Does your small businesses serve a local clientele? If so, your website needs to attract local visitors. After all, if you operate a brick-and-mortar business in Austin, Texas you probably do not need to attract a flood of website visitors from California.

Here we look at local SEO strategy for small businesses.

What is Local SEO?

Search engine optimization for a website hoping to attract local customers is referred to as “Local SEO.” The process ensures your site ranks well for your community in search results.

For some industries, local SEO strategy can be a more complex, ongoing process. But for many SMBs there are straightforward steps you can take right away to help search engines understand who you are, what you do, and your location. First, make sure your site follows general best practices for small business search engine optimization, then follow these local SEO tips.

Local SEO for Small Businesses

1. Verify Your Google Business Profile

The first step for almost any local SEO campaign is to claim your Google listing. This is a free service which allows your business to show up in Google Map searches. Google Business Profiles or GBP (formerly Google My Business or GMB) are available to both brick-and-mortar businesses and service area businesses.

A Google Business Profile lets Google know your business location. It also generates a business listing in search results allowing your customers to quickly call you and leave reviews. Learn about optimizing a Google Business Profile. Your GBP reviews and ratings help your profile stand out in Local Packs and Maps.

You’ll also want to list with Bing Places for Business. Businesses with a physical location can get verified on Apple Business Connect.

2. Localize Your Website

Is your physical location found only on your Contact page—or missing completely? This information is often overlooked when DIYing a site because you know where you are located. Google knows where you are located due to your GBP information (see #1 above). But do site visitors know your location? Help them out.

Common spots for location information include the Contact page, Home page, About page, or Footer. While you can mention your city in the copy of your pages or blogs, there is no reason to overdo it. Just like with keywords, be natural and mention your city only when/if it is truly appropriate.

Some businesses choose to include location info in page titles—this is not needed for Google when you follow local SEO best practices. But if it could be helpful when customers see your page in search results, then consider this approach. Note, you do not need to add a location to your URL structure unless it is a location page.

Related reading: How to build a website that brings you customers

3. Optimize Your Contact Page

Next take a closer look at your Contact page, make sure it includes: 

• Your address, city, state, and ZIP code

• A Google map pinpointing your location

• Directions to your location if this information will help visitors

• A local phone number

Related reading: Contact Page SEO

4. Build Accurate Business Listings (Citations)

Your business may already be listed in popular local directories such as YellowPages or Yelp. Accurate listings with these types of sites can help small businesses in two ways: (1) users of those sites will have a better chance of finding you, and (2) being listed in relevant website directories can help your site be regarded as more legitimate.

If you’ve been in business for a number of years or your address has changed, then there’s a good chance existing citations will be out-of-date. Whether editing an existing listing or starting from scratch, make sure to take full advantage of the listing by filling it out completely and linking to your website. And remember:

• It is important to use consistent contact information for all your online listings. 

• When setting up profiles, be sure to use an enduring email address, not one that’s temporary, such as an intern’s email.

• Be practical when creating listings—there’s no need to overextend or overcomplicate the process.

• For future use, keep a spreadsheet of the local listings you claim and any related information.

If you manage multiple locations, then it can be worth considering services like Moz Local to help ensure your online business listings are consistent across the web.

5. Encourage Reviews

Customers may already be reviewing your small business on review sites such as Yelp and Google, making it important to claim your listings so that you are both aware and able to respond appropriately. Let your customers know how much you value them and encourage them to share their experiences with others. 

Reviews on Google are especially valuable. For example, enter a local search phrase such as “your city, dentist” into Google. Notice the local search results with starred reviews? These are pulled from Google Business Profile reviews.

6. Add Structured Data

With Local Business structured data (schema), you can tell search engines about your location, business hours, and more. If needed, use free SEO tools to create schema and test it.

Note, if your site is on Squarespace, and you populate the Business Information panel, the platform automatically adds Local Business structured data for you.

Next Steps

Google offers straightforward advice to beginners on how to improve ranking:

• Make your site is fast and mobile-friendly.

• Keep your content useful and up-to-date.

• Follow Google’s search guidelines.

• Learn more in Google’s SEO Starter Guide.

Local SEO can take some time, but it is worth the effort for most small businesses. Get started with the tasks above and you’ll be ahead of many small businesses.

Related Resources: Even if you plan to do DIY search engine optimization, learn how to hire an SEO expert or consultant to get your small business on the right path.

Get a Local SEO Review

Local SEO is not hard, but in our experience most SMBs perform better after a review of their online presence.