Stay on Top of Local SEO Trends Your Business Should Know

Every small business needs to have a local SEO strategy. That strategy will help ensure that you appear in local search results, bringing traffic to your business.

We’ve gathered the most important local SEO trends you should be aware of, so you can incorporate them into your strategy.

What Is Local SEO?

Local SEO is search engine optimization that helps your business appear in local search results. Local search results are when someone searches for something with phrases such as “near me” or “in [City].” These local results appear at the top of the search results page with a map.

It’s important to appear in these results, as many people who conduct local searches are ready to convert. In other words, your efforts in local SEO are highly likely to pay off, as you will attract people ready to buy your product or service.

With that in mind, what are some of the most important local SEO trends? The following combines trends and best practices to give you the most important advice to improve your rankings.

13 Local SEO Trends to Try

You will notice that some of these trends have been around for years, while others are new. No matter how recent they are, they are all important to include in your local SEO strategy.

1. Google Business Profile Optimization

If you aren’t already making the most of your Google Business Profile, that should be one of the first things on your local SEO list. Claim your business profile and make sure that all of the information in it is accurate.

Yes, Google Business Profiles have been important for a while. But they are increasingly important as more people use them to find a company’s contact information or check reviews.

Start with the basics, and then make the most of the other features on your Google Business Profile. Encourage reviews, use the questions and answers, work keywords into your descriptions, and add photos.

2. Encouraging Reviews

Reviews are one part of your Google Business Profile, but they are also an important SEO trend. Google tends to rank companies higher if they have more reviews and a better star rating. So, do what you can to encourage customers to leave reviews. You should consider using a service like Podium that handles this encouragement for you while making it easy for customers to leave reviews.

3. Listing in Other Directories

While your Google Business Profile is the most important directory, it is far from the only one. Including your information in many relevant directories will make your company easier to find and boost your ranking. Just confirm that the contact information is accurate and consistent across directories.

4. Video Content for SEO

Traditionally, SEO was text-based or image-based, but videos are officially an important part of your search engine optimization strategy. Videos improve engagement, and this is the type of content people want to see. But just creating videos isn’t enough.

You also need to set them up properly and use them to boost your SEO. Add keywords in video tags and titles. Consider making a smaller version of the video and adding it to your Posts on your Google Business Profile.

5. Multisearch

Google announced Multisearch in select areas in April 2022, and it is quickly becoming an important SEO trend, especially for local businesses. If you aren’t familiar with it, Google Multisearch lets users:

• Upload photos of products they want to buy, adding details that are different from the image.
• Take photos of items to see if there are matching accessories or pieces.
• Take photos of items to get additional information, such as troubleshooting or care instructions.

In addition to being a new way to search, Multisearch is commonly used by people with strong purchase intent. As such, those are high-value searches. This feature emphasizes the importance of uploading photos and having a solid keyword strategy.

6. Voice Search

Voice search is another unique type of search, although it is much better known than Multisearch. You need to optimize for people speaking their search queries on their phone or via their smart home devices.

7. Zero Click Results

Google is doing its best to provide users with information quickly, which, unfortunately, means a rise in searches that don’t result in any clicks. Even in 2019, roughly 50% of all searches on Google ended in users getting their desired information without clicking on a page.

This means that even if you are one of the first search results, you may not get the desired click. At the very least, they will see your company name, but that’s not enough.

Given this trend, do your best to develop rich, detailed content on your website. It can start with a simple answer that Google picks up and shares as zero click results. But by providing more detailed information on your website, you give people a reason to visit it.

8. Using Location Keywords on Your Website

One of the continuing local SEO trends is to include your location on your website. Specifically, you want to put it in strategic spots, such as the title tag, body copy, meta description, footer, and header. You should even consider putting it in the URL, especially for location-based landing pages.

9. Including Local Content

Creating content that revolves around your location is an excellent way to work in local keywords and make your website more interesting to potential customers. High-quality content will always bring attention; if it is locally oriented, it is more likely to be relevant to searchers.

10. Choosing the Right Keywords

As always, keywords, in general, are an important trend, and you have to make sure that you are using the right ones. Take advantage of free and paid keyword research tools to decide which ones to focus your efforts on.

11. Fast Loading Times

Your page’s loading time has always been one of the factors affecting your Google rank, and that continues to be crucial. With advancing technology, it may even be more important than before, as the expectations are higher.

Ideally, you want your website to load in two seconds or less. But the first five seconds are crucial, and you’ll get the best conversion rates by taking anywhere from zero to four seconds to load.

Remember that your load speed, directly and indirectly, affects your ranking. The indirect effect comes from its impact on your bounce rate, as people are more likely to leave your website if it doesn’t load quickly.

12. Prioritizing the User Experience

Ensuring that your website loads quickly is just one of the many ways the user experience and local SEO go hand in hand. You also want to ensure that your website is easy to navigate and that visitors can easily find the information they are looking for.

13. Mobile-First Indexing

Mobile-first indexing is a year or two old, but it is crucial. It refers to the fact that Google prioritizes websites that are optimized for mobile devices. Given the large number of people who use their smartphones for searches, especially local searches, being mobile-friendly is crucial to your user experience and bounce rate.

Get Ahead with Local SEO 

Some local search trends, such as using keywords and ensuring your page loads fast, are timeless. Others, such as Multisearch, are newer. Savvy local businesses will combine these strategies in their local SEO efforts to maximize their results in the new year and beyond.

You can even use tools to help you with some parts of your local SEO. For example, Podium makes it easy to gather more reviews on your Google Business Profile.