Local SEO Practices to Widen Your Customer Reach

In today‘s digital world, one of the most effective ways for small, local businesses to attract customers is to show up prominently when people search for products or services near them. According to surveys by Search Engine Journal, 46% of all searches had local intent. With the disruptions of COVID-19 accelerating adoption of local search and discovery, consumers increasingly look to find stores and outlets in their geographic vicinity.

This trend manifests in search behavior data, which finds a prominence of "near me" style queries. A BrightLocal consumer survey discovered that 28% started their buying journey for home services on search engines, demonstrating this rising influence of local SEO visibility. Another key statistic comes from Uberall‘s Local Visibility Study, indicating 76% of respondents find online reviews important for evaluating a local business.

This guide covers 10 powerful local search engine optimization (SEO) best practices that you can implement to boost visibility and reach more customers in your geographic area.

Leverage Schema Markup for Rich Result Listings

Schema markup enables you to enhance your website with code that clearly tells search engines about your business name, address, opening hours and services offered. This results in rich result listings in the search engine results page (SERP), often displayed prominently in knowledge panels.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "LocalBusiness",
  "name": "Cloud Bread Bakery",
  "image": [
    "https://example.com/photos/1x1/bakery.jpg"
   ],
  "telephone": "+15555555555",
  "@id": "https://example.com/#organization",
  "url": "https://example.com/",
  "sameAs": [
    "http://www.facebook.com/cloudbread",
    "http://www.linkedin.com/cloudbread"
  ],  
  "priceRange": "$$",
  "servesCuisine": "Bakery", 
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "581 Market St",
    "addressLocality": "San Francisco",
    "addressRegion": "CA",
    "postalCode": "94105",
    "addressCountry": "US"
  },
  "geo": {
    "@type": "GeoCoordinates", 
    "latitude": 37.791139,
    "longitude": -122.4015565
  },
  "openingHoursSpecification": {
    "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
    "dayOfWeek": [
      "Monday",
      "Tuesday",
      "Wednesday",
      "Thursday",
      "Friday",
      "Saturday"
    ],
    "opens": "06:00",
    "closes": "20:00" 
  }  
}
</script>

According to Moz, rankings in the knowledge panel lead to a 30-80% higher click-through rate than normal organic results. By optimizing schema, you make it easy for searchers to find the most relevant information about your company location, hours, and services – perfect for enabling local discovery and visits.

Build Highly Detailed Google My Business Listings

Google My Business functions as your digital storefront on Google. GMB listings appear prominently on Google Search and Maps for related brand and location queries, directing customers to your website. According to the latest metrics, the average GMB listing gets over 12,100 views and 29 actions monthly.

Beyond basic information like location and opening hours, you can add detailed descriptions, images, virtual tours and posts to showcase what makes your company unique. Highlight your offerings, team, and differentiators to stand out from competitors.

With over 1 billion active monthly users, Google My Business puts your organization in front of more nearby searchers. Further, favorably rated listings appear more prominently in local pack rankings.

Get Customer Reviews on Various Platforms

84% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. By building an impressive portfolio of 4+ star customer reviews on Google, Facebook and industry-specific sites like Yelp and Zomato, you establish credibility in your field.

The importance consumers place on online reputation makes perfect sense given buying journeys today start digitally. For home services, BrightLocal found review sites were the 2nd most clicked on listing within Google local packs.

This social proof is invaluable in turning first-time visitors into long-term patrons. Encourage satisfied clients to leave constructive feedback showcasing your quality of service. Aggregate your reviews from across the web using tools like Yotpo to demonstrate widespread praise.

Create Location Pages With Integrated Maps

Having a dedicated page on your website clearly highlighting your company‘s location and contact information streamlines the process for people to find and get in touch with you. Embed interactive maps powered by Google Maps or Apple Maps to further ease navigation.

Implementing this best practice targets locals specifically searching "[your business type] near me" and looking for directions or on-site visits. Provide complete practical details like on-site parking availability to enable seamless customer journeys.

Build Local Links From Relevant Sites

Earning backlinks from niche directories, local sponsorships and partnerships, relevant groups and associations signals authority to search engines. It indicates an established, engaged presence in your geographic community.

As recommendations to consumers shift online, portraying credibility via digital word-of-mouth grows more valuable. Listings on sites like TripAdvisor and niche-specific portals drive discovery by new visitors and SEO traffic to accelerate growth.

Prioritize contextually relevant sites closest to your area when building links. Moz found that 82% of conversions came from the same metro area as the business itself, showcasing this local affinity bias.

Run Hyperlocal Social Media Campaigns

Social media presents a prime channel to strengthen your local community ties. From targeting nearby followers with Facebook ads to spotlighting community events your business sponsors on Instagram, regularly connect with residents around you.

Geotagged social content builds location-based brand awareness and recall for when people are searching or browsing nearby options. Further, promote key differentiators like product quality that motivate social shares and local word-of-mouth buzz.

Enable Recurring Customer Relationships

The success of local enterprises depends tremendously on building loyalty and retention with existing patrons. It costs 5 times more to attract new customers than keep prevailing ones, according to HubSpot Research.

Thus driving recurring business from existing patrons requires understanding their post-purchase journey and nurturing the relationship via email, social, direct mail and special incentives to return.

Examining analytics data on channel usage and designing tailored communications that delight people enough to come back expands lifetime value. Further, incentivize referrals to enable organic amplification via current customer networks.

Track Calls, Store Visits and Other Conversions

Monitoring clicks and impressions alone limits perspective on the true ROI generated from local SEO. To fully quantify impact, track phone/form submissions, in-store traffic and sales with tools like Google Analytics call tracking.

Acme Hardware Store

Jan 2021
Local SEO Strategy Implemented 

Organic Traffic
    - January: 1,233 sessions (+10% MoM)  

GMB Actions 
    - January: 2,342 profile views, 89 calls

Call Conversions
    - January:  47 phone inquiries, 23 confirmed appointments  

In-Store Visits  
    - January: 107 tracked visits 
    - 15 surveyed new customers cite "online search" as awareness channel

Measuring actual conversions vs. vanity metrics clearly demonstrates exactly how many more customers your SEO brings through the door. This complete visibility enables optimization of exactly which elements drive real neighborhood engagement.

Execute Multichannel Local Ad Campaigns

Beyond organic tactics, paid advertising lets you target prospects by location, affinities, demographic traits and more. Retarget those who visited your site or integrate special offers via text message.

Diversified ad channels like Google local campaigns, Facebook proximity ads, sponsorships of community directories and retail partnerships ensures your messaging permeates across key touchpoints when consumers are exploring "nearby" options.

Integrate offline techniques like direct mail flyers and in-store displays for a surround sound style promotion. Measure clicks, calls and redemptions by channel using tracking numbers or distinct codes to determine optimal media mix allocation.

Continually Optimize Your Strategy

Consistently evaluate engagement analytics to identify new optimization opportunities – from editing page titles and meta descriptions to adding long-tail keywords that rank well locally.

Regularly improving the visitor experience and doubling down on the highest converting tactics guarantees your local SEO sustains maximum impact over time, even as consumer preferences and algorithms evolve.

By implementing this comprehensive 10-pillar framework, local businesses can elevate visibility in critical "near me" style searches, engage website visitors, and scale up customer acquisition within their geographic sphere of influence. Each element reinforces the next, compounding visibility and community-based authority. With local intent commanding majority market share, sound SEO strategy targeted locally gives SMBs an accessible growth lever in today‘s digital era.