How to Dominate Local SEO: Practical Tips

How to dominate local SEO is the question you should focus on to take your eCommerce business to the next level and drive more sales. Since users want to get more personalized search results that are close to where they live, an individualized local approach to dominate SEO is crucial.

Search queries such as “near me” or “close by” grew by more than 900% over the past two years. 28% of these local searches become purchases. Optimizing your local SEO practices is a simple yet strategic step that allows you to dominate SERP positions and increase sales. Keep reading to find out Google local search marketing strategies that you should implement to dominate local SEO.

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What is local search engine optimization

Local SEO is a specific branch of SEO that aims at optimizing your website to score a top position in local search results. It’s an effective marketing strategy that focuses on the promotion of online business to residents of a specific geographical area.

Local search involves such search terms as [product] near me, [service] near me, [product] in [city name], [service] in [city name]. After leaving searches with local intent, users get top local companies in results.

If you would like your eCommerce store to rank higher in local search results,  add the physical address of store or warehouse to your website so that a search engine can scan this information. Another good approach to improve your local SEO is to add your phone number with the area code.

ON-Page SEO

It’s of paramount importance to adjust meta title and meta description of your eCommerce business that appear in local search results if you want to dominate SEO. These details are an integral part of classic SEO practices, and these can have a significant impact on website ranking.

Make sure you add local keywords in your meta title. These could be your city or state name, district etc. To create a perfect meta title, you should place the most important and relevant keywords at the beginning. Then add a desired local keyword and end with the name of your business. Don’t try too hard, though, and don’t overstuff your meta title with keywords as it won’t be trustworthy for both clients and search engines.

As to meta description, it doesn’t help to dominate overall SEO website ranking. However, it possesses enormous power to entice people to click on the link and visit your website. Please, try to create a short but catchy description and describe all the assets of your website to grab the reader’s attention.

To dominate SEO and make your ranking even higher, it’s advisable to include all contact information in the footer of your website. This includes physical business address, phone, and email. What’s better, you can create a separate contact page with all the details.

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Google My Business (GMB)

Creating a verified GMB account is obligatory for an eCommerce business to attract local customers, dominate SEO, and get ranked higher with local search results. If you get a verified sign, then you already got 25% of top-ranking factors. Now you can not just choose and add a preferred cover image, but also add a brand logo on the upper right corner of your profile.

Google has introduced a new carousel feature that allows adding pictures like on Instagram. As the company has promised, soon it will be possible to add captions under each image. It’s possible to send discount offers to those customers who follow your business. Google also suggests adding a menu bar that will show product range as well as prices. It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that it should help if you want to dominate local search engine optimization.

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Directories and Citations

A web directory is still important for SEO practices. It’s always beneficial for website search ranking when an authoritative source links back to your eCommerce website. The more of these you get, the higher ranking you will receive.

For this type of business, general directories will be suitable as they accept submissions from different industries. Business directories such as Yell will also be a great choice to backlink.

Citation building and finding directories is a great way to dominate your search engine presence. Citations allow you to place your business name, physical address, and phone number on third-party websites and put links on trustworthy sites as well. The main idea is to get cited in as many sources as possible.

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Local Reviews

Local reviews on directories are also beneficial for SEO for a very simple reason. Everyone loves reviews and tends to trust them. According to the latest research, 90% of customers consider reviews when evaluating a local business. Therefore, they are extremely useful if your goal is to dominate SEO and contribute to better visibility and higher ranking.

A search engine assesses your business popularity by the number of reviews, the content of reviews, preferably with adjectives such as “best,” “outstanding,” “terrific.” Getting reviews on third-party websites can also contribute to your search visibility.

Your task will be to implement a sustainable marketing technique that consists of encouraging your customers to leave reviews. Don’t forget to place the best customer reviews on your website as testimonials. To make the process more effective for your business, you can turn to a professional review acquisition service to achieve tangible results and dominate SEO.

The owners of eCommerce businesses are usually afraid that negative product reviews and comments will adversely affect SEO and website ranking. In fact, it’s not that bad as it might seem at first glance. The main advice is not to ignore them. Your job is to provide impeccable customer service and make sure all inconveniences are addressed right away.

It’s crucial to know how to respond to a negative comment or complaint as quickly as possible. Depending on the message, try to resolve the situation or react to a grievance politely. You have to demonstrate that you care about the quality of the products and services you offer. Also, let them know that you strive to provide the best customer support and ensure stellar store performance in the future.

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Schema Markup

Schema markup is a special code placed on your website that allows the search engines to pull necessary information relevant to users from your site and display this in the answer-boxes, carousels and rich snippets. This code is used by many shops and stores to dominate local SEO.

The schema markup is useful for local SEO reinforcement, as it generates business-specific SERP display data that will appear as entities across the SERPs. It will allow you to get more visits and a better click-through rate. It’s recommended to add an address, contact details, logos, reviews, product markups, videos, events, etc.

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Public Relations

To dominate local listing in SEO, make sure your store name is mentioned by local news. Press releases are a useful tool that allows businesses to attract prospects and dominate the ranking in local search results. Through press releases and local news, you can let people know about your latest collections and sales season or demonstrate your new store interior design, as well as receive high-value backlinks. Another great way to attract the local community is starting a social media PR campaign about the launch of a new recycled collection.

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Final thoughts

The importance of local SEO is undeniable. By merely optimizing your eCommerce website for local search, you can skyrocket your business and drive more sales. If you implement these effective tips, you will easily improve your SEO rankings and attract new customers that will be more likely to make a purchase. All the SEO tips provided are easy to implement, so feel free to experiment and improve practices and dominate your local SEO.

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