Local SEO marketing is vital to any SEO strategy that targets customers within a specific geographical area, city, or locality. Also, websites and online profiles can benefit from implementing local SEO by better responding to queries based on location.

However, despite the fact that modern local SEO is just an extension of traditional marketing and advertising, most local service-based businesses find it difficult to come up with the right local SEO plan.

When it comes to planning your local SEO marketing, it is important to keep in mind that although local SEO can be complex to deal with, it is built on the same foundation as conventional methods, and a clever marketing mind will go a long way in the long run.  The same remains true no matter what marketing industry you’re in.

If you run a local service-based business, creating a local SEO plan should be your top priority for 2023. If you are already doing this, consider giving it an update!

5 Local SEO Strategies to Leverage in 2023

There are several ranking criteria that influence your website’s position, and developing a solid local SEO strategy is what you need to step up your game. If you want to outperform your competitors on search engines, you need a comprehensive local SEO plan. 

Here are the most up-to-date best practices for local SEO that you should keep in mind for your service-based business.

1. Google EAT (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) 

Google puts a premium on search functionality for users, and E-A-T helps accomplish that goal by verifying the reliability of the website. It is the gold standard for determining whether or not a website and its individual pages provide actual value to the user.

Your customers’ or users’ experiences should assist them in taking your desired actions as well as benefit them. This builds trust since your actions reflect their interests.

Google usually gives more emphasis to web pages that give its users more value. This helps keep people interested in your site.

2. Focus on your click-through rate.

CTR helps you understand your customers by revealing what works (and what doesn’t) to reach your target demographic. A low CTR might mean you’re targeting the wrong audience or not speaking their language convincingly.

Today, ranking first doesn’t necessarily boost website visitors. Ads, inquiry boxes, and snippets abound on the SERPs. It’s conceivable for a top-ranked website to be covered by them. Focus on your CTR instead of worrying about this top rank by getting more people to visit your website.

Try experimenting with different headlines and meta descriptions. If you want a higher click-through rate, make sure to include this to your local SEO plan.

3. Create location-specific content.

Many people are interested in general topics, but only people in the same area are interested in local or industry news.

Even though it takes more time and planning, creating content that is specific to a location can help your local SEO a lot.

This means that in 2023, you’ll need to step up your game and start restructuring your content marketing calendar to include more area-specific content.

4. Image searches drive more traffic.

People search Google Images for many different reasons, and it’s not hard to get your images to the top of the list.

These days, a lot of web traffic comes from image searches, so if you don’t optimize your images, you’re losing out on a key opportunity to expand traffic to your website.

Your statistics will potentially increase if you incorporate this approach more into your local SEO plan. Use relevant, high-quality images with your own file names and alt tags to start optimizing your images.

5. Stay on top of your online reviews.

Online reviews are both a blessing and a curse for most business owners. Even though their importance cannot be overstated, it can be difficult to keep track of them.

As your business grows, you may get less-than-perfect feedback. It might be a misunderstanding, mishap, or negative customer experience. In the end, people run businesses, and people aren’t perfect.

You can’t control what people say about your company online, but you can control how you react. Plan how to reply to internet reviews professionally so you can monitor them.

In a nutshell, local SEO benefits your business in many ways. It helps in converting customers into brand advocates since its primary purpose is to generate sales.

Getting the top ranking and developing genuine customer relationships cannot be achieved solely by optimizing keywords and processes. That is why it is critical to constantly update and restructure your local SEO strategy, and employing the strategies we outlined above may help you reach your objective more easily in the year 2023 and so on.

Moreover, your primary objective for 2023 should be to provide quality content with your local SEO plan. If you do this, search engines will see your content as useful and valuable, and you will be linked to potential customers.

Using the right local SEO strategy for your local service-based business  is crucial to your marketing success in 2023. Are you ready to get started creating one? Contact us today!