Search engines decided many years ago that serving results based on geography was simply intelligent. Thus was born the world of local SEO, which now features prominently in many search queries on mobile devices. With entire sets of algorithms built around the rankings of locally-relevant results, many brands have found new motivation to reach out to niche audiences. Whether you’re a small business or a large company seeking to break into a new market, there are plenty of reasons why local SEO can be a good investment. Today, we’ll review a few more steps you can take to boost your local SEO prominence in whichever SERPs you’re targeting.

Secure Your Review/Recommendation Platforms

When you’re pinging users with content, information, products and services, you want to be sure that your brand is accurately represented. For those who operate locally and provide products/services, having control over your brand’s reputation on review platforms is crucial. From Yelp to YP, be sure that you claim your business’ pages on each review portal. This will allow you to ensure that NAP info is always up-to-date, will allow you to more successfully dispute faulty negative reviews and will generate even more local SEO juice for your brand. In addition, being proactive when it comes to encouraging users to leave reviews in these places will generate more authority in the eyes of Google, Bing and other search engines.

Always Include NAP Data

Whether you’re managing one website or multiple websites for different locales, your NAP data is crucial. NAP stands for “Name, Address, Phone”, and should be included in multiple elements on each website. Many brands feature this info in the header and footer – along with any other relevant areas on individual pages and/or in content. NAP data not only is useful for associating your brand with various local results, but it also ensures that your company’s contact info is clearly displayed in search when users search for your brand specifically. Think of it as free (and very necessary) advertising that is crucial to the concept of local SEO.

Build Links Where Possible

Building links is at the core of SEO – why wouldn’t it also be relevant to local SEO? If you have the ability to do so, building off-site links on a variety of locally-relevant sites is yet another great way to ramp up your local SEO potential. Whether it’s local Chamber of Commerce websites, directories or newspaper/media outlets, more links are better. These associations between your website and theirs will not only boost your brand’s repertoire in general, but will also establish more local relevance with search engines. It also never hurts to build links on websites that aren’t local, as it still helps establish a sense of trustworthiness and authority in the eyes of these search algorithms.

Ramping up your local SEO game is fairly simple: target your relevant locations, start pinging users with meaningful content, and build as many locally-relevant connections as possible. By including your brand’s name, address and phone number; building links wherever possible; and securing/filling out your brand’s pages on review platforms, you’ll be well-positioned to grow and thrive in a world that’s increasingly reliant on local search results!