A Local SEO strategy is very important for a local business in Plano and Frisco. If you are trying to reach local customers, a local SEO (search engine optimization) strategy is essential to help your business to rank in the top pages of the search engines.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO is a digital marketing strategy that helps a local business reach local customers to market their products and services. A local SEO strategy helps to improve your business rankings in the search engines so that it is easily found when customers search online for your products and services.

According to Google,

4 out of 5 customers use the search engines to find local business information including store hours, address and directions.

5 Local SEO Tips to Reach Local Customers and Improve Local Search Rankings

A Local SEO strategy includes many different factors including getting your business listed in Google My Business; online directory listings; on-page SEO optimization of your website; getting local links and reviews and more.

In addition to being listed in the top pages of the free or organic search listings on the search engines, most businesses want to be featured in the coveted “local pack”. The local pack is the list of 3 local businesses that are featured above the organic search results and below the paid search ads on the search results pages. The businesses in the local pack are selected based on proximity, authority and relevance to the search. Being featured in the local pack increases visibility and click through rate.

According to the Moz 2018 Local Search Ranking Factors Study,

The Top 5 search ranking factors for ranking in the Local Pack, the list of local businesses featured above the organic search results are:

1. Google My Business signals (25.12%)
2. Link Signals (16.5%)
3. Review Signals (15.4%)
4. On-page signals (13.8%)
5. Citation signals (10.8%)

The figure below shows the Google search results page with the local pack and the organic listings.

Here are 5 local SEO tips to improve the local search rankings for your business in Plano, TX.

Get Listed on Google My Business

Since Google is the largest search engine with more than 70% of the online search traffic, getting your business listed on Google My Business is the most important factor for local SEO.

A Google My Business profile is a free listing on Google. Getting listed on Google My Business lists your business profile in both Google search and Google maps. For a Plano or Frisco business, this is the most important step you can take to improve your local SEO rankings.

To list your business on Google My Business, go to https://www.google.com/business/

• Enter your business Name, Address and Phone Number (NAP).
• Select your business category. You can select up to 10 categories and 1 primary category.
• Enter a good business description of your products and services with keywords.
• Add plenty of images of your products, services, staff and location.
• You will need to verify your listing before Google will post it online. They will send a postcard to your business address with a PIN number. You need to enter the PIN number in your Google My Business account to verify your business.

Review signals are an important local ranking factor to improve your local SEO rankings. Once your business is listed on Google My Business, ask customers to post reviews on Google. Remember to respond to all customer reviews, both good and bad.

Get listed on Online Directories or Citations

In addition to Google My Business, you should also list your business in online directories to improve your local SEO rankings.

Make sure your business Name, Address and Phone Number (NAP) are consistent across all these online directories. This is an important ranking factor.

The Top 10 online directories to get listed on in the US include:

• Google My Business
• Apple Maps
• Facebook
• Foursquare
• Bing Places
• Yelp
• TomTom
• YellowPages
• Infogroup
• Localeze

If you would like to use a listing service that lists you on hundreds of websites, you can use Brightlocal.com or Moz.com.

In addition, you can list your business in local chambers of commerce and business associations.

Optimize Your Website For On-Page SEO

SEO or search engine optimization is a digital marketing strategy of optimizing your website to increase the amount of free or organic traffic it receives from the search engines.

Optimizing your website for on-page SEO(search engine optimization) is an important local ranking factor for your Plano business.

To optimize your website for on-page SEO, you must

• Include important keywords in your title, URL, headers and the alt tags of images.
• Have a compelling meta description that includes keywords and gets people to click on your description in the search results.
• Optimize your home page and website content for your city and location.
• Include internal and external links.
• If your business has many locations, have separate website landing pages for the different locations.
• List your Name, Address and Phone number on your website.

For help with on-page SEO optimization of your website, contact a SEO consultant in Plano or Frisco.

Publish Local Content and Get Local Links

To improve your local SEO rankings, you must publish blog content regularly on local events. Having an active blog on your website is essential to improve local SEO rankings.

Your local blog posts could include coverage of local events, FAQ, how to guides and best of guides. These local articles should be optimized with your city and location information.

Link building is an important local ranking factor. Regularly publishing local content that is useful and informative will help to attract inbound links from other local websites. You can also reach out to other websites directly to request inbound links.

You can request links from local chambers of commerce, news organizations and universities in your area.

Ensure That Your Website is Mobile-Friendly and Fast

A mobile-friendly website is important to improve your local SEO rankings. Most local searches are made on mobile devices, and your website should be easy to read on smartphones and tablets.

82% of smartphone users search online for local business information, according to Google.

In addition to being mobile-friendly, your website must be responsive and fast. Most web pages should load in under 3 seconds.

According to Google, 53% of mobile site visitors will leave a website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load.

To ensure that your website loads fast, keep images small in size and compressed. Large images are the main reason for slow website performance. Your web developer can help optimize your website so that it loads fast.

Conclusion

These 5 local SEO tips will help to improve your local search rankings on Google and other search engines. A local SEO strategy will help your Plano business to rank well on the search engines so that local customers can find you when they search online for your products and services. Local SEO optimization will also qualify your business to be featured in the local pack and help you reach more local customers in Plano and Frisco

Written by Tanuja Mahdavi, MBA, digital marketing consultant & owner of Gold Mango Design LLC. Gold Mango Design is a digital marketing and web design company in Plano, TX.

References

Gold Mango Design, 10 Local SEO Tips to Boost Local Search Rankings
Moz, 2018 Local Search Ranking Factors Study
Ahrefs, Local SEO: A Simple (but Complete Guide)

Related Links

Plano SEO
Local SEO Strategies for Law Firms