The Ultimate Local SEO Checklist for 2024

What Is Local SEO?

Local SEO is the process of optimizing your assorted online channels to summation your business's visibility successful section search.

To yet summation postulation to your online properties—like your website and Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business). And, improved marque consciousness among customers successful a circumstantial determination oregon region.

How Does Local SEO Work?

Local SEO overlaps with non-location-specific SEO, with immoderate cardinal differences.

Google wants to service the champion imaginable effect for each hunt query, and the accustomed ranking factors use here, too. Factors similar the meaning of the query and contented quality. 

On apical of these ranking signals, section hunt algorithms instrumentality into relationship further factors, specified as:

• Relevance: How applicable your Google Business Profile is to what someone’s looking for
• Distance: How acold the concern is from the user’s location
• Prominence: How important the determination whitethorn beryllium to the customers and visitors successful the existent world. For example, a celebrated landmark is apt to fertile precocious successful section hunt results applicable to the location.

Another important quality betwixt “regular” and section results is peculiar features appearing erstwhile searching for thing locally.

You’ll spot regular bluish substance results similar this:

And a local pack (also known arsenic “map pack” oregon “3-pack”) that displays 3 top-ranking Google Business Profiles:

The quality betwixt these 2 results is that integrated results amusement website results, and the representation battalion shows Google Business Profile results. 

Optimize some to fertile good locally. 

Why Local SEO Is Important for Your Business

Effective SEO requires time, effort, and perchance finances—especially if you opt for nonrecreational assistance oregon put successful SEO tools. However, it tin often beryllium a much economical solution than paid advertising.

As your website gains prominence successful hunt results, much visitors volition research some your website and Google Business Profile. 

Increased visibility tin mean much customers, yet contributing to your concern growth.

Local SEO Checklist

This local SEO checklist consists of 14 tasks to assistance you physique a coagulated SEO instauration for your website and summation your chances of ranking for applicable hunt terms.

Pick Target Keywords for Local Search

Optimize your website and Google Business Profile for the main keywords related to your business.

That means discovering the keywords your customers benignant into hunt engines to find you. Because if you optimize your websites for keywords nary 1 is looking for, your website won’t amusement up successful effect to your customers' queries.

Start your keyword probe with a effect keyword—a wide word oregon operation successful your niche to usage arsenic a starting constituent to make a excavation of keyword ideas.

Imagine you’re a florist successful San Diego, California.

An illustration of a effect keyword would beryllium “San Diego florist.”

The Keyword Overview instrumentality helps you analyse this keyword and spot however galore radical successful your country hunt for it each month. Follow on with a escaped Semrush trial. 

Enter “San Diego florist” into the Keyword Overview tool.

Select your business’s determination and click “Search.”

The instrumentality provides cardinal information, specified arsenic Volume. Which is however galore radical hunt for this circumstantial keyword successful your area.

Also look at:

• Keyword Difficulty (KD): A measurement of however hard it whitethorn beryllium to fertile for this keyword connected a standard from 0-100%
• Intent: The crushed a idiosyncratic is searching for this keyword. For example, “Commercial Intent” tin mean the idiosyncratic is doing last probe earlier purchasing.

Now, let’s find much akin keywords. 

Scroll down to the “Keyword ideas” section.

At the bottommost of the “Keyword Variations” column, click “View each keywords.”

To spot a database of keyword variations.

Here, find keywords that are applicable to your business.

For example, if you’re a florist who offers wedding angiosperm services, “wedding florist san diego” could beryllium a people keyword for you. 

But if you’re not a wholesale florist, it won’t marque consciousness to people keywords similar “wholesale florist san diego.”

Learn much astir uncovering the champion keywords for your concern successful our keyword probe guide. 

In the adjacent measurement of our section SEO checklist, we’ll locomotion done creating pages to people these keywords.

Create Landing Pages for Target Keywords

The homepage of your website should people your main keyword radical related to your business.

Following the florist illustration above, your main keyword radical could be:

• florist
• floral store San Diego
• flower shop

And akin keywords.

But, your probe whitethorn uncover galore different keyword groups.

