The best ways to optimise your local SEO performance 

The best ways to optimise your local SEO performance 

Local and international SEO strategies require very different approaches, however, when planned and executed well an SEO strategy will increase your website’s ranking in search results and so help you grow your business. Before we get into the details of optimising your local SEO performance, let’s learn more about Local SEO. 

Focus on a local SEO strategy if you’re growing your business locally – this could be a specific town, city or area.  Local SEO targets customers who are searching for things that are “near me” and who are ready to purchase. A local SEO strategy will help build your business’s reputation and relevance in whichever area you’re targeting. 

For a well-rounded local SEO strategy, you need: 

• An updated and optimised Google My Business profile 
• On-page SEO
• A local content strategy 
• Relevant, high-quality local backlinks 

Backlinks are essential for local SEO 

Authority is essential to ranking high on search engine results pages and Google measures your website’s authority by collating what people are saying about you online; the algorithm checks how many websites reference yours via links. 

Your search ranking will be higher the more links you have from trustworthy sites. A backlinking strategy is essential for local SEO rankings. 

Not all backlinks are legitimate and it’s best if you have links to your website that come from trusted sources – to be successful with your local SEO strategy, you need to invest in high-quality links with longevity.

If you decide to take a quick and cheap option, like buying or creating spammy links, Google will penalise your site by reducing your ranking on results pages. 

Local SEO relies on user-friendly websites 

A user-friendly website means one that loads quickly, provides a clear call to actions and has useful and relevant content for your customers. This is a key part of a local SEO strategy. 

Google rates your website based on how user-friendly and relevant your content is – so a well-designed website will help with your rankings, but it will also make your customers stay on your site once they arrive their from search pages. 

For successful local SEO and for happy customers, a user-friendly, beautiful website is non-negotiable. 

Content should be local SEO-friendly 

Local SEO-friendly content is content that is relevant and useful for your audience, written by humans (rather than an AI) and that is optimised for SEO. 

You also need to localise content for your area – to your specific business niche but also for the location you are targeting. This could mean writing in a specific language dialect or including information that is specific to a certain region. You should also have local landing pages for each of your business locations. 

Google is constantly updating its algorithm and its recent focus has been on providing users with relevant and useful content. So when working on your local SEO strategy,  curate content that is useful to your audience, written by humans for humans and that is SEO optimised. 

If you’d like the help of an expert SEO agency, contact Perfect Link Building to see how their local SEO expertise can help your business grow.