Local SEO Hacks: 8 Ways To Increase Local Website Traffic

Do you know around 46% of searches conducted on Google are to find local businesses?

With this, it might be clear how important it is to make your business visible… getting revenues is a later thing.

After all, being visible on Google SERPs is all that a business looks for! As a local business, you must think of driving more and more customers and generating loads of revenues… But here’s a question, “how will this happen?”

To get more local customers, leads, and conversions, you have to go for Local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for your local businesses.

And without any further delays…

Let’s get straight to some local SEO hacks that I got for you to improve your local visibility on search engines and drive more traffic.

Read Also: A Comprehensive Guide To Local SEO For Small Businesses

Here they are:

Local SEO Hacks To Get More Local Customers

Make Sure You Are Using The Right Keyword For Your Products And Services 

The first local SEO hack is…

Identifying the keywords that are most relevant to your business is the foremost task to do. It makes sense, to use keywords, actually to use the RIGHT KEYWORDS in describing your products and services. Also, to drive more organic traffic, you have to work on this SEO strategy.

Let me elaborate with an example,

Suppose, you run a local business of ‘T-shirts’, and you are looking for the best suitable keywords to put in. To start with, list out a few broad terms, say, T-shirts, T-shirts for men, or printed T-shirts.

Put these terms into Google Keyword Planner, and gather a few highly relevant keyword ideas. See how to list out relevant keywords…

See! It shows around 6,597 keywords, now it is not like you have to get all these terms, just list out a few keywords that are most suitable to your local business and later use those terms in your web pages.

Local SEO Tips To Find The Best Suitable Keywords For Your Local Business

1. List Keywords That Are Relevant To Your Local Business

Looking at the above image, you may have got to know that to make an impact on Google rankings your local business website must contain the terms that are best suited and relevant.

2. Look For The Search Volume Of The Keywords

To take the best step forward, you must look for the search volume of the keywords. It is one of the most crucial aspects of your keyword research. Think, what if the keywords you listed are not worth it? People might not be searching for terms like that. Which may cost you in listing the right keywords and ultimately affect your rankings. 

3. Don’t Forget To See The Competition Of The Listed Keywords

Competition matters a lot! Let’s say that you extracted the keyword “T-shirts for men”, and later you find out that this particular keyword is targeted by most of the business websites…

It may become difficult for you to rank your local business website for that keyword. So, for this, you have to keep in mind the competition for the keywords that you are targeting. 

In simple words, go for long-tailed keywords… Though the search for volume for such keywords is low but mark it, the chances for you to rank for such keywords are very high.

4. Analyze The Search Intent Of The Keywords

When the topic is choosing the right keywords, then identifying the intent of those keywords is very much important. Why? 

Because the intent is what Google looks for while crawling your website. If your content does not satisfy the needs of the customers, there is no point in ranking your local business website in the SERPs. 

So, these were a few local SEO tips that would help you in listing the right keywords for local businesses. 

Read More: Step By Step Guide To Perform Keyword Research For Local SEO

Submit Your Site To High-Quality Local Directories

Local Directories are online websites such as Yelp, Foursquare, Yellowpages, and many more. Using these platforms will not only help you increase your visibility but also boost your website’s local SEO. 

Here’s an example showing businesses listed on various citation sites.

The above images clearly show, why getting listed in high-quality directories is important to enhance your local SEO. 

See!

When I searched for “gyms near me” on yelp.com, it provided me with the top 10 places to visit. But why particularly those websites only?

Because these websites must be optimized and would be providing each and every detail of it, one of the crucial elements is the NAP details which are, Name, Address, and Phone Number. Plus, you have to get listed in directories which is of high quality. 

This would really give an advantage in rankings. So…

If your webiste is fully optimized for local searches, and also being cited in a few directories, chances are high that customers looking for the products and services reach you.

Read More: Can Citations Be Your Secret Weapon for Local SEO?

Participate In Your Local Community Events

Participating in local community events can increase your website’s brand value and relationship with other businesses.

Local events also help with the growth of online citations for your company, which makes it simpler for users to find you when it comes to SEO. 

This may help you gather more public reviews and more websites would like to build relations with yours. This would lead to gaining the trust of search engines and building the authority of your local website.

Any company can hold a variety of events to promote brand awareness and raise local SEO search rankings:

1. Charity Programs

A great way to give back to your community and expand your company’s online presence is to host a charitable event.

2. Educational Events

By providing a free course, you have the chance to empower individuals with your business’s knowledge. It’s a fantastic way to show others what you do best.

3. Launch Of Products

Event planning for a product launch gives visitors a firsthand look at the recently released service or product. This would generate trust for you among the customers, and they may think that for you, customers are the priority.

So, an effective way to raise awareness, establish your authority, and get more people to point the finger at you is to host or participate in a local event. Participating in various events can is one of the best ways to enhance your local SEO 

Register Your Business On GMB

Getting listed on Google My Business is one of the most effective local SEO hacks one could approach. To begin with, go to Google My Business and follow every step starting from registering your business until you claim it.

