Smart Strategies to Boost Local SEO and Win Customers

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing your website so it appears prominently when people search on Google for topics relevant to your business.

Some businesses sell products nationally or internationally, so their actual business location is more or less irrelevant to Google.

However, Google understands that many in-person services and businesses (like restaurants, chiropractors, etc.) depend on their physical location being critically important to searchers.

This is where local SEO comes in.

If your location matters to your customers (and Google), there’s a specific set of SEO activities you need to address to maximize your search traffic.

Let’s explore the elements that make up a local SEO strategy.

Google Business Profile, Citations, and Social Profiles

Google Business Profile (GBP), citations, and social profiles are foundational to building a strong local SEO strategy and improving online visibility.

A Google Business Profile is like your digital storefront on Google Search and Maps. It provides critical information such as your business name, address, phone number (NAP), hours, and customer reviews. Optimizing your GBP ensures potential customers can easily find and trust your business while signaling relevance and authority to Google. Regular updates, engaging posts, high-quality images, and user reviews can further boost engagement and search rankings.

Managing reviews and your online reputation through your Google Business Profile and other relevant platforms is critically important to your overall SEO efforts.

Google Business Profiles are often the most prominent results on the search page. They also consider the searcher’s proximity to your business—meaning the closer a searcher is, the more likely your profile will appear.

Citations are mentions of your business’s NAP details on other websites, such as local directories (e.g., Yelp or Yellow Pages), industry-specific sites, or social media profiles. Consistent and accurate citations build credibility and help search engines confirm your business’s legitimacy and location.

A key part of managing citations is ensuring your NAP information is as consistent as possible across every citation and profile you create.

Meanwhile, social profiles (such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram) extend your brand’s reach and provide additional trusted signals to Google. Active, well-maintained social profiles create opportunities for customer interaction, drive traffic to your site, reinforce brand recognition, and boost your prominence in search results.

Together, these elements form a foundational framework that helps search engines validate your business, connect you with your audience, and improve your chances of ranking higher in search results.

Basic SEO

Technical SEO

Technical SEO involves optimizing the behind-the-scenes aspects of your website to make it easier for search engines like Google to find, understand, and rank your content. Think of your website as a house you’re inviting Google to explore—technical SEO ensures the house is well-built, easy to navigate, and free from barriers that might confuse or frustrate your visitor (in this case, Google).

Key areas of technical SEO include:

• Crawling and Indexing: Search engines send out “bots” to crawl (scan) your website. Technical SEO ensures they can easily access all your important pages by fixing broken links, creating a clear sitemap, and avoiding “dead ends” (like pages with no way out or hidden content).
• Website Speed: A slow website annoys visitors and makes Google less likely to rank your site highly. Technical SEO focuses on optimizing images, reducing unnecessary code, and ensuring fast server response times.
• Mobile Friendliness: With more searches happening on mobile devices than desktops, search engines prioritize sites that look good and work well on phones. Technical SEO ensures your site is responsive and user-friendly across all devices.
• Security: A secure website (using HTTPS instead of HTTP) protects your visitors’ data and signals to Google that your site is trustworthy.

In short, technical SEO creates a strong foundation for your website so search engines can easily access, understand, and rank your content—ultimately improving visibility and driving more traffic.

Structural SEO

Structural SEO involves organizing your site so it works well for both Google and your potential customers.

This includes:

• Creating individual pages for each service, along with a Services overview page that links to them all.
• Highlighting your location(s) and contact information prominently on the site.
• Setting up staff pages or sections (if relevant).

An essential part of structural SEO is ensuring your site provides an excellent User Experience (UX). A site that’s easy for people to navigate and helps them find the information they need will also score points with Google.

Website Copy SEO

Content SEO focuses on strategically incorporating keywords—the words and phrases your potential customers search for—into your website. This involves:

• Page Titles and Meta Descriptions
• Headings
• Content
• URLs

A strong internal linking structure is also critical, as it helps Google understand which topics and pages are most important on your site.

With these best practices in place, your website will have a solid foundation. In less competitive industries, this might be enough to rank prominently. However, in more competitive industries, advanced SEO tactics will likely be necessary.

Advanced SEO

Competitor Analysis

SEO is often highly competitive. To succeed, it’s essential to analyze your competitors to identify their strengths and weaknesses. This insight helps you develop a plan to outperform them or focus on areas where they aren’t as strong.

Content Marketing Strategy

A content marketing strategy involves creating and sharing valuable, relevant content to attract and engage your target audience. For local businesses, this often means content tailored to nearby customers, such as blog posts, videos, or updates about local events and services.

Content marketing helps search engines understand what your business does and who it serves. For instance, a landscaping company might write articles like “Top Plants for Summer in [City Name]” or “How to Winterize Your Lawn in [Region].” Hyper-local content like this strengthens local relevance and boosts your rankings for local searches.

Advanced Content Categorization

For businesses using blogging as part of their strategy, advanced categorization techniques—such as custom category pages and a “pillar content” approach—can help blog posts and service pages rank more effectively.

Building Author Expertise

Taking steps to build the “authority” of contributors to your site and blog.

Link Building

Links from credible websites are vital for improving your site’s authority, especially in competitive markets. Opportunities for earning links include:

• Suppliers
• Sponsored organizations
• Colleagues
• Clients
• Industry-specific citations

A strong content marketing strategy can also naturally attract links from other websites, further boosting your authority.

Schema

Schema is a type of code added to your website that helps search engines understand your content better. It provides extra details, such as what kind of business you are, what products you sell, or when events occur. For local businesses, schema can highlight details like your address, phone number, and hours, making it easier for people to find and trust you.

AI – LLMO Optimization

With AI tools like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini starting to crawl websites and be used in Search, optimizing for these tools is quickly becoming a serious consideration in our SEO planning. I’ll share a separate post on that topic!

Conclusion

SEO is a vast and complex field—and it’s different for every business and website. However, by addressing both foundational and advanced elements, you can greatly improve your chances of ranking well and attracting the customers you want.