The Ultimate Guide to Local SEO Marketing for Your Small Business.

Understanding local SEO is simple:

If you’ve done local online marketing, you’re probably aware that the importance of local business SEO cannot be overlooked. After all, it enables your local business to promote its products and services to local customers in real time.

Understanding local search engine optimization is simple: apart from using search engines like Google, it uses popular business directories such as Yelp and TouchLocal. Hordes of customers use these Web-based services all the time to find the best local businesses in their locality. Local SEO strikes precisely when local customers need your offerings and want to buy them.

Thanks to the increasing use of the Internet on smartphones to perform searches, local SEO has witnessed rapid growth.

An important thing to know is that local SEO is different from organic SEO. It provides results based on the searcher’s current location. This is great because an increasing number of searches are looking for businesses closest to them.

What’s more? Local SEO can help businesses stand out in SERPs. Learning about local SEO is always helpful. The good news is that there’s tremendous amount of information available on this. We’re going to help you find it all in this post. Read on to know more about the elements that make local SEO work for businesses.

01 Local SEO Competition Analysis 02 Local SEO Statistics 03 Local SEO Infographics 04 Local Search Ranking Factors 05 Social Networks for Local SEO 06 Google Local SEO Updates 07 Why Local SEO Is Important 08 Local SEO on a Budget 09 Local SEO Site Audit 10 Local Citation Audit 11 Mobile and Local SEO 12 Local SEO Strategy 13 Local SEO Tips and Advice By Experts 14 Local SEO Tools 15 Local SEO Guide 16 Local SEO with Google+ 17 Local SEO News and Trends 18 Reviews for Local SEO 19 Local SEO Presentation 20 Content Marketing for Local SEO 21 Local SEO Link Building 22 Local SEO Questions Answered 23 Local Paid Search 24 Local SEO Multiple Locations

01 Local SEO Competition Analysis

Local SEO may be popular, but it is also intense and fierce. Business owners are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that their business features on the top of the local pack, leaving their competitors behind. It is, therefore, important to first know who your competitors are, where their citations and reviews are coming from, the keywords they’re targeting, and their rankings for those terms.

Local SEO is all about optimization, and once this is achieved, you fortify your space against your competitors. If this is not done, competition can take control of you. Local SEO Competition Analysis is, therefore, critical. Here are a few helpful posts to read in this regard:

Advanced Local SEO Competition Analysis The James Bond Guide to Local SEO Competitor Analysis How To Outrank and Outperform Your Rivals With Local Competition Analysis How to Perform a Local, Competitive SEO Analysis

02 Local SEO Statistics

No one can argue about the importance of ranking for local search. We know that local searches are likely to result in more visits to and buying from brick-and-mortar stores. Statistics go a long way in giving a clear picture of the industry. An increasing number of experts believe statistics help in developing strategy and in understanding user mindset. So basically, local SEO has a direct and positive impact on in-store traffic and sales. Several local marketing statistics available online prove the worth of investing in local SEO. Are you aware of them? If not, then you ought to take a look at the following few reads.

Local SEO Statistics Every Business Should Know 16 Stats That Prove the Importance of Local SEO [Infographic] 6 Local SEO Stats Every Online Marketer Needs To Know 21 Google Local Search Statistics You Need to Know

03 Local SEO Infographics

Creating infographics is an effective way to present information, numbers and research findings in an easy-to-understand format. Because our brain tends to understand best by looking at visuals, it only makes sense to develop more infographics to represent complex information in a simple manner.

This can be particularly helpful in local SEO as it isn’t an easy topic to learn with its confusing terms and practices. Local businesses can surely make the most of infographics that teach about local SEO is a more simplified manner. Here are a few helpful posts for you.

Top Local SEO Infographics A Simple Guide to SEO for Local Businesses [Infographic] Local SEO in 2016: What to Do & Not to Do [Infographic] Rule The Local Results: An #Infographic Local SEO Roundup – Experts Share Their Favourite Local SEO Tips The Ultimate Local SEO Guide [Infographic]

04 Local Search Ranking Factors

Local SEO Google results and ranking variables change constantly due to regular updates. Whether they are affected by mobile-friendliness, NAP, user reviews, or other quality considerations, SEO practitioners should be aware of exactly which factors are responsible for driving rankings in Google search results. Only those SEO practitioners that understand this can help businesses rank better. The following posts have more in this regard:

The Top 4 Local Ranking Factors for 2016 Explained Changing Local Search Factors Google’s 200 Ranking Factors: The Complete List Google Releases the Top 3 Ranking Factors The Local Search Ranking Factors for Dummies

05 Social Networks for Local SEO

Because search engines understand which websites are credible, one of the biggest challenges in optimizing local SEO is leveraging popular social platforms for better website rankings and position on search engines. The power of social media in promoting local brand awareness cannot be questioned. It is, therefore, important that you capitalize on these networks, whether it is Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+.