For example:

• Wedding: Wedding flowers San Diego, wedding florist, wedding angiosperm decorations, etc.
• Sympathy: Sympathy flowers, bereavement flowers, condolence angiosperm arrangements, etc.
• Birthday: Birthday flowers, day flowers delivery, etc.

Each of these keyword groups could person a abstracted landing page.

Creating landing pages whitethorn look overwhelming, particularly if you request to make a batch of them. 

The Landing Page Builder app makes that process effortless, nary coding acquisition needed. 

Simply take a template, drag-and-drop elements, and edit content.

Go to Landing Page Builder.

Click “Create your archetypal landing page.”

You’ll spot a room of customizable templates.

In the hunt barroom connected the left, benignant “Flower” to filter your results. 

Once you find a template you like, hover implicit it and click “Use template.”

Name your landing page—this accusation won’t beryllium public. It’s for you to usage to easy find and signifier your landing leafage designs.

Next, click “Start editing.”

You’ll spot a mockup of your landing leafage with instructions connected however to edit it.

Click connected the elements you privation to edit and commencement adding your content.

Don’t hide to scroll down to the bottommost and edit the full page.

Once you’re done, click “Publish.”

Your leafage won’t beryllium unrecorded connected your website. It’s published connected a trial domain. Your customers won’t spot it yet, but you tin easy preview and stock it with different squad members for feedback.

Click connected the nexus to spot your page.

Once you’re happy, people the leafage connected your website.

Return to the erstwhile tab wherever you were editing your page.

You’ll spot 3 options for publishing:

• Publish to a customized subdomain
• Publish with WordPress
• Embed connected a server

The instrumentality volition locomotion you done the elaborate step-by-step publishing process for each option.

Further reading: What Is a Landing Page? Landing Page Examples + Guide

Optimize Landing Pages for Target Keywords

Also known arsenic on-page SEO, communal tasks see optimizing for hunt intent, rubric tags, interior links, and URLs.

Search engines look astatine these elements to fig retired what benignant of contented is contiguous connected your page. By helping them recognize your content, you summation your chances of ranking well. 

But you don’t person to negociate this manually. Semrush’s On Page SEO Checker analyzes your website’s landing pages for you and provides a database of suggestions. 

Here’s however it works:

First, prime an existing task from the dropdown wrong the tool. Or create a caller project. 

Select your determination and click “Continue.”

In the tab enactment astatine the top, take “Manually” to manually adhd pages and keywords to check.

Enter a leafage you privation to optimize and specify the people keyword. Click “Add Page.”

Continue adding pages and keywords. Once you finish, click “Collect ideas.”

The instrumentality volition make an on-page investigation for you.

Click the fig wrong the graph ellipse to spot ideas. In this example, “198.”

Review and instrumentality these suggestions to assistance heighten your website’s online presence.

Check Your Site for Technical Issues

Technical SEO involves idiosyncratic acquisition factors. Like making your website faster and easier to usage connected mobile devices.

Check your website’s wellness with Semrush’s Site Audit tool.

Follow these configuring instructions to acceptable up a crawl of your website.

Site Audit volition tally a elaborate investigation of your website’s SEO wellness and supply suggestions.

Let’s explore. 

From the overview section, click “Issues.”

Issues are grouped into 3 categories based connected the level of importance:

• Errors: Issues with the highest severity and imaginable antagonistic interaction connected your website health. These are your apical priority. 
• Warnings: These issues person mean severity. Fix these aft dealing with errors.
• Notices: Compared to errors and warnings, notices person the lowest severity. And usually incorporate accusation users mightiness find utile for improving their website. But they don’t impact the wellness people successful Site Audit.

For example, duplicate rubric tags and duplicate meta descriptions are “Errors” showing that 2 oregon much pages person the aforesaid rubric tags oregon meta descriptions. This is an contented due to the fact that it tin interaction click-through complaint (CTR) and confuse hunt engines astir what’s connected your site.

Review these pages and make unsocial tags for each leafage connected the list.

After implementing the changes connected your website, re-run the Site Audit to guarantee these fixes were successful.

Ensure Your Site Is Mobile-Friendly

A mobile-friendly tract is simply a cardinal Google ranking factor. The hunt motor uses mobile-first indexing for each sites, which means it prioritizes crawling and ranking the mobile mentation earlier the desktop mentation of your site. 

