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Local SEO has become increasingly important for online businesses as it helps them to rank their business for local searches.
It becomes imperative for you to understand the importance of local SEO to decide how to approach this area or not.
However, you need to be aware of all the local search ranking factors so that you can rank your business further.
It is important to note that local search has evolved. Gone are the days when Google used to display the results based on keywords, and you could guess what will appear in the SERPs based on your experience.
In today’s world, users tend to rely heavily on reviews and reputations of businesses to help them decide whether or not to visit a particular website.
So the question then is what are the important local SEO ranking factors that I need to know?
It’s likely that if you don’t have a high local ranking in a particular area, your business may not be found by customers searching for products or services around your target market area.
In this article, we are going to outline the 5 most important SEO ranking factors you must know in 2022.
Top 5 Local SEO Ranking Factors You Need To Know In 2022
Ranking locally for your business is vital and local SEO must be a critical component of your overall optimization strategy if you hope to increase your odds of getting ranked on Google’s search result page.
However, Google is an ever-evolving system. Its algorithm is complex and there are many different factors that come into play when trying to get your business to rank high in local SEO.
Here are some general local SEO ranking factors you must take note of in 2022
- Google My Business
- Google Business Profile Categories
- Reviews
- Social Listing
- On-page SEO And Keyword Relevance
1. Google My Business Profile
The easiest and most impactful way to ensure online visibility at the exact moment your customers are searching is to create a Google My Business listing.
It is one of the simplest and most effective ways to improve your local SEO.
Google My Business is a free service offered by Google that gives customers an easy way to find information about your business and connect with you by phone, messaging, or leaving reviews. You can learn more about how to set up your Google My Business listing here.
2. Google Business Profile Categories.
Categories describe your business and help you connect to the customers who are looking for you.
When setting up your Google My Business listing, you need to pick relevant primary categories and secondary categories for your business.
This helps Google understand what your business represents so it can effectively serve up your listing for relevant local search queries.
You can only select one primary category, but you can select up to nine secondary categories. Pick a primary category that represents your business as a whole and leave the other services that you offer for subcategories
3. Listing Reviews For Local SEO
This is another one of the many local SEO ranking factors that Google uses to determine how well you rank.
Over the last few years, generating reviews has become a top local search ranking factor.
Google (alongside other companies) now understands that reviews provide a timely representation of the credibility of a business.
Google also knows if people like your business or not. It checks your reviews on your business pages as a signal of relevance and conditional leads.
Customers also use reviews to decide whether or not they want to use your service.
They trust reviews just as much as personal recommendations.
If Google notices that your business doesn’t have many reviews or is littered with false positive reviews, that can make your company look fake or harmful to its users.
4. Social Listing For Local SEO
When it comes to ranking on local SEO, you should ensure you have a social media listing.
Social media sites have become search engines in their own right. Every day, Facebook alone sees 1.5 billion searches per day, and over 600 million users visit Facebook business pages.
Whether you plan to be active on social listings or not, you should at least have a social media presence on social sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
5. On-page SEO And Keyword Relevance
One of the most important parts of local SEO is optimizing your web content for organic search.
Optimizing your content for SEO has to do with keyword research and implementing those keywords into your website content.
Effective keyword research can help you identify the words and phrases searchers use to find local businesses or services, which, when utilized on your web pages, can help your website and its pages show up in results for relevant searches.
While it’s important to include them on your website, make sure to use keywords in a natural way.
Where possible, use them in URLs, page titles, meta descriptions, headings, alt text, and anchor text, and use variations or similar phrases to strengthen the connection.
Final Insights
Local SEO is the backbone of your SEO campaign. Some do not realize that local SEO is a crucial part of the SEO process, especially when you have great content posted on your website and around your area.
Without it, a company may miss out on that critical first customer or client.
If you want to get your local business listed on Google, getting started with local Seo is a great place to start.
No matter the type of business you run or the industry you’re in, there are many ways to reach customers in your city and help them find what they’re looking for.
Whether you need an expert to help you rank your business using local SEO, or a team member to create the perfect website for your niches, we have the experience, tools, and team to get the job done.
You can send us an email at info@mylbdigital.com and we will be glad to work with you.
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4 comments
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