Though it looks like a very long process, but it isn’t. The steps to register on Google My Business are: 

1. It starts with Claiming Your Business

2. Adding Business Name

3. Choosing Business Category

4. Add Business Location

5. Followed by filling in Contact Details

6. At last, you have to Verify

Read Also: Complete Google My Business Guide

Here are a few Google My Business hacks to optimize your GMB profile:

• Provide accurate information about your local business.
• Include details such as logo, opening hours, images of the products, link to your website, and modes of payment.
• Ask your customer to give reviews 
• Reply to the reviews of your customers

This can also help your local website to appear in the Local 3 Pack. 

Develop A Mobile Friendly Website

Nowadays, the rate of mobile usage is going up and up as compared to desktops. Here is the representation to prove…

With this, it is confirmed how important it is to develop a mobile-friendly website that is accessible very quickly.

Here are a few facts:

• Overall, 82 percent of American consumers who used smartphones for shopping had done “near me” searches on their phones.

• The importance of location-based mobile services is highlighted by the fact that 16 percent of online users in the United States said they used the internet to find a local business more than once per week.

Suppose, if someone searches for ‘mobile shops near me, and Google brings your local business website as the top result, it means that your website is well optimized for near me searches including the right keywords that match the intent of the query through mobile devices.

But think if your website is not friendly for mobile devices… What will happen?

The customers would immediately bounce back! The reason? 

A less responsive website on mobile devices will result in a bad user experience. This may be due to the website taking a longer time to load, images being too large or maybe too small, the text being too small, and the main reason could be less information about the products or services.

To avoid such a situation, you must look for optimizing your local business website for mobile devices.

Read More: An Introduction To Mobile SEO Best Practices

Create High-Quality Content By Referring To Local Area

The most innovative and one the most crucial local SEO hack for any local business. You just have to create a piece of content that is relevant as well as informative for the visitors.

This is where you can turn the tables towards you… and can surely grab the attention of potential customers.

Including text, images, and even videos can exclusively boost the quality of your local SEO content that is created with local searchers in mind. 

This might also help your local business website appear higher on the SERPs when searching for any local query.

Here are some local SEO tips to build a high-quality content strategy:

1. Create separate pages for different locations

2. Build relations with local events and conduct events

3. Write blogs on area-specific products and services (best places, product announcements, new location announcements, etc)

4. Including images gives your content more uniqueness

5. Use phrases listed from local keyword research

So, creating content around the above-listed local SEO tips can really uplift the quality of your content for local searches and would increase your capability of ranking higher. And with rankings, chances would be high to drive more local customers.

Optimize For Voice Search 

Voice Search is growing at a high pace. Plus, it is not going down in near future. For Local SEO, it is necessary to optimize your website to fulfill local queries asked through voice searches.

This is a local SEO hack where the users use a conversational tone instead of just writing down the query. With this, comes the use of long-tailed keywords. It is necessary for you to adjust your content accordingly to fit the voice search queries. 

For example, 

Think about what if your customers want to find you and ask Google by calling out your business. But in return, Google does not rank your website. Why? Because the content of your website is not optimized for such voice search queries. So, you would not be getting any rankings and ultimately sales would drop.

The image below is proof of why optimizing for voice searches is important…

Looking at the above image, the figures say, 58% of businesses are found via Voice Searches.

Follow The Local SEO Checklist

Now before coming to end, here’s a thing…

You can effectively optimize your website, market your company, and reach more local customers by using specific local SEO hacks. But apart from this, I got you a Checklist that would help you succeed in optimizing for local SEO to the fullest.

Local SEO Checklist

Conclusion

So these were the 8 local SEO hacks that you should work on to increase your local business website traffic and generate more sales and high revenues.

With the upcoming daily changes in Google algorithms and people going more toward online sources to fulfill their requirements…

Local SEO is what becomes an important way of growing your online presence in the competitive market. With the above-listed 8 most crucial local SEO hacks, you are now fully armed. 

Now is the time to implement these local SEO tips and let SEO do the magic. Still, thinking that your competitors might outcast you? NO WAY! 

Incrementors would love to be a helping hand… With the help of our local SEO service, you can start generating leads from your targeted local audience in addition to improving your ranking on the local search results page.

FAQs

1. How can I rule local SEO?

If you have a local business website and want to increase traffic to your website, then must look to optimize your website for Local SEO. Here are a few local SEO tips to outcast your competition and achieve better rankings.

• Get your website registered on Google My Business
• Add your local business to Directories
• Look to get customer reviews
• Create Local Content
• Optimize each and every aspect of your website

2. How can I make local SEO for multiple locations more effective?

If your company has multiple locations, you may be wondering why SEO is important and how you can use it. Here are a few local SEO tips for an effective multiple-location SEO.

• Dedicate a separate page to each location
• Conduct keyword research to target location-specific keywords
• Create unique content for each page (avoid duplicacy)
• Build local backlinks
• Keep accurate NAP consistency

3.  Does having backlinks work for Local SEO?

A simple answer to this is, YES! Backlinks, for sure are very important for any local SEO business. Having high-quality backlinks can help to put a step forward in building your brand value and trust. Moreover, this can develop a signal for search engines to rank your local website higher on the SERPs results.

The benefits are: Increase in website traffic, higher rankings, more clicks, and better conversions