A Comprehensive Guide to Local SEO in 2024

Does your Northampton business cater more to local customers? If yes, then you must know how to optimise your site for local search engines. But before we provide you with a guide to local SEO, let’s discuss how it differs from organic SEO.

You might be happy to find out that local SEO is not much different from organic SEO. The only notable difference is that organic SEO has a much wider audience, whereas local SEO targets customers from a specific geographic area where a business is located. Local SEO also aims to make a business highly visible on local search engine results, such as Google Maps, local packs, and business review hubs. 

Why Optimise for Local SEO?

If local SEO is not that different from ordinary SEO, why should you optimise your site for local search engines? The answer is simple. Research showed that 46% of all Google searches are seeking local information. If your site is not optimised for local search engines, you’re likely to miss out on customers who are ready to buy in your area. 

Local Optimisation Tips You Should Follow

If you want to boost your site’s presence on local search results, here’s what you should do. 

1. Create a GBP page

Having a Google Business Profile (GBP) listing is your first step towards establishing a solid presence on local search results. With a verified GBP listing, you have the chance to be featured on the highly coveted sidebar space in Google local search result pages. 

To get the best results from your GBP listing, make sure to: 

• Keep your name, address, and phone number consistent throughout your online listings.
• Encourage customers to leave online reviews of your business.
• Respond to reviews while making sure to highlight your location.
• Specify your operating hours.
• Post pictures of your business.
• Share GBP posts on social media.

2. Improve your site’s internal linking structure

Improving your site’s internal linking structure is crucial not just for local SEO but also for organic SEO. It supports website navigation and distributes page authority throughout your site. Also, it helps Google’s search bots crawl and index your website while making it easier for your web visitors to find what they are looking for. 

To enhance your website’s internal linking structure, follow these tips: 

• Find and fix broken internal links.
• Ensure that visitors can reach a particular page within three clicks of your homepage.
• Link related webpages, especially the important ones, together.
• Avoid placing too many links on a single page. Otherwise, Google might flag your site as spammy.
• Add contextual links to your content. 

3. Optimise your URLs, headers, and meta tags

Any guide to local SEO will tell you to incorporate relevant keywords into your web content. However, ensure that you don’t leave out your URLs, headers, title tags, and meta descriptions. Adding keywords to them will improve your chances of getting found on search result pages. For best results, include geotags in your focus keywords. 

4. Add location landing pages to your site

If you serve local SEO multiple locations within Northamptonshire or have several stores within the region, it helps to create location landing pages for your business website. This will contribute to your site’s local SEO. What’s more, it can provide customers with relevant information about your business. 

When adding location pages, make sure that you don’t use the same content for all of them. Otherwise, Google might penalise your site for duplicate content. Instead, you should write unique product content or service description for each landing page. It also helps to add a Google Map to your location pages. 

5. Write localised content

If you want to attract more local customers, you should write about something they can relate to. While creating content about general topics can help you attract a bigger audience, writing about topics with a local flavour can help boost your local authority. Also, it enables you to target people who are more likely to buy from you. 

Here are a few examples of the local topics you can write about: 

• Local news
• Community gatherings and events
• Local festivals
• Industry guide and tips

6. Obtain relevant backlinks

Generating backlinks to your site is a great way to give your local SEO a boost. Incoming links send a signal to Google that your business is legitimate. Also, they help enhance your domain authority. However, when obtaining backlinks, ensure that they are from trusted authority sites. Also, they should be relevant to your business. 

You can get inbound links to your site by: 

• Writing and submitting guest blog posts.
• Sponsoring local events, community drives, and local charities.
• Creating quality content people would want to link to.

Make Your Website More Local SEO-Friendly

If your goal is to attract more local customers, optimising your Northampton website for local SEO will significantly benefit you. Not only will it help boost your local authority, but optimising your site for local search engines allows you to attract higher quality web traffic and more visits to your physical location. Consider the tips discussed above to improve your results. 

If you neither have the time nor experience, we at Springhill Marketing are happy to lend you our local SEO expertise. We can offer you the digital marketing services you require to build better brand awareness and attract more customers for your Northampton business. Please talk to us today!