Although many businesses have an online presence, and in theory, could have visitors to their website from anywhere in the world, most are only targeting an audience and customers in their local area. This is why having an SEO strategy for local rankings, rather than a global one, is so important.

Countless time, energy and money are wasted by webmasters trying to get their website ranked for search terms and keywords which are generic. For example, they might try to target a term like ‘landscape gardener’ and so are competing with just about every other landscape gardener in the world and they wonder why they can’t rank for it.

Instead if they focused on ranking for ‘landscape gardener in Anytown’, with Anytown being the neighbourhoods, towns or city they operate in, they would have far greater success. Not only that, this is where their customers live, so even if they could rank worldwide, a customer in London is hardly going to employ a landscape gardener based in Adelaide.

One of the top strategies to improve your website’s local SEO ranking is with the effective use of content. There are lots of ways this can be achieved, and none are particularly difficult. Nor should they take any more time to do than your current content creation. It is just that it will be more slanted towards a local audience and be using keywords which include local areas you wish to target.

#1 Social Media: If you haven’t done so already, when you search social media sites for groups which are based in your local area, you will be amazed at how many there are. If you know what demographics, or what interests your target audience have, then seek out those groups which they are likely to be members of.

Join as many groups as you can, but do not make the mistake of simply posting links back to your website. This will get you thrown out. Instead, look for questions being asked and answer them. Give advice and tips relating to your subject area. Once you have built up trust and regarded as a worthy source of information, then you might be able to post comments with links

You should also reach out to the admins of the groups and ask whether they accept content such as articles. Most of them will say yes, as content helps to keep group members engaged, and thus the group thrives.

#2 Local Business Websites: There are bound to be hundreds if not thousands of local businesses which complement the business which you operate. Examples are tax lawyers and accountants, dog groomers and veterinarians, driving instructors and car mechanics and so on.

Make a list of as many of these businesses as you can and send a BCC email to them all asking if they would like content for their website. Many will not reply or say no, but for every one that responds positively, it is an opportunity for you to have your quality content on their site, and a back-link. When this content gets viewed by their customers, you will be thought of as an authority within that niche, and more likely to be viewed as a trustworthy business.

#3 Have Content on Your Website Relating to Local Activities: A big mistake that occurs is webmasters create excellent content with lots of very useful information, but it is generic and thus could be written for an audience anywhere in world.

Continue to write great content but to help with local SEO try to add a local perspective to it. Mention local news items which may be relevant to your business. Depending on your niche you could write about local sports teams, celebrities, dignitaries, events, or at least refer to them where it is appropriate in the article.

Also, include local place names within your article as these get picked up when your website is crawled and thus more likely to get you ranked if someone searches for a business and adds the town name.