On-page SEO is crucial for local businesses. Optimizing your website’s pages to rank for money-making keywords can lead to more leads, customers, and revenue.
Outranking your local competition doesn’t always require a massive marketing budget—sometimes, it just takes better on-page SEO.
This guide will walk you through 10 best practices for optimizing your website to improve your standing in local search results.
10 local on-page tips you can use today
1. Start with local keyword research.
Keyword research is the foundation for any successful SEO strategy. For local businesses, this means finding keywords your nearby audience is searching for.
Using tools like Google Search Console, Google Keyword Planner, and perhaps even your own customer reviews, you’ll want to identify relevant keywords to use for planning and organizing your website’s pages and content.
Local keyword research tips:
- Focus on local variants: Add your city, neighborhood, or service area to core keywords (e.g., “pool service tucson” or “sealcoating in albany”).
- Identify low-competition opportunities: Targeting low-volume, low-difficulty keywords can help new or small businesses gain traction. For example, you might not be able to rank out of the gate for your top category, like plumber, but perhaps you can drill down into a specific service like hydro jetting.
- Validate search intent: Ensure the keywords you target align with what customers want. For example, don’t optimize for “emergency plumbing” if you don’t provide 24/7 service.
- Mine reviews for keyword insights: Analyze reviews from Google Business Profiles and other sources to find common terms customers use to describe your business or services.
2. Create and optimize one page for each topic.
It sure would be super convenient if we could just toss all our business info on our homepages and rely on them to rank. But that’s not how the real world (is the internet the real world?) works.
While homepages can often rank for a breadth of keywords, typically, a page can only succeed for one topic or keyword group. For example, attempting to rank a single page for plumber and electrician will dilute the ranking potential for either. They are different concepts, or topics, and require discrete pages to rank well.
Best practices for page creation:
- Avoid keyword cannibalization: Merge redundant pages that compete for the same keyword or service area.
- Cover all relevant subtopics: For example, split a general “AC services” page into “AC repair,” “AC installation,” and “AC maintenance.”
- Leverage location-based pages: If you serve multiple areas, create dedicated pages for each location. Include unique, locally relevant content.
Identifying which pages to keep, merge, and create requires some intuition and experience. Use search results, keyword volume, and organic traffic trends to make informed decisions for your local business.
3. Write content that addresses users’ questions.
Great local content is essential for SEO. Before worrying about keywords, ensure your pages provide useful, actionable information for your local audience. Stressing about where to place keywords before having a useful page is kind of like worrying about the icing and sprinkles for a cake you haven’t even baked!
How to align content with user intent
- Analyze the top-ranking pages for your target keywords to understand what customers expect.
- Answer common questions—consider creating a FAQ section for each service or location.
- Highlight your expertise and solutions to local problems. For example, a roofing company might emphasize weather-specific challenges unique to their area.
4. Optimize title tags for target keywords.
Title tags are one of the most important on-page elements for SEO. They directly impact rankings and clickthrough rates. Here’s an example of a well-optimized title tag:
Heating Repair in Seattle: Fix Your Furnace to Stay Warm | Very Cool HVAC
Title tag guidelines:
- Front what’s most important: Use the most important keyword variation at the front of the title tag, exactly matching it when possible (Heating Repair in Seattle).
- Place the business’s branding at the end: This isn’t a hard rule but is a good idea most of the time (Very Cool HVAC).
- Keep title tags under 80 characters: There is no hard and fast rule, but keeping title tags concise will keep your copy punchy and compelling.
- Use separators: There’s evidence for and against pipes ( | ) and dashes ( – ), but it’s not overwhelming enough to say we must use one or the other. We recommend pipes for their smaller pixel width.
5. Earn clicks with compelling meta descriptions.
While meta descriptions don’t directly impact rankings, they influence whether users click on your link in search results. Think of them as marketing copy for your search results that could entice clicks from users.
