If you want your business' website to show up in more search engine results, you're going to need to make sure that your website and its content are optimized for search engines. Search engine optimization is becoming increasingly important at a time when Google results are one of the main ways that potential customers find information that they need.

The search results displayed in Google inform the decisions of millions of consumers on a daily basis, and if you aren't ranking well on the first or second page of search results your company may have trouble reaching its customers. Of all the types of search engine optimization or SEO, that your business can utilize, local SEO is one of the easiest to implement. Here's what you need to know about local SEO and how it can take your business' search results to the next level.

So, what exactly is local SEO? Put simply, local SEO works to improve your business' rankings for any local searches a customer may perform. This can be a major boon for small businesses in particular since it helps to get your results in front of consumers who are geographically close to your business. For example, a broader search for "shoe store" may have your business competing to be displayed against giants like Nike, Adidas, and Designer Shoe Warehouse.

If, on the other hand, a customer searches for "shoe stores near me," you're only going to compete with these businesses if they are in close proximity to the user. This is crucial as it gives you a leg up by optimizing your website for the local areas which you serve. As such, local SEO can have a powerful role to play in boosting your search engine ranking and getting you more customers.

There are dozens of factors that wind up impacting your website's performance when it comes to local SEO. For starters, it's a good idea to have local business aggregators include your company's details such as your address, website, and contact info. Getting your website listed on platforms like Yelp and Google My Business can help with boosting this kind of SEO. Beyond that, there are some changes that you'll want to make to your website itself if you want to add to your organic local SEO.

Adding locations to your about page, as well as metadata and even image tags can help increase your ranking in your geographic area. Adding a location page to your website is another way to help in this regard, especially if you serve multiple cities or have different locations.

Beyond these two areas, you may even want to add cities or locational details to your testimonials page if you have one. You may also want to create targeted blog posts that relate to the different cities you serve as another way to increase the number of local keywords on your website while still catering content towards customers in the area. All of these moves can help your business grow.

If all of this still sounds complicated to you, don't worry. Search engine optimization can be a full-time job, and there are a lot of nuances to it that it's best left to the experts. That's why if you have any questions about how to boost your organic SEO rankings, it's not a bad idea to work with a company that specializes in local SEO like LinkGraph.

LinkGraph can give you the results you want in less than a month and will even perform an audit of your existing SEO and keyword rankings for free. Reach out to them today if you're looking to improve your website's keyword performance in search results.