9 Tips to Help Your Local SEO Effort Stand Out in 2022

As we all know, not all local businesses are created equal. If you live in a small town with a few good restaurants and a locally owned pharmacy, then sure, you’re in good shape. However, if you’re a small business in the suburbs, chances are you’re not getting the same attention as your small town competitors. That’s why it’s so important to have strategies in place to help your local SEO efforts stand out from the rest.

Unfortunately, because of the way the Internet has grown, many small businesses don’t stand out from the rest. If your website doesn’t have step-by-step instructions for how to set up your SEO strategy or your SEO articles or videos leave something to be desired, then your SEO efforts will not be rewarded with more business from local search engine crawlers.

Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to help your SEO efforts stand out from the rest this year.

Here are 9 simple tips to help your local SEO efforts stand out in 2022

Set a clear goal for your SEO efforts

Before you begin your SEO efforts, decide what kind of goals you want to set for your campaign. If you’re not sure where to begin, you can use this handy guide to help you brainstorm.

Set a clear goal for your SEO efforts and make sure you understand why your chosen goal is important to your business. If you don’t understand the value of your chosen goal, it’s hard to set a strong foundation for your SEO campaign.

Use relevant, quality content

Although you don’t need to exclusively write about local businesses, you do need to write content that’s relevant to your niche and targets audience. If you’re a photographer looking to promote your work, for example, you don’t want to write about how to compose a photo shoot for local businesses. Similarly, if your content has to do with the food scene in your town, you don’t want to write about how to find the best local restaurants.

In this case, it might be more beneficial to write about how to find the best photographer in your town or how to find the best restaurant in your city.

Use canonical URLs

By using a canonical URL, you can ensure that any page with a redirect to your site follows this format.

https://www.yourdomain.com

For example, if your domain is www.example.com, your canonical URL would be example.com. This is critical for high-quality SEO, as it tells search engines that your site’s documents are canonical and that any page that visits your site should follow this format.

Test your 404 Error Page

Last but not least, test your 404 error page to ensure that visitors to your site are actually getting to your location. If you have a homepage that says “No Page Found,” for example, you want to make sure that page is actually loading for visitors to your site.

Search engines like to see valid and updated content, so if you’re not serving this content to your visitors, then your SEO efforts are likely going to go down the tubes.

Use analytics to track your SEO efforts

By tracking your website’s performance with Google Analytics, you can ensure that your SEO efforts aren’t hurting your visitors.

For example, let’s say you have a website that mainly features product reviews. To optimize your site for SEO, you can track your product reviews’ Google PageRank (PUR) score as well as the number of pageviews each week.

You can also use Google’s SEO tools to help with your site’s audit. These tools provide you with plenty of information to help you optimize your site for better results from Google.

Be transparent about how your SEO efforts affect your bottom line

When you choose to go with a PPC (person-to-person) ad platform, for example, you might not want to talk about how many ads you’re running or the impact that has on your bottom line. These things, however, are important to discuss with your PPC representative so that you can make the best decision for your business.

Similarly, if you choose to go with an AI (artificial intelligence) ad platform, you need to be as upfront as possible with your decision-makers. For example, you might want to share that your campaign won’t be profitable this year and you’re looking at a price increase. These things, however, are less important to discuss with your AI representative since they have less impact on your bottom line.

Use relevant keywords

Keyword research is essential for any website. You need to find keywords that will bring potential customers to your site and that will also rank well on search engines.

Here are a few examples of relevant keywords for local businesses:

retail

stores

stores near me

near me stores

consumer electronics

When it comes to your keyword research, don’t limit yourself to using broad keywords. By using specific keywords, you can ensure that your content ranks high on search engines and brings traffic to your site.

Make your website local

When you choose to host your website on a mobile-friendly platform such as a mobile app or website, you help your SEO efforts tremendously.

By outsourcing your content to a third-party, you can ensure that the content is relevant and error-free. By choosing a local option, you can also ensure that your site is less likely to be censored by local authorities.

Use social media to your advantage

If you have a social media presence, you can use it as a tool to help your SEO efforts.

For example, if you have a Facebook page, you can post content related to your local businesses every week. By using this social media platform, you can reach your target market and create a connection with them.

Bottom line

As we progress into 2022, it’s important for small businesses to stay on top of their game when it comes to their SEO efforts. By following these 9 tips, you can help your SEO efforts stand out from the rest.