The world of digital marketing is in a constant state of change. Search engines improve, their algorithms are updated, and new platforms keep popping up. In an effort to maintain a competitive advantage, you need to stay on top of these tendencies and change your SEO strategy accordingly. This is true for local SEO as well, but this aspect might be a bit more difficult as optimizing for local search also means ensuring your business can be found for several locations. To make this process a bit simpler, here are some of the most important local SEO trends you should follow in 2022:
1. Creating localized content
One of the best ways to optimize your website for local SEO is to generate high-quality localized content. A blog or a specific ‘news’ section on your site can be a good place for writing stories and reports pertaining to your local area and posting relevant images, particularly if your business is involved in these happenings. From sponsoring local events and sports teams to holding charity events and fundraisers, writing about any interesting local topic will help to build brand awareness and authority among local audiences.
2. Optimizing local pages
On-page SEO is a crucial ranking factor in terms of local SEO. To optimize your site’s content, it would be a good idea to create unique local pages for every location of your business. On each of these pages, it’s important to include as much location-specific information as possible, such as the name, phone number, address, working hours, map to the location, key products and services, reviews and ratings, promotions and special offers, etc. This will provide visitors with all the information they need when deciding on your business, but it’s also essential not to overwhelm them with too much information.
3. Making a linking strategy
When building a local SEO linking strategy, you have to ensure it’s highly specific and targeted to your city, as ranking locally will likely depend on the strength of your site signals for your specific location. Local directories can be of great help in this instance, allowing you to receive links quickly and without much effort. Links from your local chamber of commerce, links on the local newspaper’s website, and links from any other website that has your city name in its URL could be useful as well. But before you go after these links, make sure to analyze the quality of each website in advance to avoid any issues in the future.
4. Building a credible presence
In places such as Australia where competition is surprisingly high even locally, the trend of building a more credible online presence is rising. For that reason, local businesses often hire experienced agencies specializing in SEO from Sydney that aid them throughout this process and create the ideal strategies. Such professionals are able to build a trustworthy brand presence on the biggest search engines, increase qualified traffic to websites, and help businesses to rank higher for high-converting keywords, thus allowing local companies to improve their ROI and accelerate growth and success as a result.
5. Utilizing voice search
In countries across Europe, on the other hand, voice searches are rapidly growing in popularity, likely due to the increase in phone and smart home device usage. Most users now utilize voice search to find local businesses, outnumbering other methods. This means that you should begin optimizing your website for local voice searches as soon as possible regardless of your location, as this is an important local SEO trend that will only continue to grow in the following years. Analyzing natural language keywords and ensuring your content can answer questions people ask their smart devices can be effective tactics.
6. Expanding beyond Google
There’s no denying that Google is the most important search engine, but local businesses can benefit from many different platforms as well. For example, Yelp is great for increasing local engagement through reviews, Waze is effective at showing “billboard” style ads, and Facebook business pages are among the top spots for driving local leads. Combining these and similar platforms with Google in SEO strategies is a rising trend and a tactic that is bound to have a large positive impact on local businesses.
7. Encouraging engagement
Local platforms are slowly becoming more than simple listings for business information; they are now ideal for engaging local customers in unique ways as well. As a local business, you have greater chances of success in creating online communities where consumers can locate you, leave reviews, comment on your posts, create posts of their own, ask questions, use your hashtags, view products and offers, etc. This is a great tactic for building brand awareness and trust, so utilize platforms such as Google My Business, Apple Maps, Trip Advisor, and similar major players.
As algorithms update and local SEO evolves, so do the associated tendencies. Although building an effective local SEO strategy can be incredibly complex, the trends mentioned above are bound to bring success.