Local SEO is the optimization of a website for local search results. Smaller businesses who only have local clients should be focusing their local SEO.

Four reasons why small businesses need local SEO:

1. Helps you target locals.
2. Local SEO is very important for mobile searches and it helps you grow local connections.
3. Local SEO adds authenticity to your website. A local searcher is more likely to find your business to be authentic if it appears in a local search.
4. Local SEO offers a high return on investment (ROI). In terms of ROI, no other form of online marketing is as good as local SEO.

Four ways you can improve your local SEO:

Improve your Google business information

To get your listing to appear on a local search on google search and google maps, you need to create a Google My Business listing with up to date and accurate information.

On page SEO

To have good local SEO you need to get your on page SEO to be correct. Two main things you want on every page are:

1. The product you are offering
2. The location you serve

These are some on page SEO topics you should focus on:

• Title tags
• Header tags
• Meta tags
• Images
• Page content
• Name, Address, and Phone (NAP) on every page (this is usually done on the footer of every page). It is very important that your NAP is consistent on every page.

Ask for reviews

• Reviews are very important in local rankings. More reviews and positive ratings will improve a businesses local ranking. Good reviews will also stand out to potential customers to help them make a decision.
• Here are some ways to get your customers to give reviews for your website:

1. Create links to review websites on your website. (Google My Business, Yelp, Yellowpages, etc..)
2. Include links to review sites in your emails.
3. Ask your happy clients to write reviews for your website.
4. Have a business card with review site information

If you get any negative reviews you should address them in a courteous yet honest manner in accordance with Google’s Guidelines for reviews.

Optimize for voice search

• Voice searches are becoming more popular by the day. It is important to optimize for how people ask questions when they speak into devices, as opposed to how they type out their searches. Your customers use more long tail keywords when they are doing voice searches compared with a regular search. Because of this, you’ll also have to adjust the SEO of your content to fit the more conversational tone of someone speaking.
• When people are doing a voice search they tend to use the traditional question starters (who, what, when, where, why, and how).