If you’re looking for how to rank your website in your city through local SEO, you’ve come to the right place with our local SEO guide.
Local SEO lets you reach potential customers within your coverage area.
Why should you build a local positioning strategy? Because it’s highly profitable for small and medium-sized businesses.
Why?
Because it gives them the chance to go head to head with the giants of their industry.
Ranking in the top results of a local search guarantees them visibility and credibility.
More than 80% of users run local searches. And, according to a Google study, 50% of these users visit a business the same day.
But what is a local search?
This is where things get interesting for businesses. A local search aims to find businesses in the area near the user.
This type of search is characterized by the user having an immediate need. They may need a service or a product, such as a restaurant, a hardware store or a pharmacy.
But most importantly: they’re looking for that service or product near their location.
Let’s take an example to understand this a little better:
- Juan, who lives in Medellín, needs to buy a liquid for his e-cigarette.
- Juan goes to Google and types “e-cigarette liquids in Medellín”.
- Google takes into account Juan’s location and search intent.
- Google shows Juan a map with nearby e-cigarette shops. Below the map, it shows online stores that ship to his location.
Google shows Juan the most relevant result for his search intent: buying e-cigarette liquids.
The same logic works for all kinds of products and services.
Elements of a local search
When Google understands that the user is running a local search, the results change.
The first thing Google shows is promoted results (if there are any).
Next come the map and the top three results. This is known as the 3-pack.
Finally, there are the organic results.
With that clear, let’s get to the guide:
Local SEO guide
Three things before we start:
- No two SEO specialists do things the same way. There’s no magic recipe for ranking your website. And, more importantly, you won’t reach first place on Google with little effort.
- It’s also important that your website has clear goals. In this guide we assume you want to acquire new customers.
- In this guide we’ll tell you how to rank on Google, since it’s the most popular search engine. But these steps will also help you rank on other search engines.
With that said, we’ve gathered some of our strategies and created a local SEO guide for you. These strategies have allowed us to rank more than 20 websites at the top of their industries.
Be consistent with your NAP
NAP is one of the most important elements of local SEO. It stands for:
NAP = Name, Address and Phone.
Everywhere you list your website, you must repeat this information without variations.
Watch upper and lower case, spaces in phone numbers, abbreviations. Everything.
An example of a proper NAP is:
Restaurante Felicidad
Avenida Siempre Viva 742
(4) 222 22 22
This information must be identical on every website and directory where it’s published.
What happens if, in some directory, we write “(4) 2222222”, for example? Google will think we’re talking about a different “Restaurante Felicidad” and not ours.
Register on Google Business Profile
Registering your company on Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is mandatory if you want to do local SEO.
What are the benefits of being on Google Business Profile?
The most important is appearing on the Google map. And by that I also mean being on Waze, Uber and every app that uses Google Maps.
You’ll also have a listing where your customers can leave public reviews. These reviews can’t be deleted or edited, but they can be answered.
How much does it cost to be on Google Business Profile? Registering your company and creating your business listing is 100% free.
If you haven’t done it yet, take the chance to register on Google Business Profile. And remember to keep your NAP consistent!
Do on-site and on-page SEO
To rank well in local SEO you need to follow some guidelines, such as:
- A descriptive, attractive and concise title: 55 characters maximum.
- A meta description with a call to action: 160 characters maximum.
- Quality content: don’t copy content word for word from another website. Create content that answers the title and the purpose of the page.
- Tag your content: use headings (from H1 to H6). They help Google understand your content. Important: use only one H1 per page.
- The right keyword density: don’t overuse the keyword you’re trying to rank for. Tip: use synonyms and related words.
- Excellent spelling: neither Google nor your visitors like bad spelling.
- Responsive programming: full adaptability to mobile devices is essential for ranking. In fact, if your website isn’t responsive, forget about ranking on phones or tablets.
