Google has several tools that can help with your local SEO efforts.

Even better, they are all free to use!

These tools won't necessarily help you rank in the SERPs but they can give you a better understanding of what's going on under the hood.

If you have the time, these are definitely worth checking out.

Note: These tools require that you have a Google account that's associated with your business. You should also be using the same account across all Google tools so they're integrated properly.

Being in Google's business listing can only be good for business.

After all, people searching for a specific type of business (along the lines of "restaurant near me") will likely convert into paying customers.

Note: Google My Business requires its users to have a physical store. This is not for businesses that only exist online.

Here's how you create a Google business listing.

Go to Google My Business and sign into your account. You will then be prompted to enter your business name.

After you enter your business name, click Next. The next few pages will prompt you to enter other business information like your business address. Answer accordingly.

When asked to enter a business category, select one that best fits your venture. Google will give suggestions as to what categories might work best for you.

At the end of the process, Google will ask you to verify your business. Click Finish to proceed.

You will be presented with ways you can verify your business. Choose the most convenient method for you.

You can verify by mail, by phone, by email, through instant verification, or by bulk verification.

Google simply wants to confirm the existence of your store and see if the address is correct.

Once verified, your Google My Business dashboard should now show all the relevant information about your listing.

Update the listing as needed.

Google Search Console (also referred to as Google Webmaster Tools) has a checklist of all the technical details that webmasters should be aware of.

Google will send a report that says what they like or doesn't like about your site. These are helpful for business owners who want an overview of what they should be looking out for.

It's a great tool to have especially for those who are just starting out.

Go to Webmaster Tools and sign into your Google account.

Enter your domain to register it to the site. Click Add Property to continue.

You'll then be asked to verify your site.

Google will provide a few ways to do this. However, Google will recommend that you upload the file it will provide to your site.

Note: If you already linked your site to Google Analytics, you can verify your site through that.

Once verified, you should now have access to your Search Console Dashboard.

Here you'll receive updates from Google about crawlability errors and site traffic. You'll also be able to submit your sitemap here.

Explore Search Console to get a feel of what it can really offer.

Some users can argue that of all the free tools Google offers, Google Analytics is the most important.

Analytics is the backbone of all SEO strategies.

It dictates what you can do and how your marketing plan will move forward.

What it does is track and reports traffic for your entire site. It will show you which pages are gaining traction and which ones are falling by the wayside.

It's a great indicator of what your audience wants from you.

Go to Google Analytics and sign into your account.

Go ahead and fill up all the required fields to register.

Click Get Tracking ID once you're finished.

You'll then be redirected to your profile. Go to Property > Tracking Info > Tracking Code.

Copy and paste the code into your site'stag. How you do this will depend on the CMS or site builder you're using.

WordPress users can use third-party tools or themes to install the code.

If configured correctly, you should now have access to your Analytics dashboard.

It will show you how much traffic you're getting among other statistics.

New users will have to wait a while to see some numbers. Give it a day or two.

Off-page SEO, in general, can be reduced to a single word: backlinks.

And in our line of work, backlinks need no introduction.

So let's jump straight on how link building relates to local SEO.

Tip 12. Quality Over Quantity

We all know that acquiring links from authoritative and high-quality sites is difficult.

This reason is why some took advantage of loopholes in Google's guidelines and rigged the system in their favor.

Instead of relying on organic links, some marketers tried their hands on blackhat tactics.

And while that worked for a short while, Google eventually leveled the playing field. Sites that used underhanded strategies were punished.

You may have heard about Google punishing JC Penney and Forbes for their suspicious backlink activity in the past.

Today, Google expects site owners to comply with their backlink guidelines.

They also stressed that having quality backlinks are more important than volume.

And even if Google's algorithms miss bad backlinks here and there, they are constantly improving and gathering feedback from their users. That way they can remove abusive websites from the system.

The bottom line:

Invest in getting links from high-quality sites and don't even try to use blackhat tactics to get ahead.

Tip 13. Backlinks for Local SEO

You want to be able to establish authority in your locale.

One of the ways you do that is by getting relevant backlinks from other members of the community.

It may not be easy, but there are a few ways you can get the ball rolling.

Connect With People Through Social Media

Build a presence on social media.

Your business should be on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram.

After all, according to a ChatMeter post, 76% of US consumers purchase a product they've seen on social media.

Promote your content through those channels. Not only will this help people find your store, but it will also help with link building.

If your followers find your content useful, they will definitely promote it on their blogs and other channels.

It would also help if you launch a targeted campaign and promote your content to residents of your area.

Work With the Local Community

Get in touch with local newspapers, magazines, and other organizations in your community.

You want to get backlinks from prominent sites in your neighborhood. One way of doing that is by reaching out and offering a helping hand.

