Are you starting a small business? Or are you new to the world of SEO? Confused? Want to know how to improve your rankings on Google? We are here to help you with some local SEO tips for small businesses using WordPress.
Nowadays, starting a small business from home is not a tedious job; all you need is a website and an online presence. However, to make this small business successful, you need continuous organic traffic to your website, which you will achieve when your Google ranking is the best.
Data suggests that about 96% of people learn about local businesses from online sources, and 28% of these searches result in conversions. This proves that the best local SEO practices can help your small business grow.
Therefore, you should take these local SEO tips seriously and apply them to see promising results.
What Is a Local SEO?
Local SEO is a digital marketing strategy that helps optimize your website to rank better in the local searches on the search engine.
Using the right local SEO practices, you can optimize your business website for your city or address so that nearby people can find your business easily and make a purchase. Local SEO for WordPress websites involve taking several steps that will help your small business website appear on top of the local searches.
You will be targeting specific local keywords and local trends related to your small business, which will result in improving your online visibility in this strategy.
Why Is Local SEO Important for Your Small Business?
Did you know that “Near me” searches have increased up to 500% in recent years? This indicates the importance of local SEO best practices for WordPress websites.
Here are some more reasons to use local SEO:
- Local SEO helps small business owners target their niche-specific customers, making it super easy for these customers to find this business and make a purchase.
- Optimizing the local SEO for your WordPress website will build your brand awareness through your brand name or logo. People will start recognizing you because your website pops up every time they search the relevant keyword. This will help you gain new customers and build brand loyalty.
- When you follow local SEO tips for small businesses, it will likely show at the top of the search. If you maintain this prominent position, your business will definitely show significant growth.
- Local SEO is profitable. Around 40% of local SEO campaigns are reported to accomplish over 500% ROI.
- It is also considered a cost-effective marketing strategy. Although initially, you need an investment.
SEO vs. Local SEO
Organic SEO and local SEO are often confused as two different entities, but if you closely study them, you will see that they are actually the same. This means ultimately, both SEO and local SEO are required to improve your website visibility.
To make it more understandable, consider organic SEO to be the founding pillar while local SEO is the final touch-up.
The optimization of your website is incomplete without both of them in action.
The main goal of doing organic SEO for your WordPress website is to improve your business’s presence and attract a larger audience. At the same time, local SEO aims to boost your visibility to attract local customers for direct purchases. Nevertheless, the main goal is to improve digital visibility.
7 Local SEO Tips for Small Businesses Using WordPress
1. Set Up Google Business Profile
When customers want to look for local purchases, they most likely turn to Google for them.
For that, you need to set up your Google Business Profile. It is a free, user-friendly tool specifically designed for small business owners like you. With this tool, you are allowed to list your business on Google Maps as well as local searches.
Making a Google Business Profile acts as a window or mini-website that allows more customers to reach you directly from Google.
Usually, people trust the websites that are recommended by Google.
Your profile will show all the necessary details that are required by the customers, such as address, working hours, reviews, and contact number along with your website.
Making the profile alone won’t improve the SEO of your WordPress website, you need to optimize it accordingly by staying updated. Also, ask your customers to leave reviews that will also help encourage the new customers to make a purchase from you.
Pro Tip: In addition to Google Business, try to use Apple Business Connect as well.
2. Setup Google Analytics Account and Google Search Console
If you are looking to improve the local SEO of the WordPress website of your small business, you need to set up both Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
With Google Analytics, you can track the specific local search queries that your visitors are using to reach your website. You need to analyze the keywords and phrases and use them in your website to optimize it for local SEO.
This way you can also get valuable insights about the visitors’ behaviors that can be used further to optimize your website.
To use Google Analytics, make an account with them and enter your website details there.
Google Search Console is a free Google service that allows you to monitor and troubleshoot your website’s performance in Google searches. GSC offers detailed data on your site’s performance, including impressions, CTR, clicks, and average position.
These valuable insights can be filtered according to the location to optimize your website for local SEO.
Moreover, it also provides data to identify opportunities, speed, and site issues.
Analyzing all this data regularly can leverage your local SEO strategies. Just go to the Google Search Console site and register your website.
3. Create Accounts on All the Famous Social Media Platforms
If you are just starting your small business, the very first thing to do is to make business profiles on all the platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
This will help you gain access to the wider target audience and is one of the easiest local SEO tips for small businesses. You need to put all the necessary information in the description, contact, and bio of these profiles.
4. Create Location/Service Pages on the Website
Your website is the front face of your business; it should contain everything a visitor might need to make a purchase.
For your local customers, if you add pages dedicated to the location and services you offer, it would be convenient for them. For example, if you are running a car rental service and you operate in multiple cities, you can make a location page dedicated to these cities to be more specific.
This will not only make your website user-friendly but also improve the local SEO of your WordPress website.
5. Upload Blog Posts for Locals
77% of internet users read blogs, according to the reports by Social Media Today. If you want to establish trust and find potential customers, a great way to do so is by crafting informative blogs around your niche.
Most blogs are written for global audiences, but you can also use them for locals.
You should craft blog posts tailored for locals by implementing keywords that have a high search volume in your location. You can target these keywords and craft blogs to increase the traffic to your website. A thorough keyword research and good content creation will help you improve the local SEO.
6. Analyze SERP Competitors
SERP (Search Engine Response Pages) competitors are the other business websites that you compete for online visibility on the searches.
You can visit your competitor’s website and check out the content, offers, and pages, as well as the keywords they are using.
For the detailed analysis, you can use tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, and Ubersuggest to identify and monitor them.
Use similar keywords and optimize your WordPress website accordingly.
7. Voice Search for Local SEO
You know that the digital world is evolving; now, a lot of people use the voice search option.
Moreover, people also use voice-activated devices such as Apple’s Siri or Amazon Alexa to search. So, you should not only add keywords that are being typed but also include keywords and phrases used in voice search.
For example, if you want to search for the “Best restaurant near me”, you will also type it the same way, but in voice search, you might say, “Find me a good restaurant in Chicago.”
Utilizing voice search is one of the newest WordPress SEO tips for small businesses like yours, which, upon implementation, can do wonders.
Final Words
Local SEO for WordPress websites is a valuable investment that is extremely important for the growth of your small business.
You should follow the Local SEO tips for small businesses discussed above to improve your site’s rankings. Star by making a professional Google business profile and on all the popular social media platforms to target a bigger audience. You can also utilize Apple Business Connect to help you cover customers using Apple Maps.
Moreover, set up Google Analytics and Google Search Console and used online tools for keyword research and SERP analysis. Also, don’t forget to make your website responsive by adding tailored location pages and using voice search tools for Local SEO.
Doing all the local SEO steps right will bring your business to the limelight, and your business will only grow.
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