Anyone who runs an online venture needs to hold a good grasp of search engine optimization. SEO involves working to make your website rank higher in search engine results pages like Google.
Why do businesses need to rank higher for local search searches? Research says that approximately 67% of Americans prefer shopping with local businesses.
Top business listings sites in the USA are putting significant effort into optimizing their website for local searches to get the upper hand in local SEO.
Whether you are building a website on your own or working with an expert web developer, the sooner you have a good understanding of the fundamentals of SEO, the better. Unfortunately, most businesses make the mistake of prioritizing SEO once their website is up and running. However, the design of the site can have a significant impact on SEO.
Good website design makes it easy for search engine crawlers and web users to navigate through your business’s website. That means you should prioritize user-friendliness and navigability at every stage of the website design process.
Luckily, there are several surefire ways to optimize your website for local SEO.
The most effective way to optimize your website for local SEO is to start with the homepage. This will be where most of your potential visitors land. Therefore, you should make sure the homepage content is up-to-date.
Your homepage can help you achieve two vital SEO goals:
• Bring local searchers to your website
• Keep visitors on your site longer, reducing the bounce rate
The single most effective way to insert metadata on every page is to use the Yoast SEO plugin. Since your intention is to optimize your site for local SEO, your Metadata should reference your business’s geographical location. Thus, search engines will know where you are located, increasing the likelihood of showing up in local search results.
The way people use the internet has vastly changed in the past 15 years. About 11% of web traffic worldwide came from mobile phones in 2010. That means that mobile-friendly web design is a must.
Mobile-friendly website design is crucial for businesses targeting a local market because people are likely to search for relevant local businesses on their mobile phones. A high-quality, responsive website design will ensure your site is working well on mobile devices.
Approximately 39% of internet users will leave a website if it does not load in 3 seconds. That is a huge amount of traffic you miss out on if your website loads slow.
developing a steady stream of relevant and informative content on your website has a positive benefit. When you target local customers, put effort into creating local content relevant to your business.
Aside from optimizing your website for local SEO, make sure that you have listed your business in a well-known business listing site like Now Service.