Your physical business can be quite profitable, but it won't be the best without local SEO. With approximately 46% of Google searches being for local information and 72% of users visiting the stores they find, local SEO becomes a solid marketing tool that can yield great results. But how? Even if you have a website, you may not be getting enough local traffic despite your efforts. In this article, we aim to address this issue. Here are three local SEO tips to quickly improve your business's ranking on local search engines. So buckle up and keep reading.
1- Analyze Traffic and Update Existing Content Accordingly
Tracking traffic on your website is crucial for many reasons. Firstly, it helps you identify the keywords that perform best for your website. Using Google Analytics alone, you can learn which keywords are driving the most local traffic to your site. Google Analytics will also show you keywords that your website ranks for but may not be at the top. This means these keywords may have the potential to drive traffic to you, even though they currently don't. Similarly, it also indicates that your web pages may be optimized for these keywords but are not ranking for some reason. If you can pinpoint and fix the reasons, your website's search visibility can quickly increase. In most cases, this can be resolved by adding more content around the keyword you want to rank for. You can also use Ahrefs' keyword research tool to identify keywords that your website ranks for but is not at the top.
2- Optimize Page Speed
Let's illustrate the importance of page speed with an example. Suppose you own a wood shop in a district in Adana. Since monopolies are rare, your competitor may have a similar store right next to yours. Let's assume you both have websites tailored to your businesses. However, your competitor's site loads faster than yours. Now, even if you're ranked at the top for a good keyword and your competitor is in second place, a significant portion of potential customers will migrate from your site to theirs.
3- Fix Technical Errors like Site Maps, HTTPS Security, etc.
There are several technical factors that impact your website's SEO. In this section, we will discuss the following three:
HTTPS: When you add HTTPS to your website, you add a security layer that prevents third parties from meddling and encrypts all information from URLs to transactions. Websites with HTTPS are safer for users and are favored by various search engines.
XML Site Maps: XML site maps allow search engines to significantly crawl and index a website's data so that it can be easily found and potentially rank higher when relevant.
Robots.txt: This file in your website's database helps search crawlers determine which pages to crawl on your site.
Canonical Tags: Canonical tags specify to search engines that a particular URL is the main copy or another page. By using canonical tags, you prevent search engines from confusing two pages with the same content, resolving the issue of duplicate content flagged by search engines.
If you lack technical knowledge about how websites function, it's best to connect with a qualified SEO and web development expert. This will prevent you from making irreversible mistakes. Local SEO is one of the most critical marketing tools that can help your business reach more local customers than ever before. However, the process requires the precise implementation of the right techniques. In this article, we discussed the top three local SEO techniques that can quickly enhance your website's local search ranking. I hope you found this helpful.
1- Analyze Traffic and Update Existing Content Accordingly
Tracking traffic on your website is crucial for many reasons. Firstly, it helps you identify the keywords that perform best for your website. Using Google Analytics alone, you can learn which keywords are driving the most local traffic to your site. Google Analytics will also show you keywords that your website ranks for but may not be at the top. This means these keywords may have the potential to drive traffic to you, even though they currently don't. Similarly, it also indicates that your web pages may be optimized for these keywords but are not ranking for some reason. If you can pinpoint and fix the reasons, your website's search visibility can quickly increase. In most cases, this can be resolved by adding more content around the keyword you want to rank for. You can also use Ahrefs' keyword research tool to identify keywords that your website ranks for but is not at the top.
2- Optimize Page Speed
Let's illustrate the importance of page speed with an example. Suppose you own a wood shop in a district in Adana. Since monopolies are rare, your competitor may have a similar store right next to yours. Let's assume you both have websites tailored to your businesses. However, your competitor's site loads faster than yours. Now, even if you're ranked at the top for a good keyword and your competitor is in second place, a significant portion of potential customers will migrate from your site to theirs.
3- Fix Technical Errors like Site Maps, HTTPS Security, etc.
There are several technical factors that impact your website's SEO. In this section, we will discuss the following three:
HTTPS: When you add HTTPS to your website, you add a security layer that prevents third parties from meddling and encrypts all information from URLs to transactions. Websites with HTTPS are safer for users and are favored by various search engines.
XML Site Maps: XML site maps allow search engines to significantly crawl and index a website's data so that it can be easily found and potentially rank higher when relevant.
Robots.txt: This file in your website's database helps search crawlers determine which pages to crawl on your site.
Canonical Tags: Canonical tags specify to search engines that a particular URL is the main copy or another page. By using canonical tags, you prevent search engines from confusing two pages with the same content, resolving the issue of duplicate content flagged by search engines.
If you lack technical knowledge about how websites function, it's best to connect with a qualified SEO and web development expert. This will prevent you from making irreversible mistakes. Local SEO is one of the most critical marketing tools that can help your business reach more local customers than ever before. However, the process requires the precise implementation of the right techniques. In this article, we discussed the top three local SEO techniques that can quickly enhance your website's local search ranking. I hope you found this helpful.