We all face one common and inescapable stumbling block: rivals. It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, and being the biggest dog in town is critical for a small firm. It will be difficult to beat businesses that have auto-generated local listings or have been in the local SEO game for a long time.

Another issue that many local businesses must deal with is Google’s ever-changing list of ranking variables. With algorithm tweaks like the Possum update, which allowed firms outside of city bounds to compete for local places if they service that area, Google can radically upset your approach for small businesses attempting to show up locally.

Now is the moment to start thinking about how you’ll use these 10 local SEO techniques to shift the needle for your company.

1. Take Control of Your Business Listings

A listing for your firm is established over time, and duplicate listings gradually collect. Therefore, it’s critical to claim all listings under your company name, delete any duplicates, and double-check that the information on the remaining listings is accurate and up-to-date.

While finding all of these advertisements may appear to be a difficult task, several excellent tools are available that make the process quite straightforward. Moz Local is a perfect tool for locating all of the listings linked with your company.

Type in your company name – remember to spell it out exactly as it appears on your website (this includes capitalizations, abbreviations, etc.) Moz will provide you the complete, incomplete, inconsistent, and duplicate listings related to your business if you select your business from the results.

2. Your website should have location pages.

Search engines crawl your website, looking for the most similar matches to display on the search engine results page. Search engines can discover your listing and offer the proper location to the searcher if each of your business locations has its landing page.

You should provide suite numbers and choose whether to write street, avenue, road, etc., in full or abbreviated form. Keep in mind that the way the information is presented on these pages will impact how you update your data elsewhere, so keep that in mind while writing your location information.

3. The consistency of NAPs should be improved.

Your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) must be consistent everywhere for search engines to serve your business as a result for the searcher.

It’s not just a matter of writing your name and address; you’ll need to be more selective than usual. If your company name contains the words LLC, Co., or Inc., it must be included. Pay attention to the suite numbers as well as the spelling of street, avenue, and road. Consistency is key. This should be based on the information about your location on your website.

The Moz Local search tool and improvement process can help with a lot of this consistency. The first place to look is your Google My Business listing, which leads us to the following point.

More Resources: Local Business Reputation Management

4. Google My Business: All Things Up-to-Date

Users all around the internet rely on your company listings for accurate information every day. So it’s critical for your SEO that the searcher can quickly and easily detect this.

You can double-check your name, address, and phone number by signing into your Google My Business (GMB) account. A brief yet useful business description, a link to your website, and your operating hours should also be included. Make your listing appealing by using your logo as your avatar/profile image and updating your interior, exterior, and product photos. Because pixilated, fuzzy photographs appear sloppy and unprofessional, these should be high-quality images.

If you have many locations, GMB provides a helpful post on bulk uploading that makes updating your information simple and orderly.

5. Obtain Ratings

The importance of reviews is crucial. They are a ranking component in the local pack and a way for your listing to stand out. However, it can go far further than nearly any other local SEO
approach if you can persuade your delighted customers to submit a Google review for you as a thank you for a pleasant experience.

The review not only helps you rank higher, but it also helps your result grow larger on the results page. This is a method to use for sites that aren’t part of the local pack, such as adding schema markups, sub-pages, and other elements to increase the amount of real estate your company takes up.

Another significant advantage of obtaining evaluations is social proof. When people see five stars, they know your company is strongly recommended by their friends. So, by soliciting reviews, you’re addressing three important conversion factors: ranking, clickthrough rate (CTR), and conversion rate optimization (CRO).

6. Produce Content for the Local Market

Creating niche-specific content will have an impact on your local search rankings. More To learn more about creating great content, read our blog post SEO Checklist.

7. Use the Google AdWords Keyword Planner to your advantage.

When it comes to determining your local SEO keywords, this is a fantastic, free tool to use. It will assist you in determining which keywords have the biggest search volume and the lowest competition and related terms that your local audience is looking for.

8. Obtain backlinks from sponsors and partners.

Take advantage of the low-hanging fruit. Create a list of the companies and organizations in which you collaborate or sponsor. This can also include any philanthropic or fundraising events in which your company has participated. Make out to some of the contacts and explain how you’ve worked with them in the past and request, but they include a website URL.

9. Construct local linkages

It cannot be overstated how important link building is for your business, in addition to obtaining links from partners and sponsorships. Creating a relationship with local websites about your industry can help you increase your links to the best of your potential. When it comes to pushing the needle, getting links from sites with high domain authority in your local region will make a big difference.

10. Make use of social media platforms.

Because social media sites are free, it’s no surprise that they can help you stay in touch with your audience. Google will scan and collect query results from your social media networks, including Facebook accounts and reviews, LinkedIn or YouTube accounts for your business, and even your Twitter and current tweets.

More Resources: 12 Proven Local SEO Tips Can Help Get You To The Top