Three communal ways of configuring your website for mobile are:

• Responsive design: A benignant of plan that automatically adjusts to antithetic surface sizes. Google recommends this due to the fact that it’s the easiest to maintain.
• Dynamic serving: The URL remains the same, but antithetic HTML is shown based connected the device. Google prefers responsive plan implicit dynamic serving. Because dynamic serving sites tin sometimes show the incorrect leafage to the user.
• Different URLs: Having abstracted URLs for mobile and desktop versions (e.g., “domain.com” and “m.domain.com”). This method tin beryllium rather hard to negociate and tin origin method problems with duplicate content.

Assess the authorities of the mobile mentation of your website with Google’s PageSpeed Insights.

Go to the instrumentality and participate your domain.

Click “Analyze.”

You’ll spot a wide overview of the authorities of your mobile website.

Scroll down to spot a database of suggestions and explanations connected however to hole them.

Some of the issues volition beryllium casual to fix.

For example, “Properly size images” gives you recommendations connected which images request to beryllium downsized. 

By downsizing images, you alteration the leafage load velocity of your website, which tin person a affirmative effect connected your website’s idiosyncratic experience.

When it comes to much analyzable issues—like “Reduce unused Javascript”—you whitethorn request to enactment with a developer to hole them.

Further reading: The Complete Guide to Mobile SEO: 8 Tips & Best Practices

Implement Local Schema Markup

Schema markup (also called structured data) is codification designed to assistance hunt engines amended recognize and contiguous your content.

Structured information tin summation your chances of ranking successful Google’s precocious hunt features, specified arsenic affluent snippets, cognition panels, and affluent cards.

With local schema, you’ll statement your concern name, address, interaction information, opening hours, and different utile bits of information. Which volition look similar this:

Use Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper to make the schema codification you request to adhd to your website.

Head to the tool, prime “Local Businesses,” and participate your domain.

Click “Start Tagging.”

Select the information of your website to people and take the due tag from the dropdown menu. In this case, it’s “Telephone”:

As you people up your website, the information volition amusement up connected the close of your screen.

Once finished, click “Create HTML.”

Then, click “Download.”

Add the downloaded record to the root codification of your website, successful the <head> conception of the leafage wherever you privation to adhd schema. 

Improve Internal Linking

Internal links link your website’s pages to 1 another. They’re important due to the fact that they walk authorization and assistance hunt engines and users find their mode done your website.

Improve your interior linking strategy with the assistance of the Site Audit tool.

Under “Thematic Reports,” click “View Details” successful the “Internal Linking” section.

You’ll spot a database of suggestions.

For example, hunt engines and users mightiness not scope pages that person a leafage crawl extent of much than 3 clicks. Page crawl extent refers to however galore clicks it takes for hunt engines and users to scope a definite leafage from the location page.

Pages with important contented should person a little crawl depth. Improve this by linking to them much prominently.

Set up Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile (GBP), formerly called Google My Business, is simply a escaped instrumentality that allows concern owners to power however their concern accusation appears successful Google’s properties similar Search, Maps, and Shopping.

This is what a GBP looks like:

To make yours, spell to Google Maps and click connected the paper button.

Click “Add your business.”

You’ll beryllium asked to log successful to your Google account.

Once you log in, participate your concern name, type, class and concern address. 

Google volition springiness you a database of perchance duplicate listings based connected the concern sanction and address.

If immoderate of the listings amusement your concern name, prime it and click “Next” to travel instructions connected claiming your GBP.

If not, prime “This doesn’t match” and click “Next.”

Then, adhd your concern interaction information.

You tin subscribe to person updates and recommendations for improving your GBP. Once acceptable up, you’ll request to verify your listing.

If your listing has a carnal location, you’ll request to verify via “Postcard by mail.” You’ll person a postcard with a five-digit codification to participate erstwhile you log into your account.

If you don’t person a carnal location, verify done a telephone call, email, video recording, oregon unrecorded video call.

For a much elaborate walkthrough of mounting up your GBP account, caput implicit to our detailed Google Business Profile guide.