Not only will this earn you brownie points with fellow residents, but you might also get that precious backlink too.

Guest Posting

If there's a great site that targets your local community, try guest posting.

The idea behind guest posts is getting backlinks in exchange of quality content. It's a win-win situation for both you and the site owner.

Guest posting can sound intimidating but it really is as simple as reaching out and waiting for a response.

Just remember to be genuine and act like a real person.

Guest posting is popular because they deliver unbelievable results.

Believe me:

One company raised its revenue by 23.85% after six months of guest posting.

They did this by finding bloggers who are passionate about their niche. Eight people worked on the project.

That's not bad at all considering the small number of resources it took.

As an added bonus, you'll gain recognition from people in your niche. This helps you establish authority on the same subject matter they're interested in.

Tip 14. Follow vs No Follow Links

You've been linked to a bunch of times. But you're not showing up in the SERPs.

What gives?

Well, it's possibly because your links could have a no follow attribute.

What's the difference?

The <rel'"nofollow"> tag tells Google to ignore the link. So your link is no longer crawled.

Unfortunately, there's not much you can do about it.

However, there are times when online marketers reach out to site owners and ask if they can reconsider. Especially if the link comes from a high-authority site.

But this can be to your advantage if the ones who are linking aren't great sources or aren't useful to your niche.

If local SEO feels too hard or if you'd rather just focus on other aspects of your business, you can always hire outside help.

However, finding the right one isn't always easy.

There are times that the hired local SEO "expert" causes your site to plummet on SERPs!

A very good indicator of one's proficiency in local SEO is by looking at the work s/he has done in the past.

If they can't produce sample works where they got their clients to rank on top of local searches for very competitive keywords, then it's a no go for them!

Now that we've extensively discussed local SEO and how you can hike up your rankings on local search, it's time to put them into action!

Looking at the post above, it would be difficult to stay on top of all the local SEO factors.

Therefore, I've compiled a short list of questions related to local SEO to keep your site optimized.

Use it as a checklist to help push through with the local SEO campaign for your site or client's.

So here goes nothing:

Title Tags

• Are there less than 60 characters in your title?
  
  
• Is your target keyword included in your title?
  
  
• Is your location included in the title?
  
  
• Is the title unique from other pages on your site?
  
  
• Does it encourage people to click through the link?
  
  

URL Structure

• Did you mention your keyword in the URL?
  
  
• IS the URL static, readable, and stable?
  
  
• If applicable, are you using language markers on your URL? ex. sample.site/EN/sample and sample.site/FR/sample
  
  

Images

• Are your images lower than 100 kb each? If not, did you compress the file size of your images?
  
  
• Do your images have alt images? Did you include your keyword in the alt tag?
  
  
• Are the filenames of your image files readable?
  
  

Navigation Menu

• Is the hierarchy of your site pages organized?
  
  
• Does your navigation menu have less than six linked pages?
  
  

Location Data (for businesses with more than one location for their shop)

• Did you mention your correct NAP on the page?
  
  
• Did you include your business hours?
  
  
• Did you feature customer testimonials for the correct location?
  
  
• Did you embed your Google Maps on the page?
  
  

Structured Data Markup

• Did you add a Schema markup for all relevant pages? (use a tool or plugin to help you implement this)
  
  

XML Sitemaps

• Did you generate an XML sitemap for your site?
  
  

Site design

• Is your site loading faster than four seconds?
  
  
• Is it responsive, i.e. does it adjust to the screen size of the visitor's device?
  
  

Google Products

• Did you create a verified Google My Business listing for your business?
  
  
• Did you sign up for a Google Analytics account for your site so you can track its performance?
  
  
• Did you sign up for a Google Search Console account for your site to gather relevant SEO data?
  
  

Link building

• Are you practicing white hat link building tactics and strategies for your site?
  
  
• Are you acquiring dofollow links instead of nofollow?
  
  
• Are you getting links from local websites?
  
  

Directories and Citation

• Did you list your site on the most relevant business directories like Bing and Yelp?
  
  
• Did you sign up your site on niche-specific directories relevant to your business? Refer to this list and comb through each site.
  
  
• Did you sign up for citations on different and relevant online channels in your vicinity? You can start here.
  
  

Basically, if you answer a resounding "YES" on all the questions above, then your site is optimized for local search!

However, the work is not done yet.

You still need to implement some factors like link and citation building continuously to outrank your competitors.

As mentioned earlier, you can hire us to do your local SEO backlinks.

Instead of doing it yourself, you can rest easy and focus on other aspects of your business while we take care of ranking your site higher for your target keywords.

Regardless, local SEO is a constant battle.

The best thing you can do right now is to take action on the advice mentioned in this post so you can increase your site's SEO performance.

Good luck!