7 aspects of local SEO that you should not neglect

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO positioning is a strategy designed for companies that focus their energies on reaching consumers in their own city. Not all internet businesses are interested in selling around the world. Be it for aspects of logistics, language, budget or because their services are exclusive to a locality.

Google has information about consumers, knows their location, interests and the websites they frequent. Your mission is to make the search engine take you into account as a relevant result for your local target audience. Providing information about your location with keywords and business profiles is the way to reach them.

For example, if you have a paint sales company in Salamanca, you must make sure that the search engine knows it. You have to follow adequate online marketing and SEO strategies. This will make those who look for that product in the city find your website.

Focusing on good practices in the local SEO offers competitive advantages. Now instead of facing all the businesses that sell paint online, you should only worry about those who do it in Salamanca just like you.

Registering in directories is basic

Optimizing local SEO requires time, patience and attention to detail. You will have to create profiles in directories and spaces like Google My Business. Make sure the information in each place is consistent. Search engines are harsh with inaccurate information and could generate penalties. Planning is the key to keeping control of each step.

Why is it important to work in local SEO?

Local SEO optimization allows you to sectorize your target audience and get quality visits to your website. Now those who come to the products will be really interested in buying it. As well as recommend it to your friends.

Advantages of this strategy

Among the main advantages of employing this strategy are:

Increase the visibility of your business in the locality: The people of the city who look for products and services related to your sector will know that you are a valid and reliable option.
Improve the reputation of the web: Buyers can leave reviews about the product or service stimulating the positioning and the image of the business.

Increase in sales of products and services: Local SEO goes directly to those consumers you are looking for. This is the main reason that sales increase. It is not just about positioning, but about doing it well.

It allows us to reach the target audience more easily: It is related to the previous point. You will obtain visits to quality, recognition, and increase in conversions.
Establish a competitive range on the internet: You only have to worry about tracking your local competition and looking to exceed them in the search results. The more positive reviews the business has, the better the chances of appearing in the first places of Goole.

Less cost in SEM campaigns: When working with keywords specific to the region, the investment in Adwords campaigns will be lower.

Immediate information: Without having to enter the website, the client can preview the location of the premises, contact information, schedules, reputation, and routes to get from Google Maps.
If you do not want to be penalized by Google, we will show you some errors and successes in local SEO.

Learn 7 aspects of local SEO that you should not neglect

We have identified key points for local SEO, in which you should know how to proceed well to ensure success. To illustrate it better we will consider the exact sectors where the failures occur, and we will tell you what is wrong and what is a success.

1 - Registration in platforms for local searches

There are three essential local search platforms in which your business must register. One of the most important is Google My Business, followed by local Yahoo and local Bing. These collect all the information of your business through a profile. You must configure the location on the map, contact data and social networks. This process is free.

Mistakes:
Not paying attention to the data that is supplied to each platform is an error that will take you away from the top positions of local searches.
Falling in excess of keywords or irrelevant categories could be identified as "black hat SEO" practices and as spam.

Successes:
Carefully fill out the NAP (name, address and phone number) so that your users can easily locate you.

Make sure all the information matches. If you put a contact to call this should also appear on your website and in the other directories.
Use keywords and relevant categories to improve the chances of people finding you.

2 - Keywords

Performing an analysis of local keywords will allow you to reach your target audience directly.

Mistakes: Excessive use of keywords to increase search density. You could be penalized by Google.

Success: Use Google Keyword Planner or other tools to search and analyze the best keywords for your location.

3 - On-page optimization

For a good organic and local positioning, it is necessary to have on-page optimization of your website.

Mistakes:
Perform a general optimization without taking into account the local SEO.
Use the same page to present all products or services.
Do not optimize keywords, URL, and structure of the titles in your main pages.

Successes:
The contact information of your website must be clear and match the profiles of the search engines. Google compares this information with that of the My Business platform, and inconsistency will be penalized.

Place the name of the company, address, and contact in the text, not an image.
Check that the URLs of your main pages contain the keyword; this will facilitate the specific searches.

Extra tip: Test the loading speed of the web and do not forget to optimize for mobile.

4 - Relevant content

Regarding the relevant content, it is an error to create generic content that does not respond to the needs of your local audience. Taking the example of the principle so that your shop of paintings in Salamanca interested to the clients you must share the relevant post that responds to your doubts.

Another mistake has duplicate content. One of the worst positioning errors is putting the same content on different websites. Although both belong to you, Google will take it as a copy and will damage your location in the search engine. If you have a website for services in Madrid and another for Salamanca, create unique content for one house.

Success is to respond to the frequent doubts of customers with the content that is shared on the web.

In your publications, you should also follow a good link building strategy to avoid bad links.

5 -NAP Information (Name Adress Phone)

A lot is mentioned to the NAP when referring to local SEO. This term refers to the complete contact information. You have to be a retailer when including it in local directories. Avoid that the information is different between one profile and another.

It always provides reliable information in local directories.

6 - Reviews of your products and services

importance of local SEO reviews

Positive reviews on your products and services work to increase the visibility and confidence of your business. With these, you can position yourself better in the ranking of local searches.

Mistakes: Writing or paying for false reviews is an action that damages the reputation of your business. These are easy to identify with a simple search in the search engines.

Success: Encourage your customers to leave their comments and ratings about your products and services. That's why it makes it easier for your buyers to access Google My Business reviews. We recommend that you offer special incentives or use flashy buttons to direct them to the rating link. Try to get at least one review per month.

7 - Use of social networks

The use of social networks such as Twitter, Google+ and Facebook is a complement to help your users relate to your website.

Mistakes: Buying fake followers will attract the wrong audience and tarnish the online reputation of your business. Without interactions, your social profile will never be able to stand out.

Success: Build a base of genuine followers interested in sharing your content, contests and review your website. The idea is that you invite them to give their opinion on your website, in spaces like Facebook this is possible.

Final tips to enhance geolocation

To finish do not forget to apply these optimization tips for local SEO.

Use plugins for local SEO: To automate some tasks use tools on your website that will facilitate geolocation. Among the most popular are Local SEO Plugin By Yoast, Local Spotlight and WordPress Local SEO.

Includes "rich snippets": Rich snippets are another way to show the results of your business at the counter organically. These are activated with the Google Webmaster Tools tool.
Locate useful directories: Search regional or national directories that are relevant to publicize your products and services. In Spain, there are Yelp, ciao.es and yellow pages, among others.
Include location in the right places: Place the city or locality in the metadata, in the h1 header, in the URL, in the alt tag and in parts of the content.

Create profiles by location: Google My Business only allows one page per location. Avoid duplicates or unfinished information.
We hope that this comparison mistakes and successes in the aspects of local SEO that you should not neglect to work to identify specific problems in your strategy. And so you can learn more. How has your experience been positioning a website in your city? Share it with us in the comments or on our social networks.