- A short, descriptive URL: try to keep your URL to no more than 4–5 words after your domain. For example: yourdomain.com/local-seo-colombia.
- Quality photos: with “alt” and “title” attributes. The file name should be readable for Google. For example: restaurante-felicidad-tables.jpg.
- A consistent NAP: put your NAP somewhere on every page.
Embed the Google map on your website
Your visitors (including Google) need to know who you are and where you’re located. So it’s a good idea to embed your Google Business Profile location on your website.
You should do this at least on your homepage.
How can you do it? It’s very easy:
- Go to Google Maps and search for your company (your Google Business Profile listing must already be active).
- Click the side menu next to your company name and select “Share or embed map”.
- Select the “Embed a map” tab and copy the code.
- Paste the code on your website.
Create citations in business directories
A citation is a mention of your company from a page other than your own.
Directories are a simple way to create citations. Some are free and others are paid.
Business directories for Colombia include Páginas Amarillas, Colombia Empresarial and Tuibos.
However, depending on your market niche, you’ll find different specialized directories.
But not just any directory will do: you need directories, mainly Colombian ones, that are relevant to your sector and that Google considers authorities.
And remember:
Make sure you link your website correctly and keep your NAP consistent.
Create social media profiles
Good social media management is essential for connecting with your audience. But social networks are also very effective for creating citations and giving your SEO a hand.
Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, SlideShare, Pinterest, Tumblr: create company profiles on every network you can think of.
Again: don’t forget to keep your NAP intact.
Structured data, Schema.org and rich snippets
Structured data is content that’s invisible to users but visible to search engines.
This data helps Google thoroughly understand what your website is about when it indexes it. In other words: it makes Google’s life easier.
Good use of structured data can give you an edge over your competition. You can tell Google that a certain piece of text is, in fact, the name of your business (just like that).
For this data to be readable by search engines, a universal language was needed. That’s how Schema.org was born.
Schema.org standardized and simplified the process of marking up web content.
But what is structured data for?
Structured data doesn’t affect your page’s ranking by itself. But it makes your page look more attractive in search results. Google does this by taking that data and turning it into rich snippets.
If your page is more attractive in the results, your CTR (click-through rate) will increase. And since CTR is a ranking signal, your ranking will improve.
One thing leads to another.
Optimize your website’s speed
This is very important.
Google has made it clear that page speed is a ranking factor.
Make sure your design loads fast, is responsive and is readable. This is essential for your local SEO strategy.
You also need first-class hosting.
If you want to analyze your website’s performance, Google has a tool for you. Google PageSpeed Insights will analyze your website and give you recommendations to improve its speed.
Mention your city’s name
If you want to speed up your website’s local ranking, make sure you mention your city.
It’s an extra hint you’re giving Google so it understands your location.
If possible, include it in your titles, headings, paragraphs, URLs and images. Without overdoing it, of course.
Include your customers’ reviews
Your customers’ (real) reviews will help you rank even more strongly.
Especially if they give you 4 or 5 stars.
You can get reviews on your social networks, on your business listing or on your website. But it’s essential to include these reviews on your website (with structured data).
These reviews will be doubly useful. On one hand, they’ll help you rank better on Google. On the other, they’ll help you close even more sales.
It goes without saying: to get good reviews, you need to offer excellent service. And go further.
Run a periodic SEO audit
And once you’re ranked in first place, is it all over?
Well, no.
Your competition will never rest, and you’ll always have opportunities to rank for more keywords.
Understanding your website’s local SEO errors and opportunities is vital to staying in first place on Google.
An SEO audit is an in-depth analysis of the points that affect your website’s ranking.
Before auditing your website, forget everything you know about it. Take a fresh, thorough look at the content and the technical aspects.
If you need additional help, you can also hire a professional SEO audit company.
Need more help with local SEO?
If you want to improve your website’s local ranking even further, we can help.
Hire our professional local SEO services and dominate your local market. Write to us here.