Making social media an integrating part of your local SEO strategy just got easier with the following posts that tell you exactly how to do so.

Leveraging social media for local SEO How to Optimize Social Networks for Local SEO 4 Ways to Use Social Media to Improve Local SEO Expert: Integrating Social Media into Local SEO Strategy is a Must

06 Google Local SEO Updates

Google local search results have become game-changers in the SEO world and it is interesting to see how authentic and organic listings get featured on Google’s first page (which is the whole point of it anyway). Being aware of local SEO and Google algorithm updates that are rolled out from time-to-time is crucial for SEO practitioners if they want to stay relevant. Posts like the ones listed below can make this easier.

Google 3 Pack Shake Up: 5 Ways to Adjust Local SEO Google “Pigeon” Local Search Algorithm Launches Local SEO Becomes Hyperlocal 2016 – A Year of Google Updates and Local SEO in Review Big update in Google's local search results Everything you need to know about Google’s ‘Possum’ algorithm update

07 Why Local SEO Is Important

An important responsibility of local SEO is to make your website easy to understand for local users and search engine robots. Local results make searches more relevant and useful for users, who always want to avail products and services located closest to them. Local SEO can make it easier for business to matter where they are in real time.

The following few posts highlight the importance and benefits of local SEO for businesses:

How Important is Local SEO to Your Business? The Local SEO Playbook To Increased Visibility And Customer Acquisition What is local SEO and why do you need it? The Importance of Local SEO in 3 Similes Is Local SEO Still As Important As It Was Before?

08 Local SEO on a Budget

We keep hearing about the importance of local SEO for businesses in a predominantly Google-driven search market. Most businesses, however, are under the impression that doing local SEO is a costly affair. This is not true and with little expenditure, local SEO can be used to increase a business’s ROI. If you’re running a new business that needs to stay within its economical means, the following few posts will be extremely helpful. They tell you how to do local SEO on a limited budget.

How to do Effective Local SEO on a Budget The Local SEO Challenge For Small Businesses 9 SEO Ideas for Small Businesses on a Budget 5 Basic Local SEO Tips for SMBs With No Budget Small Businesses Can Make SEO Work Smarter – On A Budget

09 Local SEO Site Audit

If you want your business to stay ahead in the modern competitive local market world, you need to first figure out where you stand currently, who you’re up against, and devise a winning strategy accordingly to get to the top. This means using the right local seo audit tool and conducting local SEO on-site and off-site in order to ensure that things are moving forward according to plan. This will also ensure that your website is saved from penalties.

The following posts can be of help in this regard:

How to Perform the Ultimate Local SEO Audit How to Do a Basic Local SEO Audit in 30 Minutes or Less How to Conduct a Local SEO Audit in 45 Minutes 12 Things To Check In Your Local Homepage SEO Audit How to Conduct a Website Audit for Local Business

10 Local Citation Audit

Smart local SEO practitioners know that having consistent and correct citations is critical to the success of local SEO campaigns. Time and again, digital marketing giants write about the importance of local SEO citations in ranking locally on Google.

In fact, citations are a crucial ranking factor, which is why it is necessary to have the correct NAP listed across major citation sources. The following posts offer tips on doing citation audits for your business.

Advanced Local Citation Audit & Clean Up: Achieve Consistent Data & Higher Rankings The Advanced Guide for Citation Audits How To Do A Citation Audit of Your Business

11 Mobile and Local SEO

It’s no secret anymore that going mobile can boost your local search engine rankings. An increasing number of people use their smartphones to access online information. In fact, the day is not far when the number of mobile users will surpass that of desktop users. It is safe to assume the making your website mobile-friendly can help your local SEO campaign as well.

