Boost Your Local Ranking - Ultimate Local SEO Checklist 2024

Key Insights - Local SEO Essential Factors

• Definition and Importance: Local SEO optimizes your online presence for local searches to attract nearby customers (who search for instance “restaurant near me”), crucial for physical businesses like restaurants, lawyers, hotels, doctors, and shops.
• Key Ranking Factors: Key local SEO elements include optimizing your Google Business Profile, ensuring NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) consistency, using local keywords, managing reviews, obtaining local citations, and building local backlinks. Important factors also include mobile-friendliness, domain authority, optimized images, and behavioral signals like click-through rates and social media engagement.
• Google Business Profile Optimization: Claiming and optimizing your Google Business Profile is critical. This involves accurate business information, high-quality images, customer reviews, and regular updates. Your profile acts as a digital business card and significantly impacts your local search rankings when optimized for maximum success.
• Consistency and Patience: Local SEO takes time. Stay patient and consistent by continuously optimizing your online presence, encouraging reviews, providing accurate information, and engaging with customers. Regular updates and responsive interactions build trust and improve search visibility over time.

What is Local SEO?

Whether you are a newbie or a professional, know that local SEO requires different techniques than regular SEO. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and local SEO essentially means that you optimize your online presence for local searches. By leveraging local SEO strategies you increase your business's visibility to potential customers in your geographic area when searching for a service. Local SEO is especially important for businesses in the gastronomical sector, lawyers, hotels but also doctors, aestheticians, and shops.

In contrast to regular SEO, local SEO has different ranking factors that are important to consider:

• Google Business Profile (hand in hand with Google Maps presence)
• NAP consistency across the web (name, address, phone number)
• Local Keywords
• Review Velocity and overall rating
• Local citations
• On-page SEO (e.g. local landing pages, local content)
• Local, relevant backlinks to your website
• Mobile-friendliness
• Domain authority of your website
• Optimized images matching local search intents
• Behavioral signals (CTR, calling your business by using the call button on your Google Business profile, tagging your business on social media)

How Does Local SEO Work?

Let's explore how local SEO works through a scenario. Imagine you are Michael, a restaurant owner in Amsterdam. Despite offering amazing food in a beautiful setting, your tables mostly stay empty. Just a few streets away, your competitor Ryan has a restaurant that's constantly filled with customers.

So what did Ryan do differently from Michael? Ryan optimized his online presence for local SEO, which helped him increase his visibility to potential customers in his geographic area and ultimately drive traffic to his restaurant.

By optimizing for the key local SEO ranking factors, Ryan helped the search engine understand the nature of his business. Think of it as a “checklist” the Google algorithm follows to examine the quality of Ryan’s online presence and match it with relevant search queries from potential customers. In the end, search engines aim to provide the best possible suggestions that match the user’s search intent. By optimizing his content, he sends strong signals to search engines, helping them understand that his restaurant is the best match for local customers searching for nearby dining options.

Why Local SEO is Important for Your Business in 2024

While local SEO might not be important for e-commerces, blog or websites, it is important for every business that has a physical location and depends on either foot traffic or appointment traffic of customers located in their area of service, like restaurants, dentists, bars, hotels, etc.

What is the Most Important Aspect of Local SEO?

While it is recommended to consider all measures for a successful local SEO improvement strategy, some measures are more important and should be looked into first. The most important aspect is optimizing your Google Business profile. It serves as your business card on the web and is what potential customers will see when they search, for instance, a restaurant near them. Reviews and overall ratings go hand in hand with the Google Business profile.

How Long Does it Take for Local SEO to Show Results?

Michael realizes that he needs to take action and optimize his online presence. While it may take several weeks to see significant results, it’s important to stay patient and consistent. Some changes might be picked up by Google immediately or within a few days, but others can take months to impact Michael’s ranking.

To surpass his competitor Ryan, Michael needs to not only optimize his online presence but also encourage his current customers to leave reviews after their visits. Continuous positive feedback will boost his credibility and improve his ranking over time. Consistent efforts in these areas will ensure a stronger online presence and better search engine visibility.

