Having a well-thought-out local SEO marketing strategy is necessary for your potential customers to be able to find you on Google’s local search.

It has even been suggested that 50-60% of all searches are on mobile devices with 30% for local searches.

The bottom line of this is that spending time building your brand’s reputation online is essential to finding and growing your customer base.

So, take a look through these handy tips on how to get your business, quite literally, on the map.

1. Listing your Business on Google My Business (GMB)

This is essential for all businesses, whether they have a physical store or are more of an e-commerce business.

By listing your information on GMB, accurately and with detail, your business is listed on Google Maps and your business is more likely to appear on searches for your industry in your area. 

Make sure that all the information you provide on GMB is up-to-date.

2. Optimise your Website

Laying down the foundations of your website not only gives you a solid online presence, but it also allows you to build trust in your customer base too. 

Websites should be created whether you have a shop or run any other form of business. This is because they are either the foundations for sales or even just give your customer base a clear explanation of the services you offer and any contact information too. 

3. Create Professional Listings

What this means is making sure that each of your staff, especially if you run a service-based company, have web pages, or a social media presence. These online presences should feature their qualifications, specialisms, and expertise.

These professional listings are great for lead generation as they allow potential customers to more likely find your company and trust your company too.

This type of information will also show on Google Maps too. This means that your staff will be searchable as well as your business through organic searches.

4. Building Citations

Citations are brilliant ways of making sure that your website ranks higher on Google’s local searches. 

Citations are simply searchable online directories providing detail about local businesses, such as GMB as mentioned above.

A few great places to list your business are on sites like Yelp, Foursquare, and Hotfrog. With each citation you make, Google receives evidence that you have a viable business which means that the more citations you create, the more likely your business is to rank higher on searches and increase local SEO.

5. Reviews and Reputation

Reviews have always had power in business. Helping to develop a reputation, reviews also work as a lead generation tactic for local SEO strategy. 

Reviews are real proof about the quality of your business and the more reviews you acquire, the higher you rank in Google searches.

Make sure that these reviews are visible on review platforms such as GMB, Yelp, and Facebook. I would also suggest that you list your business on industry-specific pages where clients can leave reviews too.

Responding to these reviews is also essential.

Vicinus has machine learning-led sentiment analysis gathers location-specific consumer insights and assists with review auto-respond to build customer trust in business. This makes it easier to respond to reviews, whether good or bad.

6. Engaging Socially

Social media is key to driving local lead generation as this not only boosts your online visibility. But, this also boosts brand awareness and creates organic backlinks to your website too which boosts local SEO visibility.

You should choose which social media sites suit your goals and find which sites your potential customers use. 

However, you must make sure that you have a social media communication strategy before you begin. Make sure that your brand voice is clear and that your content matches your goals.

PPC (Pay Per Click) campaigns are also an option as they can focus on a target audience and particular location as well as groups with specific interests and demographics.

7. Content Creation

High-quality content is value. Sharing your knowledge of an industry can boost local authority in your sector.

Your content should be based around what you can offer your customers and answer FAQ’s that you receive every day in order to help your customer’s journey.

Giving your business a personality through content creation is a way you can stand out from your competition too.

8. Keyword Research

Making sure that your web content ranks high for keywords in your industry is crucial to building a competent keyword strategy. 

Keywords ensure that your customers are able to find your business when they search online for the keywords you have focused on. The more keywords which occur in your content, the more likely your website to appear on search results.

Make sure that you check your analytics afterward in order to see whether this keyword strategy has been successful in driving customers to your website or whether you need to adapt your strategy.

9. Mobile Functionality

As mentioned above, 50-60% of all searches are on mobile devices which means that you must ensure that your website is optimised for mobile searches. 

The loading time for your website on mobiles should be approximately 2-5 seconds. This is to ensure that your customers don’t have to wait too long and look elsewhere for their products or services.