Does Your Local Mobile Search Strategy Suck? Optimizing Your Local Presence for Mobile Search (and vice versa!) Local SEO is Going Mobile: Start Here Mobile Design and Local SEO: A Match Made in Heaven

12 Local SEO Strategy

Getting your website the eyeballs it deserves, especially with the constant search engine changes and increasing competition for local visibility can be challenging. However, with the right SEO for local business strategies, it doesn’t have to be that way. You should, therefore, channelize your time and effort towards upgrading your local SEO strategy. The following posts can help.

How to Have a Successful Local SEO Campaign in 2015 Local SEO Strategies 6 Local SEO Strategies For Small Businesses Local SEO Strategy For Multi-location Business How to Attract Local Customers: A Complete Guide to Local SEO 8 Tips For a Local SEO Strategy That Crushes Your Competition

13 Local SEO Tips and Advice By Experts

When things look queer and the chips are down, all you need is some sound advice from those who’ve been there, done that and fought against all odds to make things work. Thank god for experts!

This applies to local SEO as well. Let’s face it, SEO is cut-throat and complex, and we’re all bound to feel the need to turn to someone who can steer us in the right direction. Here’s some expert advice for you.

THE GUIDE TO LOCAL LINK BUILDING CAMPAIGNS How to Use Wildcard Searches for Local Keyword-Research: Lightning Round with Mary Bowling Anatomy of an Optimal Local Landing Page Infographic The Nifty Guide to Local Content Strategy and Marketing 20 Local SEO Experts Share Their #1 Ranking Tip & Local SEO Tools

14 Local SEO Tools

Local SEO may be just 2 small words, but their power is immense. And the last thing that local SEO is, is easy. You’re going to need help for sure. This is why we have local SEO tools. With the growing competition, it has become increasingly important to use the best of the available local SEO tools and ensure that you stay ahead of the herd.

Get a few recommendations and suggestions from the below posts:

Do you have the right local SEO tools for the job? The Complete List Of Local SEO Tools (90+ Free and Paid Tools) 10 Tools for Local SEO 20 Local SEO Experts Share Their #1 Ranking Tip & Local SEO Tools 10 Local SEO Tools for Small Businesses 3 Local SEO Tools That Are Flying Under The Radar Best SEO Tools

15 Local SEO Guide

Several businesses are finding local SEO to be increasingly difficult, especially with Google’s shift from seven to three listings on the local pack. Further, the presence of ads in the local space has done nothing to pacify the competition for local businesses. Ranking in the three pack in the future is, therefore, heavily dependent on your current local SEO efforts. Knowing about the key local SEO ranking factors (and also the negative ranking factors) is crucial. The following posts can help.

Local SEO: How To Rank Your Local Business A complete Local SEO guide for small businesses Local SEO Guide for Beginners The Beginner’s Guide to Performing a Local SEO Audit The Complete Guide to Local SEO An Introductory Guide to Improving Your Local SEO How to Rank a Website Locally: Local SEO Guide The Ultimate Local SEO Guide

16 Local SEO with Google+

A business’s Google+ Page signals (or any Google signal) have bearings on its organic and local pack results. Google+ doesn’t get its due when people discredit its impact. However, it cannot be denied that SERP ranking factors do affect Google my Business (and Google+) signals and your company’s organic rankings.

Leave Google+ out of your local SEO strategy at your own peril. The following posts will highlight this better.

How to Boost Your Local SEO Rankings with Google+ Local SEO with Google+ How to Help Your Local SEO with Google+ Local How to Enhance SEO with Local Google+ Page How to Pimp Your Local Google+ Page Google+ and local SEO

17 Local SEO News and Trends

A big part of succeeding in local SEO is being aware of the changes and new SEO updates that take place in this field. This way, your business can stay ahead of the game and you can anticipate future trend based on those from the past. This should help you strategize more effectively. Posts like ones listed below are always good to refer before your plan your local SEO activities for the year.

SEO for Local Businesses in 2016: Key Trends and Tips 6 SEO Trends to Watch for in 2016 12 Point Local SEO Checklist The Top 7 SEO Trends That Will Dominate 2016 New Study Reveals Top Local SEO Ranking Factors for 2016

18 Reviews for Local SEO

We live in the digital age when most consumers get their information online. Online data also comes in handy when they want to buy a product or service. So, you can be sure they’ll refer online reviews for your business before associating with you. This means it is critical that your reviews are positive and encouraging. Local SEO can help in this regard too. Don’t believe us? Just go through the posts listed below.