Our Guide to Local SEO: An Easy-to-Follow Checklist

Michael has taken on the challenge of climbing to the top of the search results. To simplify this journey for him and all business owners, employees, and local SEO enthusiasts, we have created an easy-to-follow and beginner-friendly local SEO checklist for 2024. This guide outlines the different optimization and action steps required, detailing how to carry them out effectively.

To make it less overwhelming, we have added a difficulty and importance score for each step. This way, you can prioritize tasks that you can act on immediately, even without extensive SEO knowledge. Our checklist is designed to empower you to make informed decisions and drive impactful results for your business.

Find Local Keywords (discovery keywords)

Difficulty - Medium Importance - High

The first step in our local SEO checklist is finding relevant local keywords that your potential customers search for. Keyword research is essential as it unveils opportunities and delivers a better understanding of the search behavior of your target audience. Start with an initial seed keyword [your business type + city] and check the suggested keywords and ideas to create a keyword list.

You can use a keyword research tool to find the most relevant local keywords suitable for your business. There are many different ones online with some offering basic features for free and others offering a more in-depth approach. The research process however remains the same.

When Michael looks up “restaurant Amsterdam” he is presented with a list of keyword suggestions that surround his seed keyword. Possible keywords he could use are for instance:

• Restaurant Amsterdam
• Best restaurants Amsterdam
• Restaurant near me

Repeat this process for other relevant seed keywords focussing on your business characteristics. Let’s say Michael has an Italian restaurant and uses the seed keyword “Italian restaurant Amsterdam”, possible local keywords would be:

• Italian restaurants near me
• Italian restaurant Amsterdam
• Best Italian restaurant Amsterdam

Aim to find around 20 of those discovery keywords. When selecting them, pay attention to the volume and the keyword difficulty. You want to find keywords with the highest volume and lowest keyword difficulty ratio.

Optimize Your Website for Local SEO

Difficulty - Medium/Hard Importance - Medium

Optimizing your website for local SEO is another crucial step in our checklist. Search engines analyze your landing pages to understand their content and match them to user search intent. Therefore, a proper website structure and the inclusion of the previously researched keywords are essential.

Your main keyword should be included in:

• The title tag
• The meta description
• Headings (H1, H2, H3)
• Throughout the website text

While keyword stuffing was once common, it's now counterproductive. Google's advanced algorithm understands content contextually, so focus on user-friendly text.

Ensure the following for optimal SEO:

• SEO-friendly URLs
• Correct heading structure (H1, H2, H3)
• Easy navigation and proper internal links
• Mobile-friendly design
• Optimal page speed
• High-quality images with manageable sizes
• Indexed landing pages

For businesses with multiple locations, create and optimize a landing page for each location and conduct separate research for appropriate local keywords.

Claim Your Google Business Profile

Difficulty - Easy Importance - High

Claiming your Google Business Profile is very easy and does not take more than a few minutes.

1. Sign in to Google: Go to Google Business Profile and sign in with your Google account. If you don't have a Google account, create one.

2. Search for your business: Enter your business name and address in the search bar. If your business appears in the search results, select it. If not, click on the option to add your business to Google.

3. Add your business information: Fill out the required fields, including your business name, address, phone number, and category. Ensure that all information is accurate and matches your other online listings.

4. Verify your business: Google will ask you to verify your business. This can be done for instance via phone, email, or instant verification (if eligible). Follow the instructions provided for the verification method that fits best for you.

Optimize Your Google Business Profile for Local SEO

Difficulty - Easy Importance - High

This is one of the most important steps in our local SEO checklist and something that is a must to follow for local businesses in 2024! We are going to optimize, or, if you have just created your Google Business Profile, fill in your information.

Fill in your business information

• Business name
• Adress and service area
• phone number
• Website
• Description (make sure you use your keyword research to write the description)
• Opening hours (special opening hours)

Select the Correct Business Category

• Select a primary category that describes the specifics of your business. If you have an Italian restaurant like Michael, you will select “Italian restaurant”. If you have a for instance a restaurant with a very diverse menu, you would pick “restaurant”. The rule of thumb is, if you can be specific, be specific. The secondary categories will be then categories that fall under the primary category and match your business. In Micheal’s case this would be “pasta restaurant”, “restaurant” or “pizza restaurant”.

