Local SEO is one of the best investments a small business can make to increase the leads they are seeing from their website. With more and more of your customers searching for a business (either on their desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone) prior to walking in the store and buying, it will only become more important to optimize your website for local searches.

Below is a list of 5 local SEO tips to help improve your website rankings in the local search results.

1. Start Blogging About Your Industry

Blogging is a powerful tool to increase leads for your business however it is often misused and thus given up in favor of something easier. In order to properly blog, you have to put yourself in the shoes of your client – what do they want to read before making a purchase at your store or become a client of yours? What what might they be searching for?

Let’s say you’re a Chiropractor, you could write a post titled, “5 Things To Look For When Choosing a New Chiropractor”. This helps guide the potential client to make the right choice, shows that you aren’t trying to “sell” them right off the bat, and it builds trust by showing that you are an authority in your industry.

2. Sign Up For Local Directories

Directories are great for local businesses for two reasons. First, they allow your user to find you from various different sites. Second, they provide your website with a big boost of links, helping out your overall SEO.

Below are a few great directories to add your business to:

3. Ask Customers To Review You

The easiest way to get good reviews is simply to ask for them. If you have been in business long enough, you probably have a list of loyal clients. Reach out to them with an email asking them for a positive review (be sure to include the link to make it easy for them).

Good reviews are a big factor in high rankings for all local results.

4. Make Sure Your Website Has a Mobile Version

As more and more consumers use their smartphones to access the internet for information, search engines have begun to favor sites that have mobile versions. This makes it simple for the consumer to get on your site, learn more about you, and potentially make a purchase.

New websites are being built using a responsive framework. This means that the width of the page automatically fits the browser width. Go ahead and try it with this site by dragging in the corner. See how everything “rearranges” to fit inside the screen?

5. Make Sure Your Site is Keyword Optimized

Last but definitely not least is making sure that your website is 100% fully keyword optimized. This is the task of finding what terms your target demographic is typing into search engines to find the product or service that you sell.

Many small businesses hire agencies such as ours to do Local SEO keyword research, as it can be a very intensive process.

After the keywords are found, you will want to make sure that they are incorporated (not spammed) into various portions of your website…