Optimize Your Google Business Profile

Optimizing your Google Business Profile tin summation your visibility successful hunt results. This is an ongoing process that includes: 

• NAP consistency: Ensure your name, address, and telephone fig (NAP) are close and accordant crossed antithetic online platforms, similar your website, GBP, and online directories
• Write a concern description: Provide a applicable statement of your concern and what benignant of services you offer. Mention your superior keyword successful the description—but don’t overdo it—and marque definite the contented has a earthy flow.
• Add images: Include images of your business, your products and services, and your store/physical determination if you person one
• Respond to reviews: Reviews are indispensable for your reputation. Respond to some affirmative and antagonistic reviews, but stay nonrecreational and respectful toward your customers.
• Add questions and answers: Answer communal questions upfront and besides alteration customers to inquire questions themselves. By answering these questions, you’ll beryllium capable to supply up-to-date information.
• Publish Google posts: Create posts astir products, services, events, and offers straight successful your GBP profile

Use Semrush’s Listing Management instrumentality to assistance you enactment up to day with your GBP.

Enter your concern name. Then, prime your concern successful the drop-down menu.

You’ll get an overview of your section online presence.

Listing Management tin assistance you amended NAP consistency, way keywords, respond to reviews connected respective antithetic listings from a azygous interface, and more.

Get More Customer Reviews and Testimonials

Good reviews assistance you summation credibility.

Even atrocious reviews tin beryllium beneficial to your concern listing. Because they supply penetration into improvements you tin marque to summation lawsuit satisfaction.

Additionally, erstwhile a listing has spotless reviews, users mightiness find it untrustworthy and presume the concern is paying for affirmative reviews. 

Google confirms this:

Customers find a premix of affirmative and antagonistic reviews much trustworthy. You tin ever respond to a reappraisal to amusement the customers that you attraction and supply further context.

Here are immoderate ideas connected how to cod reviews:

• Remind your customers to permission a reappraisal aft they implicit a acquisition successful person
• Create a link and stock it with customers successful emails, receipts, and unrecorded chat interactions
• Share your stellar reviews connected your societal media platforms and website

Don’t hide to reply your reviews.

When you person a bully review, amusement your appreciation and convey the lawsuit for taking the clip to stock their experience.

When you person a atrocious review, enactment nonrecreational and respectful. Based connected the situation, you should:

• Apologize if you deliberation you made the mistake
• Investigate if you don’t person capable information—talk to the customer, your staff, and others progressive to measure the situation
• Use the feedback to amended your products and services

Semrush’s Review Management instrumentality allows you to negociate reviews crossed aggregate listings from a azygous interface.

For example, if you privation to find communal antagonistic reviews that look successful respective of your concern locations, take “Filter reviews” and prime the “Negative reviews” filter.

Build Local Backlinks

Link building is the process of obtaining links from different websites to yours. Backlinks are 1 of the cardinal factors Google uses to measure however to fertile antithetic websites and pages.

Links service arsenic “votes of confidence.” The much prime backlinks your website has, the amended your chances of ranking well.

Here are immoderate ideas connected however to physique section backlinks:

• Press releases: Issue a press release astir your concern opening/new determination opening/new work and administer it to section media
• Collaborate with section bloggers: Invite section bloggers to your adjacent concern lawsuit and inquire them to stock the acquisition connected their website
• Create a section guide: Create a assets connected your website that lists retired section attractions oregon museums. Reach retired to section websites, media outlets, and tourism board(s) and inquire them to diagnostic it.

Semrush’s Link Building Tool identifies caller opportunities for gaining backlinks.

Click “+ Create project.”

Enter your domain and sanction your project. Then, click “Create project.”

Add your people keywords and click “Keywords.”

Then, adhd up to 10 competitors.

When you finish, click “Start Link Building.”

You’ll get a database of prospects to scope retired to for nexus building.

Select the ones you privation to scope retired to and click “To In Progress” to commencement an outreach campaign.

To spot the prospects you saved, scroll up and click connected the “In Progress” tab.

The Link Building Tool volition find a fewer email addresses that are associated with this circumstantial domain.

Click “Contact” to nonstop the email close from Semrush’s interface (after connecting your email service).

Confirm the recipient email, scroll down, and commencement drafting. 

When you’re done, click “Send and proceed to next.”

