Have you been looking for a way to grow your presence online?
Maybe you have an amazing website but can’t seem to get enough people to look at it.
Did you know that using an SEO strategy can help? Especially when it comes to being found by people in your area!
Keep reading to find out about some of the best local SEO tools you can use to get the results you desire.
What Is Local SEO?
Search engine optimization is a great way to increase your visibility online. When done correctly it improves your page rankings by making sure your page is the most relevant to customer search queries.
This ensures your website shows up at the top of search results.
Local SEO takes it a step further, by making sure your business information shows up at the top of local search results. It can make a big difference for businesses that provide products or services to a specific geographic location.
Importance of SEO
Almost every business now has a webpage, something that makes SEO a really valuable part of any marketing strategy.
Competition is fiercer than ever since consumers can type a search phrase into their phones and have the top results show up without having to do any research or comparisons.
Most people don’t bother scrolling past the first couple of results if the ones at the top offer the solution they are looking for. They trust that the best option is sitting at the top of the list.
Therefore, one of the best ways to promote your local business is to be one of the top results for queries related to your business.
SEO Strategies
SEO is a critical part of growing your organic traffic, so it is a good idea to craft a planned out strategy to guide you.
More and more businesses are regularly using free and basic SEO tools like Google Analytics to track their website activity and customer behaviors.
The widespread use of these types of tools is leading to a more competitive online space. Companies are spending large amounts of their marketing budgets to fight for the best Google real estate.
If you are a local provider your strategy needs to have a local focus.
Here are some expert tips to consider when making your own local SEO strategy:
- Only create high-quality content
- Do the keyword research
- Use keywords in URLs
- Treat headers and titles with importance, because they are!
- Pay attention to the user experience
- Try to create featured snippets
- Stay up to date on google algorithms
- Hire an expert
Best Local SEO Tools
Using SEO effectively will help in generating leads and producing more sales. For small businesses, focusing this on local results can make a huge impact on their visibility and sales.
Here are some of the best local SEO tools you can use to help your local business.
Keyword Research
Keywords are the ones most commonly used to search for specific things.
The goal is to use the right keywords, in a natural way, with enough consistency on your web pages. This will help make search engines think you offer the most valuable information for searches.
Tools like Keyword Surfer allow you to research what terms are the most commonly searched and what keywords your competitors are using.
Backlinks
When another website links to one of your pages, it creates a backlink to your site.
This helps your page rank better because it shows search engines others sites are finding your pages as useful. This increases website authority and the chance that viewers will click to visit your webpage.
Tools like Link Miner can help you to track the backlinks your competitors have created so you can try to replicate successful strategies.
Backend
There are plenty of different technical areas that affect your SEO.
The user experience is an important factor when it comes to site rankings, which makes it important to have a site that is fast and reliable.
You can also do things like find and remove backlinks that are not trustworthy or irrelevant. There are many more details surrounding things like URLs and site maps that will also have an impact on your SEO.
Tracking Metrics
Without tracking your data you won’t know how you can improve. There are tools that track your site traffic, your click-through rate, exit rate, and more. This is extremely helpful for setting goals and making improvements.
You can use Google Analytics and get access to some of these features for free.
Metadata
Metadata is what searchers are able to see from the search results page.
It is important for two reasons. It is what convinces viewers to click on your page when they scan your listing on the results page. It is also the information google uses when collecting relevant website matches for search queries.
Using the right keywords in your metadata can help you to be found more often.
Paid Local SEO Tools
Optimizing your content with keywords, backlinks, and other SEO factors can be a complicated process. It can take a lot of time to learn everything there is to know to make SEO work.
The good news is, there are many different tools and even whole platforms available to make this easier for you.
Moz Local
Moz Local is a trusted platform when it comes to improving SEO. It boosts local visibility and works behind the scenes to make sure your business listings are up to date with correct information.
They will even help you close duplicate business listings and submit accurate location data for your business.
They have different pricing plans that vary from $99 per year to $249 depending on the tools and features you are looking for.
BrightLocal
BrightLocal is an all-in-one platform that provides local SEO services for agencies, businesses, and freelancers.
They give you the tools you need to track keywords, monitor reviews across multiple sites, and generate easy-to-read SEO reports.
Their pricing starts at $29 per month and they have a 14-day free trial so you can test out their features before making any commitments.
GrowthBar
GrowthBar is a platform that provides SEO metrics on any website or Google search result.
They allow you to do keyword research, backlink analysis, and pay-per-click analysis all from a google chrome extension.
They can provide local SEO insights that help you to rank better in your local search results. You can identify your competitors’ top-performing keywords and find your own keyword suggestions.
Their paid plans start out at $29 per month. They also have a free plan with limited usage.
Whitespark
Whitespark is a local SEO company that helps with all local search marketing needs.
It can help small businesses earn reviews, track rankings, build high-quality backlinks, build citations, and more.
They also have free local SEO tools that can improve SEO strategies, like their offline conversion tracker. You need to contact their team directly to get a quote regarding pricing plans.
Improve Your Local SEO Now
These local SEO tips and tricks will help you increase attention for your business and generate leads in your area.
There are many other things to keep in mind when deciding what the best local SEO tools are for you. To learn more about this and other factors that impact your rankings on Google read some of our other blog posts.