Meta descriptions have a hard limit of 160 characters. Google will truncate (or use something else from the page) if you exceed the limit. For pages where Google includes the date in the SERP, 140 may be a more accurate maximum.
Clickworthy meta descriptions:
- Use keywords strategically: While not essential for rankings, including local terms can reinforce relevance.
- Keep it under 160 characters: Shorter descriptions are less likely to be truncated.
- Highlight your unique value: For example, “Fast, reliable 24/7 plumbing services in Austin. Call now for emergency repairs, expert solutions, and trusted local professionals!”
6. Prioritize the first heading (H1).
The H1 is likely the first thing on the page that users and search engine bots see. It signals to both what your page is about. While you can get creative with your H1s for user engagement, you may find that straightforward H1s that state clearly what you do and where you do it are good for SEO.
H1 optimization helps:
- Use your primary keyword: Incorporate the target keyword naturally into the H1.
- Keep it specific and engaging: For example, instead of “Our Plumbing Services,” use “Expert Plumbing Services in Chicago.”
- Avoid redundancy: Don’t duplicate your title tag exactly. Keep it aligned but slightly varied for better readability.
Ensuring every page has a unique H1 that accurately represents your content and your business is a crucial step for SEO wins.
7. Use subheadings to structure your pages.
Subheadings (H2, H3, etc.) break your content into manageable sections and improve readability for users and search engines. Aim for a logical flow that enables users to skim your content for exactly what they need.
Subheading strategies
- Organize your content logically: Use H2s for main topics, H3s for subtopics, and so on.
- Include secondary keywords: Subheadings are great places to naturally incorporate related keywords.
- Write engaging, readable headings: Short, descriptive subheadings make it easier for users to scan and find the information they need.
8. Include keywords in your body copy.
Keywords in the body text signal relevance to search engines. However, overuse can lead to penalties or a poor user experience. There’s no golden ratio for on-page keyword usage; use keywords naturally while emphasizing your target keyword variation at least once.
Tips for keyword placement:
- Scan the page for opportunities, especially in headings.
- Don’t keyword stuff! Use Ctrl+F or Cmd+F to determine how many times a keyword is used on the page. Use your best judgment; 10+ exact matches is probably too much unless the page is very long.
- Move from generic specific: For example, “Our Services” could become “Our [Keyword] Services in [City].”
- Turn existing keywords into variants: For example, if the page uses “electrical services” exclusively, rework a sentence or two to use “electrician” instead.
Focus on readability and satisfying users’ questions and search intent and allow natural—yet strategic—keyword integration to follow from there.
9. Add image alt text for SEO and accessibility.
Quality, relevant, real-world images (stock is better than nothing!) enhance user experience and can boost SEO. In addition to ensuring your images load quickly, adding alt text is good for SEO and crucial for accessibility.
Image alts are fundamentally an accessibility tool used to describe images for screen readers. If keywords can reasonably describe a relevant image on your page, then feel free to use them.
Image alt text advice:
- Take creative liberties: Alt text for a stock photo of a home could be “Photography of a yellow, single-story home in [your location].”
- Write concisely: Image alts don’t have a character limit, but you should be brief (a sentence or two).
10. Implement structured data.
While unseen by users, structured data (schema) helps search engines understand your site and display rich search results, like business hours or customer reviews.
Using Schema in local SEO:
- Add LocalBusiness schema: You can default to using the LocalBusiness type, but you may be able to find a more specific markup that better matches your business, such as Plumber or ProfessionalService.
- Validate your code: Use tools like the Schema Markup Validator to check for errors.
- Use JSON-LD format: It’s easier to implement and maintain than HTML microdata.
On-page SEO is the foundation for local business growth
On-page SEO is foundational for local businesses aiming to improve their search visibility. While elements like keywords, titles, and schema are essential, they’re just one part of the puzzle.
Combine these tactics with a robust local SEO strategy that includes Google Business Profiles, link building, and review management to rise to the top and land more leads.
Start optimizing your site today—and let more and more customers find you precisely when they need what you have to offer.
