Think about your search habits. What do you search for? Sometimes we are searching for news or other types of information, but most of the time we are looking for something. Whether we need a plumber, a restaurant reservation, or the price of a lamp, a majority of our searches are for something that is local. In fact, over 53% of search has local intent. Of those people who are searching, over half will visit a store
Because of these stats, it is important that your SEO strategy includes information for local search as well as a focus on content, keywords and link building. The first step to making sure that your website is optimized for local intent is to make sure that your location is on the website. Much like your phone number, your address is one of the most important pieces of information on your site. But there is more than just placing your address on a contact page or in the footer.
Optimizing for Local Intent
There are several on-page and off-page optimizations that you can do to make sure that you’re optimizing for local search. Some of these you may already be doing, but others may not be anything you are currently incorporating.
- Have a location page with a map and directions, even if you only have one location. It is something that can be an on contact us page if you just have one location.
- Make sure your city in the meta title of your home page.
- Incorporate cities and communities you serve in content and headline where appropriate.
- If you blog, blog about local topics and concerns, such as attorney explaining how new traffic laws may affect drivers.
- Incorporate schema.org code into your website. For help, please visit https://schema.org/LocalBusiness.
- Make sure that you are in local directories. Not only do these sites provide a link back to your site, but they also allow you to put yourself on a site that where you can find new audiences. Plus, many of these sites rank well.
- Make sure that you are review sites. Again, these provide links, but they are the first place where many begin a search. It is valuable real estate to use. Plus, if you genuinely interact with posters, it will help to build trust and credibility.
- Place your business locations on Bing and Google Maps (Google My Business)
While these tips are not all of the answers, they are an excellent place to start. But is it always best to have expert help, especially with coding, to bolster your SEO efforts. Let us help you make sure that your site is ready for searches with local intent.