Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) has always been important to help create more successful businesses. Local SEO is a type of optimisation that specifically focuses on ranking high on search engines for search queries . There are so many factors that contribute to the ranking factors on Google and the algorithm is extremely complex. Google has never public stated what the algorithm is, but there are a few big hints that show what are the most important factors. Some of these factors include backlinks to your site, Google reviews, page load speed, creating area pages, having great content and other on page optimisation factors.
There are many great local SEO guides out there that teach you all there is to know about ranking your business within your local area. Let’s take a look into how some of the most important factors affect local SEO to how that it is still important in 2021.
Backlinks
Links are crucial for ranking factors to get more local SEO success and one of the most important general SEO factors. Getting backlinks to your site are critical to affect the overall ranking potential of your site in search engines like Google. Sites with a large number of links tend to appear in a higher position in local search results.
Google Reviews
Obtaining positive business reviews on Google is really important for local SEO as Google sees these as ‘votes’ for your site being authoritative by real customers. It is hard to maintain control of your Google reviews but trying to keep them positive is important because you cannot delete Google reviews unless they are clearly fake. It is important to get real Google reviews in this instance and make sure they are positive for it to have a great impact on your local SEO.
Page Speed
Increasing page speed is important as an SEO factor and is often a big deterrent for why people don’t click through a site. If a site takes longer than 3 seconds to load than the number of people who will close the site and choose another increase by a huge percentage. Especially in your local area where there are so many business vying for customers, having a fast website is important to not lose any traffic to your site.
Area Pages
Creating local area pages for towns, cities or suburbs can be a great way to rank for certain keywords across Google. For example creating a page for “Plumber Melbourne” and “Plumber Sydney” would be a good idea for an Australian plumbing company. This can help rank in each city and be a factor leading to more traffic and sales in each city. It is a good idea to do this for all the areas that your business serve in the local regions to help with ranking.
Content
Creating great content is the best way to begin ranking for certain keywords. After doing comprehensive keyword research, it is a good idea to write content based on how you want your searchers to find your site. Creating long and contextual content is a great way to entice readers to your site who find it relevant and useful. They will therefore share it and keep coming back for more which can lead to many business opportunities.
On-Page Optimisation
SEO on-page optimisation factors are super important for ranking in local search because they tell search engines that your site is in good health. This helps so much with ranking and factors like heading optimisation, meta content, title tags, URL optimisation and keyword density. These are just some of the important factors that can lead to SEO success amongst many others.
To Conclude
There is so much evidence that ranking for search results in your local area can be extremely beneficial to any local business. Optimising for all the above reasons can be a great way to begin ranking for local SEO for your business to start seeing some great results.