Add Attributes

• Attributes are very important for local SEO. Add attributes like wheelchair accessibility, free Wi-Fi, or outdoor seating. These details help customers know what to expect and allow a better targeting.

Add Brands and Services

• List the specific services your business offers. For instance, Micheal’s restaurant might list "dine-in," "takeout," and "delivery” and brands like “Coca-Cola”.

Fill in Your Social Media Channels

• Allow your potential customers to easily obtain more information about your business from social media. Social media is not a direct ranking factor yet provides the search engine with more data points to evaluate and place your business accordingly.

Add Images to Your Google Profile

• Make sure you follow the Google guidelines for prohibited content and add appropriate high quality images that showcase your business best to your potential customers.

Add Q&A’s

• Answering common questions on Google helps not only with your visibility but also assures potential customers by taking their doubts away. Using relevant keywords in your Q&As improves search rankings, and engaging with local-specific queries boosts your visibility and credibility in local searches.

Explore Business Specific Options

• Depending on your type of business you have a couple options to choose from. For instance Michael as a restaurateur can add his menu to his Google Business profile.

Build Local Citations for Your Business

Difficulty - Easy Importance - High

Creating and maintaining local citations on platforms like TripAdvisor, Yelp, and YellowPages is a vital aspect of local SEO. These citations help improve your business's visibility in local search results. Often, these websites might already have a listing for your business. In such cases, you need to claim the profile by providing proof that you are the owner or an authorized representative of the business.

Consistency is key when managing these citations. Ensure the information on these directories matches the details on your website and Google Business Profile. For example, if you update your opening hours on your website but forget to do so on Google Business and other directories, you risk lower visibility on Google. Moreover, inconsistent information can lead to customer frustration, as they might encounter closed doors or hesitate to visit due to uncertainty about your business hours.

By maintaining consistent and accurate information across all platforms, you enhance your local SEO and build trust with your potential customers.

Did you know that our local SEO solution synchronizes all your business details on 130+ directories depending on where you are located? With this, you are saving hours of work and do not have to worry about inconsistent information about your business.

Collect Customer Reviews

Difficulty - Medium Importance - High

Did you know that 99% of consumer read online reviews and 98% consider a review as highly important when making a purchase decision? Consequently, it is not surprising that review velocity is a very crucial ranking factor when it comes to local SEO and is therefore, not excluded form our checklist. Besides, reviews also offer valuable feedback that can help you improve your services.

Collecting reviews should be a consistent process and should be on top of your to-do list to ensure you are not only satisfying your customers but also the search engine.

How to Collect More Reviews on Google?

Go to your Google Business profile and select “Ask for reviews”. You will receive a custom link that you can send to customers or transform into a QR code that can be printed out for in-store use.

Consider collecting reviews by using for instance one of the following methods:

• Print a QR code on receipts, cards on tables, or signs at the exit
• Consider staff promotions as an incentive for them to continuously request reviews from the customers they serve
• Send a follow-up e-mail to guests that made a reservation online after their visit

If you are using our Obenan solutions, you can create different campaigns, encouraging customers to leave a review and re-direct negative feedback to private surveys. With this approach you have more control over your online reputation.

Respond to Customer Reviews

Difficulty - Low Importance - High

Responding to customer reviews within 24 hours is an important factor in improving local SEO rankings.

Let's circle back to our friend Michael, who has recently discovered a range of customer reviews, from very positive to less favorable. Michael has never replied to any of these reviews, neither thanking his satisfied customers nor offering assistance or clarification to those who were less satisfied.

Michael has now decided to make it a priority to respond promptly to all new reviews. He also plans to address his existing reviews by dividing them into smaller groups and responding over the next few days. It is important not to respond to all existing reviews at once; instead, space them out to avoid appearing “spammy.”

Did you know that with Obenan you can not only create dedicated campaigns to easily get more customer reviews but also respond to Google reviews automatically using AI? With this, you are not only saving time and effort but also ensuring, that you satisfy Google and your customers by responding within 24 hours to feedback!

