Local search engine optimization (SEO) is expected to be more important than ever for small business marketing in 2024. As more and more people search for local businesses online, having an optimized website and online presence will be key to reaching potential new customers and driving sales growth. However, many small businesses still don’t prioritize their local search engine optimization efforts, often focusing more on outdated forms of marketing. If you don’t adapt to leverage local SEO this year, you could miss out on connecting with customers right in your area.
You Aren’t Optimizing Your Website for Local Keywords
When potential customers search for businesses like yours in their area, they likely use very localized keywords and phrases. For example, someone may search for “Italian restaurant Chicago” rather than just “Italian restaurant.” Make sure you do keyword research to identify these types of hyperlocal keywords and optimize your pages and content around them. This helps search engines understand your business serves a particular geographic area. Failing to include your city, neighborhood or other local keywords could mean you get buried under results from businesses in other cities.
Your NAP Isn’t Consistent Across Directories and Citations
NAP refers to the name, address and phone number of your business. Having an inconsistent NAP across key sites and directories can confuse search engines about your business details and location. For optimal local SEO, you need to manually submit and verify your NAP to over 50 directories, review sites and other locations, ensuring it’s always listed accurately and consistently. It’s tedious but vital work. If not, competing companies with more consistent NAPs can outrank you in local search and maps.
You Don’t Have Much Local Content or Engagement Signals
While technical optimizations are important, you also need lots of signals that show search engines real people in your geographic area are engaging with your business online. That means generating localized blog content, encouraging customer reviews, getting mentioned in local publications, linking out to neighborhood groups you sponsor and more. If a competing business has more of these trust and authority signals from the local community, search engines will view them as the more relevant option for nearby searchers.
Your GMB Listing Lacks Key Details
Your Google My Business listing has a huge influence on local SEO. But many businesses just create a basic listing without optimizing it further. Make sure to completely fill out key sections Google provides, like services, products, photos, attributes, menus and more. This shows searchers your business offers exactly what they want nearby. Also, regularly post GMB updates showcasing events, offers and news from your business. This drives ongoing engagement through the listing.
You Don’t Have Locations Schema Markup
Schema markup is code you add to your site highlighting key business details for search engines. There is specific local business schema markup you should implement highlighting your street address, opening hours and other location-based info. This makes your physical location clearer to search engines. If you only have generic organization markup without location specifics, search engines may struggle to connect your website to a place in the real world.
Your Site Isn’t Mobile Friendly
A growing majority of local searches happen on smartphones rather than desktop devices. So if your website isn’t responsive or mobile optimized, it likely provides a poor experience for nearby customers finding you through their phone. Technical snags like slow load times, tiny text or broken navigation can lead to high exit rates. And search engines may penalize you as a result. Make mobile friendliness a priority to connect with local searchers.
You Don’t Track Location-Based Conversions
Many businesses focus exclusively on driving more website traffic through local SEO. But additional traffic means little if those visitors don’t convert into paying customers. Make sure you have location-based conversion tracking implemented on your website, so you can monitor how many phone calls, contact form submissions, in-store visits and purchases are coming specifically from local SEO. If the numbers are low, look at improving your conversions rather than simply trying to drive more traffic.
You’re Wasting Budget on Outdated Marketing
While old-school marketing, like flyers, Yellow Pages ads and billboards still have value, data shows that hypertargeted digital marketing delivers a much better return on investment today. In particular, studies show $1 spent on Google Ads earns local businesses an average of over $2 in revenue. Despite this, many small businesses allocate the bulk of their marketing budget to antiquated offline media out of habit. Analyze what actually drives sales in 2024, then shift your budget into digital to maximize local SEO and paid search returns.
