The Complete Local SEO Checklist For 2022

Before moving on to the local SEO checklist, if you’re a beginner, have a look at our local seo checklist 2022 which will make you understand that what is Local SEO, what its benefits are, what is the difference between local SEO & SEO, and so on.

In this checklist of Local SEO, we are going to share some simple steps that you can take to guarantee maximum visibility for your business in your area.

Optimize your website

1. Create a Contact Page (NAP) –

Today, people want more and detailed information about any business. You must make it simple for people and SERPs to reach you. To do this, clearly set up your NAP which represents 

• Name,
• Address, and
• Phone number.

This ought to be incorporated as crawlable HTML text on your site.

Remember, never include your NAP in an image- an image can’t be crawled from search engines like HTML text. If you have business in multiple locations, set up the business name, complete address, and phone number of each in the sitewide footer component on your site.

2. Make Phone Number Clickable on Mobile Devices –

According to a survey, most people use their mobile phones for local searches and 75% of local searches result in a phone call. Make it easy for those who find your website on mobile and are willing to call you directly. So, it is essential that your website is optimized for mobile devices. 

Basically, 50% of all web traffic happens utilizing a cell phone. If you want to increase mobile traffic on your website. Clickable phone numbers are one approach to utilize a mobile responsive site. A contact page to make it easy for visitors to contact you directly.

Google has a guide that can help to make a phone number clickable on your site

3. Add a map to your website –

Adding a Google map or location to your site is the big-time bonus to optimizing your website for local SEO. If your business has any physical location, create a contact page for visitors. It must include the name of the business, contact number, mail id, opening and closing hours, unique description about your store or business, positive reviews of customers, and most importantly your location map in the footer.

So it would be senseless not to add a map, especially when more than half of the people look into the location of a business on Google Maps. If you are having multiple locations of your business,  try not to copy content across multiple location pages. For a single location, create a descriptive about us page or contact us page.

4. Add Schema –

Add schema makeup of your location data to your website. Adding “Schema – a coding language or structured data” that marks your website with meta tags. Structured Data allows search engines to crawl and index your site. Schema is relevant for those who have physical locations for their businesses. Follow Google’s structured data guidelines to try not to appear to be nasty. 

Schema markup will help highlight local listing information on your site that Google may want to pull to populate a rich snippet for local search results. Schema markup will help highlight local listing information on your site that Google may want to pull to populate a rich snippet for local search results.

5. Optimize title tag, meta description, alt text, content –

With a solid handle of what makes a difference most in nearby SEO, assess your site. crawl your site to clean up the issues relating to: 

• Copy content.
• Duplicate pages.
• Accessibility
• Broken links.
• Indexability.
• Missing metadata.

You can lead SEO audits with SEO tools like SEMrush or Screaming Frog.

To get the best ranking for your website, optimize:

1. Keywords – As a local business, you should be extremely conscious about the keywords you want to rank for in significant searches. You might also find that “best website development company” is comparatively tougher to rank than “best website development company in Toronto”. Use keywords that are relevant to your business and have high search volume in your local area.
2. Title Tags- Include your geo-targeted keywords or keywords similar to your focused keyword in your title tag.
3. Meta Description- make sure you work on local keywords and use them in meta description if it is suitable for that specific landing page.
4. Image – Use alt text and caption to increase the keyword intensity.
5. Navigation – Make sure your website is easy to navigate with as few clicks as possible. Easy navigation can help users to find valuable information in just a few clicks. Building a detailed XML sitemap is always a good idea for large sites.
6. URL Strings – Include your focused and near-me keywords or location name in your URL. Like: /best-app-development-company-in-Toronto
7.  Make Phone Number Clickable on Mobile Devices – According to a survey, most people use their mobile phones for local searches and 75% of local searches result in a phone call. Make it easy for those who find your website on mobile and are willing to call you directly. So, it is essential that your website is optimized for mobile devices.

Optimize Google my Business

List your business on Google My Business takes a few minutes and it is one of the most important factors for Local SEO and gmb optimization checklist. When you complete your Google My Business profile, you give your business information to google and google will verify your address, name, phone number, and other information.

Once you have done with your basic information set up, upload photos & videos to your listing. Photos help give your audience insight into your business. They can see your staff, products, place of business, and more.

Additional checklist to optimize your Google My Business:

• Add the correct contact information on your Google My Profile profile.
• Mention opening and closing hours of your business
• Add photos and videos of your business on Google My Business
• Write a short description of your business
• Avoid copying content
• Answer all the questions and ask for reviews from the customer to more optimize your Google My Business profile.
• Link your website on your listing

Claim your Social Profiles

Social Media is the main part of Local SEO for sharing the localized content. Social media offers you a wonderful chance to hook up with the local market and communicate directly with customers.

But it’s not an easy task dealing with your representation on multiple channels.

To make things simpler, you can use a scheduling software or tool like Sprout Social to plan out your posts in advance. Meanwhile, social media offers infinite possibilities to generate linkless backlinks.

Google has explained that it doesn’t consider social media interactions (e.g. likes, shares, remarks) in positioning site pages, however, these can build a business prominence, which is a local ranking factor.

Build citations on local search engines, blogs, and local directories

Register your website on Bing, Yelp, Angi, and more. It is free, easy to complete, and another way to verify your business information. Yelp is trusted by Google.

Also, register your local business with trusted local directories and make sure to be predictable in the location details you are using.

Conclusion

For businesses that have a physical location and want to grow online and get more customers, Local SEO is necessary. Local SEO is detonating and includes numerous components that are vastly different from general SEO best practices.

Use this checklist to make significant improvements to your site’s performance in Google. Thus, don’t miss this extraordinary chance to appear in Local Searches and engage with customers in an innovative new way.

At Codepaper, we have experience in local SEO that drives good results for our clients. If you have any inquiries, kindly don’t hesitate to connect! Or on the other hand, in case you are searching for any idea regarding how your business specifically should move toward Local SEO, Talk to us. We’ll help you with Local SEO that works for your business. And, We’d be glad to go over how you can take your business to a higher level through a well-planned, exclusively custom-made SEO approach!

Here’s the complete local SEO checklist that will assist you with streamlining your site, market your business, reach more local customers, and increase your ROI.