Schedule Regular Google Posts

Difficulty - Low Importance - Medium

Google posts are a perfect tool for not only improving your online visibility but also showcasing recent updates to potential customers.

It is super easy to use and offers benefits such as:

• Engagement
• Call to Action
• Increase visibility
• Credibility

How to Schedule Google Posts?

To add google posts you need to log in to your Google Business profile. From the menu choose the option “Add update”.

For regular posts, select “Add update”. You also have the option to inform customers about special offers or a special event that you are hosting.

Upload a suitable image and fill in the description. Do not forget to add a button (Call to Action).

How Many Google Posts Should You Schedule?

We recommend posting a Google post daily. This practice ensures that you continually update your customers with useful information while maintaining a steady circulation of high-quality images. Regular updates help keep your visual presentation on your Google Business Profile fresh and aligned with your standards. Consistent posting not only engages your audience but also enhances the overall appeal and professionalism of your profile.

Scheduling a Google post every day can be time-consuming, and remembering to do it consistently can be a challenge. With our Obenan solutions, you can automate this process effortlessly. Our advanced scheduling tool automatically posts on your behalf, ensuring continuous engagement with your audience. Additionally, our sophisticated AI crafts compelling captions, saving you even more time and effort. This way, you can focus on running your business while we handle your Google posts seamlessly.

Encourage Backlinks to Your Site

Difficulty - High Importance - Medium

Acquiring backlinks to your website from external parties can be tricky but very effective for SEO. In the field of local SEO, backlinks also play a significant role, though they shouldn't be your initial focus.

When seeking backlinks for local SEO purposes, it's important to obtain them from high-quality local sources. These can include local blogs, magazines, and news outlets. High-quality local backlinks can significantly enhance your local search visibility and credibility.

It's important to avoid buying links or obtaining low-quality links, as these can harm your online presence in both SEO and local SEO. Engaging in such practices can lead to penalties from search engines, negatively impacting your rankings and overall online reputation. Prioritize organic and relevant link-building strategies to ensure long-term success.

What Backlinks Should You Acquire for Local SEO?

Focusing on backlinks from local sources such as blogs, magazines, and news outlets is crucial for strengthening local SEO.

For example, Michael, who hosted a special pizza night with live music, could have leveraged this event to reach out to local media. Introducing his restaurant and event to local bloggers, journalists, and other online media would have been a great opportunity.

By collaborating with local bloggers, journalists, and news outlets, Michael can slowly build a robust link profile. It's important to remember that link-building is a time-consuming process that requires patience. However, one high-quality link from a relevant and authoritative source can often be more valuable than ten low-quality links from unrelated sites.

Use Internal Links Effectively

Difficulty - Low Importance - Low

Let’s talk about internal links for your website. Incorporating internal links into your strategy is both simple and beneficial. Internal links are hyperlinks that connect one page on your website to another relevant page within the same site.

For example, consider Michael's website, where he has a section about his restaurant's history. In this section, he mentions opening his restaurant in Amsterdam and developing a delicate Italian menu. These references provide excellent opportunities for internal links. Michael can link the term "Amsterdam restaurant" to his local page dedicated to his Amsterdam location, and "Italian menu" to the menu overview page. It's crucial that the link text, also known as anchor text, is relevant to the target page.

By strategically using internal links, Michael enhances his website's structure. This not only improves user navigation but also signals to search engines like Google that his website is high-quality, well-organized, and full of valuable information.

Curious how to higher the engagement of your Google Business Profile and attract more organic visitors to your GBP? Read our detailed instructions and start optimizing today!

Recap

Optimizing for local SEO is essential for increasing your business's visibility to potential local customers, but it can be very time-consuming and requires significant effort. From keyword research and website optimization to managing Google Business profiles and collecting customer reviews, the process involves many steps that need to be planned out carefully. Our solutions offer to automate many of these tasks, ensuring consistency and enhancing your online presence without the hassle. Our advanced tools help you stay competitive in local searches, allowing you to focus on running your business while we handle the SEO work.