The real question in basic online marketing: Why Optimize for Local Search? This question has beenaround since the early beginnings of digital marketing but some marketers do not get the idea right.Studies have shown that this technique really works well but some just do not heed the call. To give an update, here are some data to help convince marketers why to optimize for local:

1. It is approximated that at 3 Billion search queries contain local terms every month (comScore).
2. 70 percent of online searches will use local search to find offline businesses (EZLocal).
3. 30 percent of Google searches are for local information (Hubspot).

Optimizing for Local Search

1. Optimize the crucial on-page SEO elements – That means that your page title, URLs, page headers, internal links, and page content should be optimized with keywords for local search.
2. Targeting long-tail keyword variations – If you are a local contractor, you might want to cover contractor in ‘insert location here’ –“local contractor in Detroit” for example. Cover all the ways that users might refer to your city in your keyword research so you can capitalize on all the different ways how people can find your website on the web.
3. Have location pages – If you are a franchise, for example, it is crucial to guide users that you have multiple locations. One way of doing that is to have a unique page for each location.
4. Writing about local and industry news – Staying up to date on the current happenings in your community and in your industry for your blog will definitely win your site big points in the SERPs. Even if nothing has happened that directly relates to your industry or location, look for local spins on industry trends, and comment on how local events could affect your industry.
5. Adding yourself to local listings – the more local directly to which you have submitted your site, the more opportunities to get found and receive additional business citations. Make sure your business name, address, phone number and website address are consistent across all of them.
6. Getting links locally – starting with your own personal network, links may include the Chamber of Commerce, business improvement districts, licensing bureaus, trade associations, resellers, vendors, and/or manufacturers and other affiliates.

Local businesses do have the power to have a top presence in the SERPs, but like any effort to gain and maintain organic visibility, it’s hard work! If you can start checking a few of these tactics off your marketing to-do list every month, though, your website will see great improvements in online visibility.