There’s no question that SEO helps your small business get discovered. You should have an SEO content strategy. However, when creating an optimized website for your business, it’s important to have a local SEO checklist handy to ensure you’re discoverable in search engine results.

Before we dive into this checklist, what is local SEO and why do you need it? It’s an optimization strategy that makes your site more visible to local search results on Google.

For example, you’re a carpet cleaning company that services the Burlington, Oakville and Hamilton areas. You want to come up on searches when somebody in these cities searches for a carpet cleaning service.

These local SEO activities – many of which are off-page SEO strategies – ultimately help you grow your business. Let’s jump to the checklist so that you can see what you need to do to improve your online presence.

Local SEO Checklist: 7 Things To Remember To Do

What’s the best way to optimize your business website to be discovered locally?

We’ve compiled this local SEO checklist outlining the key methods.

1. Claim And Optimize Your Google Business Profile (GBP)

To appear in local search results and Google Maps, it’s important to set up your Google Business Profile (GBP).

You will need to verify it to build trust not only with Google but also with potential customers.

One mistake some businesses make is to not fill out all of the sections of their Google Business Profile. Make sure to choose the business category, and fill out details for your services, business hours and detailed company description.

You want to make it easy for Google to understand your business and properly index your site for search results.

Finally, add high-quality, attractive photos of your business, products and staff. Quality images help you position your brand visually while building credibility.

Google Business Profile also has a review feature. This helps with credibility and local rankings. Encourage people to provide reviews in the GBP review section.

Reviews and feedback on other social media platforms, such as your Facebook page, also appear in the GBP. Encourage customers and clients to share their reviews. Always respond to reviews, even if they are negative. This shows you care about your customer experience.

Speaking of reviews – this is a reason why you want to make sure customers are leaving reviews. on Business Google Profile:

2. Create An SEO Content Strategy Including Local Keywords

To get discovered organically through search results, your website pages, articles and blog posts should be optimized with keywords that include local keywords.

How do you do this?

When you’re doing your keyword research for your site, include local longtail keywords. An example of this is “marketing agency in Burlington” or “vegan cake shop in Oakville”.

Once you have a list of keywords you’ll need to do three things:

Add local keywords to the SEO page titles (the page title that appears in Google search results) and descriptions
Develop an SEO content strategy
Create informative content for local intent.

The latter can include pages that spotlight your company’s services or blog content such as “How to prepare your home for Spring in {Your City}”. Putting a focus on local keywords in your SEO content strategy gives is a small adjustment that can reap great rewards.

3. Optimize For Voice Search

Next on the local SEO checklist is an important trend: optimizing for voice search. When you’re creating written content for your site, consider other ways that people are discovering information online, including voice search. For example, many use Siri on an iPhone for information on a topic. Consider the keywords you use: are they conversational and local keywords? Does your key target persona use them regularly?

Make sure your keywords align with common phrases that your potential target audience would use in everyday conversations.

4. Ensure Name, Address and Phone Number Consistency Across the Web

To improve your local SEO on search engines, be consistent when adding your name, address and phone number (NAP) to your site, Google Business Profile, social media platforms and directories.

Be consistent internally and with external partners. If you’re working with a marketing or SEO agency, make sure that they have your preferred NAP information on hand. This information can be added to a “brand standards” document to ensure consistency.

5. Build Backlinks

Backlinks are an important ranking factor for search engines. Building quality backlinks is part of local SEO and should be done regularly.

There are several ways to build good backlinks:

Adding your business to local directories
Getting backlinks to your site on high-authority sites (e.g. Chamber of Commerce, industry sites)
Partner with other local businesses for backlinks (e.g. providing them with your services and they announce it on their site)
Get featured on local news, blogs, videocasts and podcasts

6. Use Local Business Schema On Your Site

Ensure you add schema markup (structured data) to help search engines better understand your business details, like your location, hours, and services.

Local schema includes “LocalBusiness” or “Place” and when it’s used on your site it can greatly boost your visibility in map packs and snippets in search results.

This makes your business stand out in search results, and more visible to potential clients.

7. Event Schema – For Local Events You Host

This is one local SEO activity that often gets overlooked by many small businesses. However, event schema can have a positive impact on your online discoverability. If you host local events, use event schema to highlight them in search results. This can increase visibility and engagement from local customers looking for activities in your area.

Get Help With Local SEO: SEO Agency In Oakville and Burlington

If all of these points on our local SEO checklist look Greek to you, luckily they don’t to us. We do local SEO all the time!

Optimizing your site for local discoverability can be overwhelming, especially if you haven’t been actively doing it over time. Add to that a SEO content strategy and your marketing activities can get very busy. Connect with us for SEO services – we serve as an SEO agency in Oakville, Burlington and surrounding areas. Let’s see how we can improve your local SEO so that potential customers in your area discover you.

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A Local SEO Checklist: What You Need For An Improved Online Presence