing experience, I can say in most cases people agree to leave reviews about businesses if you ask them to do so. But most importantly, they leave positive reviews. And of course, positive feedbacks will contribute greatly to your online reputation and local SEO.

Create Location Pages on Your Business Site

It’s a good idea to create location pages (also known as geo-pages). Such web pages are usually optimized for keywords and target areas. This type of site’s pages ranks better in local search. So, you should use them to improve your local SEO.

Publish Local News on Your Local Business Site’s Blog

You can also add a blog to a local business site. Update your site with local news. By doing so, you’ll manage to make your site more relevant to the target area and improve your local site’s SEO.

Track Your Local SEO Results Regularly

It’s incredibly important for business owners to measure their local SEO success. This is something that needs to be done on a regular basis.

When analyzing a local SEO strategy, pay close attention to the following factors: local search rankings for target keywords, amount of local search traffic, conversion rates, sales, etc.

Make Changes to Your Local SEO Strategy if Necessary

Keep in mind that sometimes things don’t go as planned. The same can be said about local SEO. Keep in mind that you can waste your time and money due to local SEO mistakes.

If you can’t achieve your local SEO goals, then it’s necessary to make changes to a local search engine optimization strategy. Change your local SEO strategy as soon as possible and try to improve your results.

Perform the local SEO audit and try your best to figure out why things went wrong with your search engine optimization strategy.

Let’s say that your website ranks high in Google local search, but keywords that you target bring no search traffic to your business site. Or, maybe, you target the local keywords that don’t convert well? That means that you are targeting the wrong keywords. In this case, it would be better to try to target some other local keywords.

Sometimes, it’s necessary to update website content to improve local SEO. Replace duplicate content on the site’s web pages with original, easy-to-read, and SEO friendly content. This will help you improve your local search engine rankings.

Do people find it difficult to browse your business site’s pages on their mobile devices? It’s crucial for you to know that having a mobile-friendly site is not a trend anymore. It has already become a necessity. Take advantage of responsive website design. So, people will be able to see your local business website’s content on different types of mobile devices.

Impress Your Local Business Site’s Visitors with Great User Experience

You need to know that the success of today’s SEO depends a lot on user experience. Both traditional SEO and local SEO is all about providing site visitors with a great user experience. You will be able to get your site on top of local searches only if you provide visitors with a great user experience.

Build Links for Local SEO Naturally

Links play a big role in search engine optimization these days. No matter whether you are building links for traditional SEO or local SEO, you should always give a preference to natural link building techniques.

In fact, you must be very selective when it comes to picking the platforms for building local links. How does a natural link for a local business site look like? There are two main factors you need to take into consideration when building links for local SEO.

  1. First and foremost, you should try to attract relevant links to your local business site. Obviously, you should aim to get links from websites that are relevant to your business.
  2. Also, it would be better to get backlinks from local sites.

When building links for local SEO, you should aim to get backlinks that will be able to drive high-quality traffic to your site. Try to build relevant links from local online resources. This type of backlinks look natural and, most importantly, they will contribute greatly to your local SEO.

Among the best natural link building methods for local SEO are guest posting, broken link building, etc. You can also add a blog to your website and take advantage of the so-called Skyscraper Technique to build quality backlinks for local SEO.        

Leave Your Local SEO Tasks to Real Professionals

There is no doubt that local SEO optimization is a serious work that requires special knowledge, skills as well as experience. You need to have experience in doing different types of local SEO tasks, including local keyword research, on-page local SEO optimization, off-page local SEO optimization, etc.      

It takes years to master the art of local search optimization and become a local SEO expert. So, you are unlikely to be able to improve your local SEO if you have never done this type of work before.

It’s also important to note that doing local SEO tasks is a time-consuming process. Even if you know how to do local SEO, you must be prepared that you will have to spend a lot of time on local search optimization. That’s why it would be better to hire local SEO professionals to get the work done.   

If you would like to learn more about how to grow your local business with local SEO services, contact us today. At Finepoint Design, we have years of experience in doing search engine optimization for different types of local businesses. Our professionals would be happy to create a local SEO strategy for 2021 that works. Get a quote on a local SEO service for FREE today!

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