5 Ways to Improve Your Local Search Rankings

Improve your local search rankings!

If you have a local business, it’s important that you target the local community. The best way to do this is to show up in Google’s local search results. There are a few easy ways that you can improve your local search rankings.

Add Your City and State to Your Title Tag. Your title tag is the part of the metadata set in the <head> section of your source code. This is a bit of code that identifies what your website is about and is an important part of your on-site SEO assets. This is a very basic SEO measure to take, but you’d be surprised by how many small businesses leave this part out of their website’s code. By identifying your city and state in your <head> code, you alert Google and other search engines that your business is local, so it’s more likely to show up on local searches.

Add Your City and State in the <h1> Tag on Your Home Page. Every page of your website should have a unique header or <h1> tag. Including essential geographic information along with keywords unique to your business are a good way to help your website show up on search engine results. It essentially tells search engines that your location is just as important as the service you offer.

Add Your City and State to Your Website’s Copy. Mentioning your city and state in the first sentence after your <h1> tag not only allows search engines to see the emphasis on your location but also helps potential clients to immediately see where your business is based. You don’t have to mention your location several times; just once will work.

Embed a Google Map on Your Contact Page. Putting your address on your “Contact Us” page is good, but also embedding a Google Map is even better. It makes your page appear more dynamic to potential clients and boosts your search engine rankings.

Wrap Your NAP in Schema Markup. “NAP” stands for “Name, Address, and Phone”. Your NAP is one of the most important pieces of information for a local business. It identifies exactly where you are located within your city and state, right down to the area code and street name. When you are putting this information into the code of your website, make sure that you are consistent! So, this means that you need to decide on how you will format your NAP and stick to it. Will you have a 1 in front of your phone number or not? Will you spell out the word “Street” or abbreviate it? Making sure all of your contact information is consistent makes it easier for clients to find you on the web.

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