How to optimize your website for local search

13 Strategies to Optimize the SEO of Your Local Business Website
If you have a storefront business or offer a service that is within a specific local geographic area, you’ll want to focus your marketing efforts on getting in front of local traffic.

Since many marketing initiatives are of a more global nature that don’t help you at all, there are actually some specific things you can do to ensure you’re visible to the local people you want to attract to your business.

In addition to using targeted Facebook and Google Ads, local search optimization can help your business be found in searches when people search for a business like yours in your area.

So what can you do to make your website rank better for local search?

Here are 13 techniques to improve your ranking locally:

1. Make a list of the local regions you would like to rank in: This will include your city, your major metropolitan area, county, and province or state. Think about neighboring cities that your company can also serve in addition to yours. Next, create long-tail keyword phrases for each of them. For example, instead of optimizing for “home staging”, you can optimize for multiple phrases including: “Yourcityhere home staging” “Yourmetroregionhere home staging”, “YourCountyhere home staging”, “Yourregionhere home staging”, etc.
2. Add your business address in the footer of your website in text: This not only acts as a clue showing Google that you are a local business, but also shows your website visitors that they are in the right place. Showing your location and the areas served on your website is vital for localized businesses. It’s also a good idea to embed a dynamic Google map so customers can find your location.
3. Add a link to your business on Google Maps: Check if your business appears on Google Maps, and if not, add a shipping to be included. This will not only serve to help customers find directions to your place, but is also another marker that tells Google where you are locally.
4. Write a web page or blog post dedicated to each local keyword phrase: The use of keywords and geographic locations throughout your website is also important for search engines to take into account in their search results. I’m not a big fan of this technique as it can clutter up your website, but you can create a keyword phrase-based local web page or blog post for every page, including every service you offer, to boost those rankings. Avoid adding these pages to the main navigation if possible; however, they still need to link to your website’s home page in order to be indexed.
5. Optimize each web page to rank well for the keyword you are targeting: Place the keyword phrase in several places in the writing and coding of your website pages, including:
• Meta keywords and description tags
• Filename or URL of the page. For example: best-home-staging-Abbotsford.HTML
• Page header inside an H1 tag
• Page subheadings inside H2 and H3 tags
• Filenames of graphics used on the page
• Hyperlinked text containing the keyword phrase, ideally placed in the first and last paragraph of the page
• Header tag with the keyword phrase at the bottom of the page
6. Regularly write and post new local content: Adding new content to a website, especially as a blog post, is important to all websites. Making that new content location-based with your keywords makes it even more valuable. This could be a press release about the things you are doing in the community. You could review a new local service or product. You can also create a recommended links page that shares information about other complementary local businesses.
7. Get back links on other local business sites: Ask other local businesses if you can exchange links. When they post a link or recommendation to your website, it improves your own website’s ranking.
8. Take and share local photos: Be sure to take pictures of your business doing things at local places. Name these images when you post them on your website or blog with file names that include your local keyword phrases. When people go into Google Photo Search and search for “best home stager in Abbotsford”, if you have a photo with that file name, your image will appear at the top.
9. Local landmarks: If you are near any major landmarks, please mention them on your website. For example, if someone is typing “bedroom lamp store near Grand Central Station,” if you have that reference on your website, they might find that phrase in Google searches.
10. Use Alt Tags: Make sure all images used on your website have local keyword phrase filenames and alt tags.
11. Create an XML map or sitemap: This makes it easier for Google to crawl all the pages of your website.
12. Manually submit your website to local and niche directories: Using local directories and top directories with local listings is invaluable in getting your local business found. Directories like Yelp, Foresquare. Moz, Hotfrog, and Houzz are great places to start. Create a complete profile and be sure to add lots of photos.
13. Use review sites: Leverage the power of review sites. Create free business accounts with some of the big review sites like Yellow Pages, Insider Pages, Angie’s List, etc. and encourage satisfied and repeat customers to write reviews about your business. Good reviews can help your customers and search engines a lot.

Once you’ve optimized your website for local SEO, there are other off-site methods you can take to improve your local search results as well. So take the time to review your website and add local keywords, links, content, and images and you’ll be on your way to getting more local customers.