Are you looking for ways to increase your organic visibility and ranking in search engine results?

By now, most of us are aware with the Google update known as Pigeon. It was launched in 2014 and it allows greater search visibility for local directories, which helped local search engine optimization(SEO) establish a foothold. With the number of mobile usage surpassing desktop and Google reporting more than ⅓ of mobile searches local related, it’s no surprise that local SEO has become an important part of an SEO’s overall strategy.

Competing for local SEO is quite troublesome considering the shrinking real estate of local results in search engine results pages(SERPs), particularly on mobile devices. 

In this article we’ll tackle about the strategy that we can use to increase our organic visibility and ranking in local search results.

1. Claim all local name, address and phone number (NAP) citations and listings you can in local directories and make sure that they consistent in all listings.
2. Claim your Google My Business Page and Bing Places for Business and fill every related information and local keywords to get a spot in a local search. In doing so, it will help your business show up in search results, as well as in Google and Bing Maps.
3. Improve local ratings and reviews to rise above the local search pack by fully optimizing your website and filling out all information fields in Google My Business.
4. Construct local content to rank for long-tail keywords and below-the-fold results.

For the purpose of this article, we are going to concentrate on producing and optimizing local content since it’s one of the best ways to boost your visibility and rankings in local search results.

Optimizing content for Local SEO

Local SEO is a great strategy for small businesses that market in a set geographic area. By focusing content on local keywords and intent, you effectively reduce the competition and your reach to your target audience.

Making your website mobile-friendly and localizing your schema markup are the two most important steps to optimize your website for local intent.

A survey sponsored by Microsoft found only 17% of marketers incorporated schema markup in their websites. Adding structured data to your website communicates the focus of your content and the geographic are of your business to search engines. Even though this won’t directly improve ranking, it makes your web pages highly relevant to local keywords you are aiming for. This is helpful in local search packs.

When creating content for local intent, the key is to put the local keywords into the title and meta description tags for local ranking. You content will usually focus on long-tail keywords to delineate your site topically and geographically. 

Local content ideas

Localized content is a great way to capture a niche not many people are aware of. Aside from local news station and influencers, some websites don’t focus on localized content.

Before you produce localized content for your area, try conducting some research to know your target audience. The best way to do this is by interviewing customers.

You may also make use of Google’s Keyword Planner to measure search volumes for select keywords based on insights provided from your interviews. This will help you find audience that you haven;t reached yet.

You may also consult your analytics to audit your current traffic data and website performance.

One thing you need to keep in mind is that local content is not just simply a blog post. It incorporates a number of various strategies such as sharing user-generated content, optimizing landing pages with local images and optimizing online reviews.

Local Link building

Local SEO also presents a valuable chance to create linkable assets, focused on local analysis and statistics. For instance, many real estate companies benefit from listing local housing statistics on their websites. This makes a prime opportunity for bloggers and local media to reference these statistics.

Local link building aligns with present SEO strategies:

• Acquiring directory links and mentions.
• Inserting landing page links into relevant citations.
• Acquiring local media coverage.
• Local guest blogging.

All of the content strategies that we have provided, all make opportunities to build more links. Based on your geographic location, you can always apply to become a guest columnist for national publications with local and metro sections.

Local SEO is an untapped opportunity

When we consider of local SEO, we usually think of just the basics, acquiring local directory links and registering for Google My Business. While these are important, local SEO has more benefits than broad SEO, especially with the continued rise of mobile search.