Do you think to get local rankings is easy compared to the global competition? Yes, it is easy, but you have to do depth research and follow some strong hierarchy in order to get your local rankings in a short time. Because, usually in the local SEO promotion, there is a low competitor and to compete these low competition you should follow several local SEO methodologies.
SEO is the game where everyone tries to come first on the Search engine. But it is not easy, as everyone knows Google is the best search engine and it has strong algorithms. Do not worry, to rank in the first page of Google you have to follow search engine guidelines and white hat activity, and by researching on this you can increase your local rankings. However, there are several black-hat (Spam) activity available so you have to follow expert guidelines because once you have been affected with negative activity then your rankings may be down.
We are Professional SEO and we know the true scenarios of local rankings, also, we have several tricks and methods that will help you to get rankings and improve your SEO in short times. Finally, by the expert overview and deep online research we have mentioned here several Local SEO rankings factors that help you to grow your startup or well organized local business.
1. Setup Google My Business:
The most common and preferred activity is Google My Business Listing that also called GMB. However, it is very popular to grow your local audience and rank on your branded keywords. As you know Google is one of the best search engines in the world and today billions of searches occurred every day by local and global visitors. So to get promoted your local brand in front of a local audience, it would be best to set up the GMB account. For Example when someone search in the Google related to your branded keywords “restaurant near me” or “brand name company near me” then maybe your business can found on the Google SERP and Google Map.
Expert Tip:
As a professional SEO expert, we aware about all feature of Google my business. There is one trick that you can apply in order to rank on your primary keywords on Google SERP and local Google Map. Let’s Explain it. For Example, We have one Australian website with the name Maximum Plus Supplements, it is protein supplements provider in Australia so what we have changed in Google my business (GMB) listing we have added primary keywords in GMB along with a business name. Honestly, this trick will help you to get more visitors locally. You can view screen short that will Blow your mind.
As you can view in the screenshot, there is business name “Maximum Plus Supplements“ and keywords “Health & Fitness Supplements Australia” both we have been added in GMB as a business name and result in the front of you. It has 232 listing on search and 28 listing on maps, and this is a startup business so you can imagine how much it benefited to add business in GMB.
2. Find Long-Tail Keyword & Keyword Research
Keyword research is a primary activity in the SEO. While you do SEO research for local business then it will be necessary to include your local keywords. However, If you well aware what exactly and which keywords you have to use then you will definitely win the race of local SEO. For Example, if you want to target your business in Melbourne then what should you have to follow.
First, to start keyword research you have to make primary keywords then after there are several tools available that will help you to find the best keywords, one of the best tools is Google keyword planner. It will help you to find related and low competition keywords in your targeted city and country, so it could be the first choice to find local keywords. For example, if you want to promote your business in Melbourne, then there is an option in keywords planner where you can select the city as a Melbourne and get a list of keywords that are trending in Melbourne.
Expert Tip:
Long tail keywords means keyword that contain 3 or more words, While you are doing keyword research, it is also important to find long-tail keywords (LSI) because to rank on long-tail keywords will be easy compared to high volume keywords. For Example, as you can view in the screenshot when you provide services like designing in Melbourne then you can find several long tail keywords by typing exact keywords on Google.
As displayed in the screenshot you can also use “web designing company in Melbourne” or “web design Melbourne small business” as long-tail keywords, it depends on your business goals. Another method is by using keywordtool.io tool, it is the best tool to find long-tail keywords, I personally recommended it.
3. Create Local Content:
If you have business in Australia and you want to target local city or states then how could search engine and visitors know about your targeted area? When we talk about search engine it has several algorithms that detect targeted area. However, As we are expert, we know how to explain the path of our targeted location to Google.
Meta title and description: When you target local cities like Sydney or Melbourne then you should include your targeted city name in the title and description so Google will be more aware of your targeted area and rank your keywords locally.
Heading tag H1 and H2: Another important area is heading tag, add your targeted city or area name in the H1 or h2 tag so Google automatically clearly identify your service area.
Content body: It is also important when you create your services page, you should also include your targeted location name in the content body.
