Local SEO Best Practices for WordPress Websites

WordPress is – without a doubt – one of the most flexible, open-source Content Management Systems (CMS) in across the world. Its rich functionality, low barrier to entry as well as unbeatable price tag (it doesn’t get much better than free, does it?) have all led to its meteoric rise as the Internet’s most popular CMS.

So, it’s definitely not much of a surprise that WordPress has been downloaded more than 32.6 million times or that it powers 43.2% of all websites.

WordPress is also SEO-friendly to the point where even non-techies are easily able to implement some simple optimisation techniques. This is great news for small local businesses which may not have the budget for sweeping SEO improvements, but still want to rank better in local search.

What Is Local SEO?

Local SEO is from traditional SEO in that it has the aim of promoting your physical business in local searches. In other words, it allows potential customers to find information about your brick-and-mortar shop in search results so they are able to visit in person.

When a person makes use of certain geo qualifiers in their searches, such as city, province, postal code, or terms like “nearby” or “near me,” Google recognizes the search as a local one and provides search results from that area.

Why Is Local SEO Important?

Local SEO is very important for a whole host of reasons. Here are some of the most important:

Rank Higher:

Focusing on local SEO optimisation will help your local business to rank higher in search results as well as boost your business’ visibility. This results in improved brand recognition, more walk-ins in addition to ultimately more revenue.

Make A Good First Impression

We all know that the more relevant your website is the higher it will rank in Google. After all, Google rewards those sites that provide stellar user experiences to the site visitors. By optimising your website for local SEO, not only will you rank higher, but you’ll also set the tone for those that plan to visit your company. Making it simpler for people to learn about your organisation, find your physical shop, and contact you is the key to improving sales as well as beating out the nearby competition.

Free Advertising

Whether you take participate in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising or not, the truth is that local search results are a free type of advertising for your business.

Think about it.

The information which you include on your website about your local business utilises keywords, persuasive copy, compelling imagery as well as reviews and ratings. This information is seen by individuals while they perform local searches and is made use of during the decision-making process.

Boost In Sales

A total of 78% of location-based searches generate an offline purchase. Those searching for local businesses actually want to spend their money in those physical shops. If you, do it correctly, that means more money in your pocket both on and offline.

Optimise Your Content

Your content offerings are the most valuable assets on your website. Having a great website structure, lightning-fast load times, and tonnes of security measures won’t help you if your content isn’t up to par.

So, before you can think about optimising your content, it is necessary for you to start with something which your audience finds to be valuable.

To do this, you’ll need to have a good understanding your audience’s pain points and also know how your products solve their problems. Once you understand this, you will be able to turn your solutions into all sorts of compelling content, from videos to blog posts to infographics, which keep them coming back for more.

Review Your Link Profile

We know, from recently conducted studies, that links are still the #1 most important ranking signal when it comes to localized organic rankings. The number of domains which link to your site, the quality of your backlinks, and the optimisation of your link anchor text are all strongly correlated to your local ranking.

Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing

If you would like to become an SEO expert then you need to do our SEO and Web Analytics Course. Read more about this here.