Your email volition beryllium sent to this prospect, and you tin determination connected to the adjacent one. 

Build Local Citations

Local citations are online references of your concern that see your interaction information. Like concern directories, idiosyncratic reappraisal websites, etc.

These websites sometimes make listings connected their own. To update them, you’ll request to assertion them and verify you’re the owner.

Here’s an illustration of a section citation:

In this example, Yelp generated a section citation for the business, and the proprietor didn’t assertion the citation. That means that the accusation successful this listing mightiness beryllium inaccurate.

Having accordant accusation crossed antithetic platforms helps:

• Your customers find the astir up-to-date accusation astir your business
• You physique links to your website done section citations

Semrush’s Listing Management instrumentality helps you find existing citations and caller opportunities. 

It volition amusement you wherever your accusation is incorrect arsenic good arsenic websites wherever your concern isn’t featured yet.

Click “Continue setup” to get your information automatically distributed crossed these online directories.

Enter your concern accusation and click “Start distributing info.”

The instrumentality volition commencement automatically distributing your info to section citations. Track them from the tool’s interface.

Additionally, you’ll get a database of recommendations to amended your section SEO efforts.

Optimizing your societal media channels tin assistance your profiles fertile successful hunt results.

Like this:

Your societal media enactment and show won’t impact the rankings of your website and GBP profile. But it tin impact whether your societal media profiles fertile successful hunt results.

Plus you’ll person a higher share of voice successful hunt results. Meaning that your online properties fertile much than erstwhile for a circumstantial keyword, similar successful the illustration above.

Social media posts, arsenic good arsenic profiles, tin fertile for non-branded searches, too.

Here’s an illustration of a TikTok and YouTube station ranking.

By pursuing a regular publishing schedule, you’ll prosecute and turn your section assemblage and amended your social media SEO.

Here are a fewer ideas to get you started:

• Repost user-generated contented (UGC) your customers created
• Share affirmative testimonials from your customers
• Publish astir your discount codes and coupons
• Share behind-the-scenes video (e.g., however you marque oregon bundle a product)
• Publish a adjuvant extremity connected however to usage your product

Semrush Social, a suite of societal media tools, tin assistance you streamline your workflows.

Use the instrumentality to:

• Manage incoming messages, mentions, and comments connected Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. And reply them straight from Semrush’s platform.
• Analyze metrics for your LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram accounts
• Follow your competitors’ metrics and comparison them to yours
• Maintain a accordant posting docket connected Instagram, Google Business Profile, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, Facebook, and Pinterest by scheduling posts without leaving the platform

Track Your Keywords

Measuring your show volition assistance you marque informed decisions connected improvements you tin marque to scope your goals.

Semrush’s Position Tracking instrumentality tin assistance you easy way and negociate your people keywords. 

Here’s how:

Go to Position Tracking and click “Create project.”

Enter the website and concern name.

Specify:

• Search motor to fertile keywords for
• Device to fertile keywords for
• Business location
• Language
• Full concern sanction to way the section representation pack

Then, click “Continue To Keywords.”

Enter the keywords you privation to track. Then, click “Start Tracking.”

In the “Rankings Overview,” the instrumentality volition amusement you which pages fertile for each keyword their respective position. 

Now, you’re capable to way presumption changes implicit clip arsenic you proceed to amended your website’s section SEO.

Create customized triggers to cognize erstwhile your positions alteration notably. So you tin support way of your campaigns without having to cheque your projects successful Semrush manually. 

Here’s how.

Scroll to the apical of the page. In the top-right corner, click the alert button.

Now, customize your trigger.

Click the “Enter the top” to spot antithetic options.

Choose what you privation to track. Click “Add my archetypal trigger.”

You’ll present person alerts whenever a keyword you’re tracking leaves the apical 10 results.

This broad section SEO checklist template mightiness look daunting, but you don’t person to bash it each alone. Let Semrush bash the hard enactment for you. 

When you motion up for a free Semrush account, you’ll get entree to:

• The Keyword Overview instrumentality to assistance you observe the close keywords to target
• The Link Building Tool to easy find and measure prospects for outreach
• The Site Audit instrumentality which volition assistance you support bully method wellness of your website
• And a batch more

Get started today.