About us Page: It is the page where search engine gets your value, so after the content body, you should mention your targeted city or country name in About us page and Google will understand service area better way.
Footer: You may include your targeted city or states name in the footer of the website in each page so Google interprets your location easily.
For the live example, you can view below screen short that showing our www.goingit.com.au website on the third position by searching “ios app development in Melbourne” in Google as we have targeted Melbourne’s people for our business. We are in the third position because we know how to show search engine our targeted location. To know more details how we have used location keywords on our page you can check out this link to get the better idea. Also, there is our competitor in the screen short who have targeted Melbourne in the title, and they are rankings for same keywords. So you have to try the same techniques now.
And for the visitors’ purpose you should include your targeted city or states name in the design of the website, by the navigation, category or another way.
4.Local SEO Promotion & Off-page:
As you previously read that you have to target your service location in the website by various techniques but it is not limited here to rank on high competition local keywords, also, you need to generate some valuable and relative backlink from a local website. As an expert we know which activity is the best to target local users and rankings. Do not worry! Here we have mentioned in the details.
Business Listing: It is more important to rank in local areas. There are several free business listing websites available in Australia where you can add to your business and get high exposure and rankings for your local business. Some of the popular website of Australia are
www.truelocal.com.au
au.showmelocal.com
www.yelp.com.au
www.startlocal.com.au
www.sensis.com.au
These are high authority website in Australia that add your business to their website, and by this brand promotion, you can increase your branding locally. However, if you want to find more business listing website then OnqMarketing blog available, here you will get high authority list of the business listing.
Local Press Release: According to my experience and overview. In the current era of internet news is the primary factors to rank in the search engine. Press release reminds to search engine that your website is currently trending and live on the website that creates high positive effects on search engine’s mind, so you have to submit your local news or product launch event or any other in the local press release websites, I am sure you will get high exposure. Here are the lists of press release websites that help you to promote your website in Australia.
www.prwire.com.au/
www.newsmaker.com.au/
www.freepressrelease.com.au/
www.pressreleasepoint.com/australia
Guest Posting: It is trending off page activity to rank on your desired keywords, but you have to be very careful about it, you have to only choose high authority and related websites. If you want to target the Australian market, there are several paid and free guest posting websites available that you have to choose according to your keywords relevancy.
Expert Tip: You can find guest posting sites easily by searching these terms in Google.
“guest post” keyword
“guest blogger” keyword
“writers needed” keyword
“blog for us” keyword
“write for us” keyword
Local Article and discussion: In order to get local rankings, there is activity available like article submission and discussion. Where you can give the answer and convert visitors also increase rankings on your website. Some of the top article submission sites mentioned here.
However, for the discussion one of the best sites available that Quora.com website that is the best option where you can give your answer and catch local and global visitors for your product or services.
As in the below screenshot you can view there are several local questions available with lots of local audiences so you can also here give your answer by searching related topics.
Above mentioned SEO off-page activity is the best to target local users, this activity gives you high visitor exposure and increases rankings in a short time.
5. Social Media Promotion:
You can get a bunch of visitors if you target social media using the right strategy. Social media help us to get visitors and branding promotion globally but if you want to target your local business then this is the more convenient way to get the local audience.
There are several social media websites available that we all familiar about like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram where you can get your targeted audience, but you have to follow some strategy, if you want to target Australia then you should add Australian people as a friend, follow them, discussion, related post by using these all methods you can get valuable traffic.
As above mentioned most active social media platforms 2018 by Hootsuite, you can get a clear idea which social media platform is popular and how can you get benefited from it. As you can view Facebook is the number in Usage social media graph of Australia, youtube comes second and fourth is Instagram, so you can use this social media platform to get visitors and for brand promotion. However, there are several social media tools available that you can use to make your social media promotion easy and simple like Buffer, Sprout Social, Hootsuite, Social Pilot.
After reviewing the entire local SEO tactic if you follow the same strategy then definitely your rankings will increase on the website. We are SEO expert and we know which tactics works best, so by internet research and our expert reviews, we have mentioned top local SEO rankings points that definitely help you to rank your local website and increase visitors.