Website Local SEO Guide - How to Update Your Website to Rank Locally

If you're reading this sentence, it's highly likely that you know about local SEO and its impact that it could have on your local business.
You may have already completely optimized your Google Business Profile , but you may not be seeing the traction you'd like.
This is because in order to have and maintain strong rankings in Google Maps, you have to have a strong, optimized website backing it up.
With all of the recent changes to local Google search, it's crucial that your website should serve to support and promote your Google Business Profile more so than try to rank purely through its own organic rankings by itself.
This means properly targeting your city, creating service area pages, embedding your GBP profile and making sure to apply great SEO practices on your website.
We explain it all step-by-step in the video below, but keep reading for more information!

Download the spreadsheet used in the video above here: Download
This is part two of a three part series.
To view Part 1, please click here: Google Business Profile Optimization Guide

Step 1: Understand Your Targeting

Stop! Before doing anything else with your website's optimization, there's something very important you need to know.
Targeting is EVERYTHING!
Without targeting the right city, your Google Business Profile will continue to be buried underneath your competitors. So how do you know which city to target?
All you need to do is look at your Google Business Profile and where your business is physically located.
Often times, businesses like to target their major metro area, even if their business isn't specifically located there. For example, this is like someone targeting Dallas, TX when their business is located in Plano, TX.
Yes, Plano is in the major metropolitan area, but your Google Business Profile will be much better served by targeting Plano, because that's what your Google Business Profile says.
Relevance is key here. Your website is more relevant to your GBP profile if they are both referencing the same city.

Google Maps app icon on a red phone screen.

Step 2: Update Your Page URL, Title Tag & Meta Description

If you're familiar with local SEO , you'll know that there are particular things you need to optimize on your website in order to rank in Google. We'll get into most of the important ones in this article.
Among these, let's start with the first three.
  • Page URL - This is the website address of your particular page.
  • Page Title - The title that displays in a search engine and can be clicked on.
  • Meta Description - The two line text description underneath the title within a search engine.

All three of these can be influenced and updated by you.
Making sure these three elements of your website feature your target city is very important.
If your domain name doesn't feature your target city, that's ok. Your inner / service pages can make up for this.
For example, if you have a page called "plumbing-services", you can update your URL to say:
"mywebsite.com/plumbing-services-plano-tx"
Your title tag and meta description should just feature your city in the name. Do this, and you're golden.

Step 3: H1, H2s and Content

Now let's talk about the content on your website.
When it comes to the text content on a website, including the very words you're reading right now, you have a few different formatting options.
There are headings, then there are the actual words. A heading is usually the large text that comes before a set of paragraphs that describe the next section or subject. In this case, it would be "Step 3: H1, H2s and Content".
There are many different types of headings, from "Heading 1" all the way to "Heading 6". The all represent a hierarchy of subjects.
You should only ever have one "Heading 1" per page, as this should contain your web page's main subject and city. You can have as many "Heading 2s" as you'd like, as well as any other heading tags. However, your other headings don't always need to feature your target city.
We normally recommend businesses just do their Heading 1, and then the rest of your page should consist of "Heading 2" tags. Heading 3s and onward are entirely up to you.
If your Heading 1 tag is "Plumbing Services in Plano, TX", then each following Heading 2 tag you create should support this. Examples could be:
  • Signs You Have A Plumbing Problem
  • When To Call a Professional Plumber
  • Why Choose Us For Your Plumbing Needs in Plano, TX

You don't need to feature the target city in all of your headings, just your H1 and some of your H2s.
Make it look natural and don't make your content look like obvious spam.

What About My Text Content?

Your content should mention your target city, but more importantly, you really want to make sure your content takes care of the following:
  • Communicates the client's problem effectively so they know you understand their issues
  • Gives your unique perspective on the services you offer with helpful information
  • Promotes your company as the clear solution to solve their issue
  • Discusses and uses your target city in the content in a natural way
  • Talks about more localized content like neighborhoods or local landmarks

City skyline at sunset with colorful sky; tall buildings and towers.

Step 4: Embed Your GBP

Your Google Business Profile should be embedded onto your website and ideally on all of the pages that target your city.
Typically, you can put your GBP map in your footer, or place it on pages individually.
Here is a quick guide on how to embed your Google Business Profile Map: Embedding Your Google Business Profile Map

Step 5: Set Up Service Location Pages

A service area page is a landing page that you create specifically for a particular city or area. While your main website should target the city of your primary Google Business Profile, service pages can target anywhere in your metro.
Now, this doesn't mean you should go and start creating multiple service area pages. To stay focused, really just focus on the 3 - 5 cities immediately surrounding your target city.
After you know these 3 - 5 cities, you should do the following:
  • Create a highly relevant, localized page promoting your company and services
  • Make sure the page URL, title tag and meta description all reference the service area
  • Make sure your headings are set up correctly.
  • Make sure the specific GBP pertaining to the focus city is embedded
  • This is helpful if you have multiple GBPs
  • Link to this service area page from your GBP

Step 6: Additional Recommendations

Here are a few other things you could do on for your website to help with not only your GBP SEO, but your overall website SEO.
  • Use internal and external links
  • Always link back to the homepage from all of your service pages
  • Utilize local schema
  • Create local listings, submit your website to GSC (Google Search Console)
  • Acquire links and references to your website from other websites 

Conclusion

Getting your website to support and boost your Google Business Profile ranking doesn't actually take a lot of technical know-how.
You just need the time and dedication it takes to implement these changes on each page that matters, making sure you are providing value and clear expectation to your client.
If you have access to your editor, you can take this concept and start applying these changes right away.
Need help?
Contact our team to request a review of your current website's performance, and we'll help you get on the track to generating more customers from your Google Business Profile and website alike.

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Looking to discover how you can improve your results from the web? Contact us to request a free consultation and we'll help you find out.

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