Local SEO mainly involves setting up a Google Business Profile for your business and getting as many customer reviews as you can manage, but did you know that you can optimize your website for local search as well?
By optimizing for mobile, creating landing pages for each area you serve and adding structured data to your site, you can really do a lot to help your website appear more often in localized searches.
“Localized searches” are local search results that appear in regular search results on Google, not just the local pack.
In this post, I share tips on how to optimize your website for local search.
Optimize for Offsite Local SEO First
When consumers enter certain terms into Google, they’ll see local search results in two primary locations: the Places section and regular search results.
The Places section will generally receive more engagement than regular search results. In fact, businesses in the “local pack,” which are the first three businesses you see in the Places section when you search for local keywords, receive the most amount of engagement from local searches.
This is why it’s important that you optimize for offsite local SEO first, then worry about optimizing your website for local search.
Here are a few essentials you definitely need to have in place before you start worrying about optimizing your website:
- Claimed business listings, especially on Google and Yelp
- Facebook page
- Complete Google Business Profile. Choosing the correct business categories and using them as keywords in your business description are especially important
- Review marketing strategy, including a process for receiving reviews from customers on a regular basis as well as responding to reviews in a timely manner
You can read more about these topics in our guides for local SEO, including:
- How to Optimize Google Business Profile (with Data)
- Local Search Engine Optimization Guide for Small Businesses
- What is Google Business Profile?
How to Optimize Your Website for Local SEO
These are strategies you can use to help your website appear in local searches more often:
- Add key pages to your website so customers can find information about your business easily, including Services, Products and About pages
- Make sure your website is responsive and well optimized for mobile devices
- Make sure you have a simple menu design that’s easy to use
- Add structured data from schema.org. WordPress plugins can do this for you
- Add your name, address and phone number (NAP) in your footer and About page
- Create a separate page for each area you serve or each business location you operate from
- Get local backlinks from news sources and influencers
- Create content that’s meaningful for consumers in your area
I’m going to go over each of these strategies, but first, I want to take a moment to address why optimizing your website for local search is just as important as optimizing your Google Business Profile.
It comes down to a fact I mentioned earlier: your business can appear in two locations in local search.
First, it can show up in the local pack, like this:
It can also show up in what are called “localized search results.” These are regular search results that have local intent, like this:
Try entering “pizza” into Google. Instead of finding results that are related to the phrase “pizza,” you find results for restaurants that serve pizza in your area.
This is because Google recognizes the phrase “pizza” as having local intent, so it shows localized search results instead of regular search results.
This means it’s possible for your business to show up twice on the first search engine results page (SERP) for local keywords; once in the local pack, and once (or more) in the localized results.
Optimizing your website increases your odds of showing up in localized search results.
With that said, let’s go over the strategies I mentioned above.
1. Add Key Pages to Your Website
When I looked up data about Google Business Profile and the results it can bring for your website, I discovered that the majority of interactions profiles receive are made with the Website link.
The statistic comes from a study conducted by Birdeye, and while it didn’t elaborate on why consumers are so eager to visit business websites, you can probably make a few guesses about what they’re hoping to find.
It could be more information about your products, your operation, your team, your menu or even how credible you seem.
This is why it’s important that you build a well-designed website in the first place, but it’s also why it’s so important that you add the following pages to your website:
- Homepage that summarizes your business as well as your entire website
- About page that includes a “Team” section
- Services page
- Contact page
- Shop or Products page, if applicable
- Menu page, if applicable
- Information pages, such as where you get supplies from, how you came up with the idea of your product, how you offer your services, etc.
2. Optimize for Mobile
Over 60% of internet searches in the United States are made on mobile devices, according to Statista.
The statistic was reported in late 2021, but it’s been climbing pretty steadily since 2013 when the mobile share of internet searches was only ]30%.
This means when consumers use Google to search for local businesses, they’re doing so on mobile devices more often than not.
This, in turn, means that your website must be optimized for mobile.
This mostly means making it responsive so it resizes to whatever screen size your customer is using automatically, but you can also design custom elements and entire web pages that are optimized for mobile and only display if your customer is viewing your website from a mobile device.
Fortunately, if you’re using a theme from WordPress or website builders like Squarespace and Wix, your website is probably already responsive.
Just view it on your phone, and see if it resizes to fit your screen.
3. Make Your Website Easy to Navigate
Having useful information pages on your website is meaningless if your visitors can’t find them.
This is why it’s important that you also create a simple navigation menu that’s easy to use.
Here’s an example of a simple menu layout:
- Home
- Services (if applicable)*
- Shop/Products (if applicable)*
- Menu (if applicable)
- Locations (if applicable)
- Child menu item for each location
- About
- Contact
*If you create individual landing pages for each service and product you offer, add them as child menu items. If you offer too many products, consider creating landing pages for primary product categories instead.
This layout ensures your visitors can clearly find every important page on your website.
Your homepage should feature sections that summarize each of these pages with call-to-action buttons that lead to them.
4. Add Structured Data to Your Website
It’s a complicated subject, but basically, structured data is data that’s formatted in a way that makes it easy for humans and search engine bots to read.
Schema.org has a large collection of structured data you can add to your site, some of which can show up on Google SERPs.
Examples include product prices, review ratings and recipes.
Schema.org has a collection of structured data called LocalBusiness, which allows you to add structured data for your opening hours, price range, accepted payment methods, address and more.
Popular SEO plugins for WordPress can help you add LocalBusiness structured data to your website, but you can also use a plugin like Local Business Schema.
5. Add Your NAP in Key Locations On Your Website
Your NAP is your business’ name, address and phone number.
Add it to your footer as well as your About and Contact pages at the very least so customers can find it easily.
6. Create a Landing Page for Each Area You Serve
This is a very important step if you want to appear in localized search results more often.
When customers enter “[local keyword] [location]” into Google, they’re looking for businesses in specific locations.
Google might be more willing to add your site to local search results if your location landing pages match locations consumers often use in local searches.
If you only have one location, add an “Areas We Serve” list to your footer, About page and Home page.
Be sure to use local keywords on these pages.
7. Acquire Backlinks from Local Sources
Get in touch with influencers in your area, and arrange partnerships that will lead to advertising for your business but, more importantly, local backlinks.
These are links that lead to your website that are placed on other websites. They’re a major ranking factor for Google.
Sources include news outlets and social media influencers and bloggers in your area.
You can even partner with fellow businesses and sponsor community events in your area.
8. Create Content That Has Local Intent
If you create content about topics that are important to consumers in your area, you might see higher rankings for searches that relate to your area.
Local content includes local news topics, area guides and community spotlights.
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