The importance of user reviews for local SEO Why Local Businesses Need Reviews and 12 SEO-Approved Ways to Get Them How Important Are Reviews for SEO? How Not To Ask For Reviews: A True Story About Local SEO How Online Reviews Impact Local SEO and Why They Matter to Your Bottom Line

19 Local SEO Presentation

Local SEO professionals and experts are always looking for ways to reach out to others in their field and help businesses make the most of local SEO. The following presentations are a useful step in that direction. You may want to refer to these SEO ppt to know more about what works in this field and what doesn’t.

Advanced Local SEO Presentation – Digital Dealer 2015 Conference Advanced SEO Presentation from SearchLove 11 Tips For Using Slide Presentations For Local SEO Advantage SMX Advanced Presentation: Local SEO Ranking Factors 2016 In-Depth with Local SEO

20 Content Marketing for Local SEO

There has always been tremendous confusion over whether or not local SEO marketing and content marketing fit together. People often ask if they work with or against each other. The following posts say that both can work harmoniously and blend together perfectly. Read them for further clarity on what is local SEO marketing and some useful tips on local search marketing strategy.

Make Content Marketing Drive Local SEO Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing for Local SEO The Nifty Guide to Local Content Strategy and Marketing 5 Ways Content Marketing and Local SEO Need to Mix 4 Content Marketing Strategies That Still Build links

21 Local SEO Link Building

When it comes to local SEO, local link and citation building can be extremely helpful. However, it helps to know which links will work for your website and which ones will harm it, and have a decent knowledge of Local Citation Finder tools. Further, having a robust link profile is crucial to your website’s success in search engine rankings.

If you’re not familiar with link building, you’re going to need all the help you can get. Check out the following posts for a more in-depth understanding.

10 Local Link Building Tips for 2016 11 Ways for Local Businesses to Get Links 10 Local Link Building Strategies For Small Business The Ultimate List of Local Link Building Ideas 6 strategies to build links for your small business website in 2016

22 Local SEO Questions Answered

Local SEO is hard and there are bound to be several unanswered questions that plague the mind of new SEO professionals. This is where the following links come into the picture. Get your questions answered by the movers and the shakers of the industry.

40 Important Local Search Questions Answered 68 Great Local SEO Posts of 2015 The most important question to ask in local SEO The 10 Most Common Beginner SEO Questions (And Answers) 6 Reasons Why Q&A Sites Can Boost Your SEO in 2011 (Despite Google's Farmer Update)

23 Local Paid Search

Optimizing Google Adwords and paid search campaigns can work for local searches and mobile devices alike. Paid-search marketers have devised strategies to accommodate the shift to mobile. This has, in turn, affected local search optimization with Google claiming that mobile users are more likely to visit a store after conducting a local search.

Marketers must make it a point to optimize paid-search campaigns for local search in order to drive store visits and purchases. The following posts shed more light on this.

3 Steps To Optimizing Local Paid Search The Pros and Cons of Geo-Targeting in Paid Search How to Succeed With AdWords New Local Search Ads Six lessons advertisers can learn from local SEO 5 BIG Changes Coming to AdWords: Everything You Need to Know

24 Local SEO Multiple Locations

Large corporations with multiple brick-and-mortar stores face the challenge of connecting with local customers online to encourage them to visit their physical store to make a purchase. While creating a Google My Business listing can help, local SEO can enable businesses to create user-focused experiences that include individual location-based landing pages for physical business locations and franchise outlets. This way, brands with multiple locations can turn user enquiries into store visits and purchases. Read the following posts for more on this.

Wrecking Local SEO For Multi-Location Businesses The Complete Guide to Local SEO for Multiple Locations Optimizing Local SEO Strategy for Multi-Location Businesses How to Target Multiple Locations with SEO Here’s How Multi-Location Businesses Can Compete Effectively for Organic Traffic

Conclusion

Local SEO has witnessed significant growth over the last few years. Because the use of smartphones and mobile Internet has increased, local SEO is bound to create a greater stronghold in the future. Local SEO does not work like organic SEO does; there are a few differences. If Google and other search engines want to continue to throw up relevant results and pull out pertinent information from the vast amount of online information, they need to rely on local-based results. The above links should serve as helpful guides to understanding the various aspects of local SEO.