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How to improve your local SEO is for most businesses and organizations more important than ever. That’s why Connect your World presents at least 55 tips to improve your local SEO. Verify your Google My Business listing and apply the SEO tips in this local SEO checklist!
- Verified Google My Business listing
You have probably already claimed your listing, but if not, claim it immediately! How to improve your local SEO starts with implementing a GMB account.
- Primary Google My Business category
Set your primary Google My Business category to be the one, that is the closest match with the most valuable search keyword you want to rank for in Google.
- Keywords in Google My Business title
The only legitimate way to take advantage of this factor is to change your actual business name at the official government registry and everywhere offline and online. Not actionable in most cases.
- Additional Google My Business categories
Make sure you have filled out every other available additional category that is relevant to your business services.
- Quality/Authority of inbound links to domain
Get quality backlinks to your website on any pages of the website.
- Keywords in native Google reviews
When you ask your customers for reviews, ask to mention the service or the product in their review. Manage your reviews in GMB
- High numerical Google ratings (4 or 5 stars)
Get higher SEO rankings by being a good business, doing excellent work, and offering great customer service.
- Removal of spam listings through spam fighting
Review the search results for fake listings and listings that are spamming, then report them.
- Completeness of Google My Business listing
Fill out every field in Google My Business to ensure your listing is as complete as possible.
- Quantity of native Google reviews
Get a review system in place and ask every customer for a review.
- Keywords in Google My Business landingpage title
Make sure your main keywords are in the title tag of the page that your Google My Business listing links to.
- Quality/Authority of inbound links to Google My Business landingpage url
Receive quality backlinks to the webpage your Google My Business listing links to. This will be usually the homepage.
- Topical (product or service) keyword relevance across entire website
Ensure your website is “about” the terms you want to rank for. Add more content. Include your primary keywords and related keywords in this content.
- Domain authority of website
Get more links to your website (any pages of the site) to increase the website’s domain authority.
- Keywords in anchor text of inbound links to domain
This factor is not overly actionable.
- Page authority of Google My Business landingpage url
Get more backlinks to the page your Google My Business listing links to to increase the page’s authority.
- Internal links to Google My Business landingpage from other pages of website
Read through your content and look for opportunities to add in-content links to other pages of your site. Particularly from your homepage to your service pages.
- Click-through rate from search results
Optimize your title tags and meta descriptions to encourage more clicks.
- Geographic (city/neighborhood) keyword relevance of domain content
Include your primary city, state, and neighborhood names in your title tags and throughout your content.
- Prominence on key industry-relevant domains
Get links to any page on your site from the important websites and blogs in your industry.
- Quantity of inbound links to domain from industry relevant domains
Get links to any page on your site from the important websites and blogs in your industry.
- Quantity of inbound links to domain from locally relevant domains
Get links to any page on your site from the important websites and blogs in your city, state.
- Quantity of inbound links to Google My Business landingpage url from locally relevant domains
Get backlinks to the page your Google My Business listing links to from the important websites and blogs in your city, state.
- Consistency of citations on primary search engines like Google Maps & Bing Maps
Audit and clean up inconsistent and duplicate citations on Google & Bing Maps.
- Positive sentiment in review text
Get a review system in place and ask every customer for a review.
- Volume of content on Google My Business landingpage
Make sure you’ve written at least 3 solid paragraphs of text on your homepages that describes what you do and includes the primary keywords and topics you want to rank for.
- Quantity of engagement signals on Google My Business listing like for example: scrolling through listing, clicking images, reading reviews & reading Q&A, clicking on Posts.
Fill out every field in Google My Business to make your listing more compelling and engaging.
- Consistency of citations on data aggregators like Foursquare/Factual, DataAxle & Localeze.
Audit and clean up inconsistent and duplicate citations on the primary data aggregators.
- Quantity of inbound links to Google My Business landingpage url from industry relevant domains
Get backlinks to the page your Google My Business listing links to from the important websites and blogs in your industry.
- Diversity of inbound links to your domain
Get backlinks to any pages on your website from a diverse set of websites, blogs, news sites, online guides & directories.
- Keywords in domain
While keywords in your domain name can help your rankings, unless you’re just starting out. We wouldn’t normally recommend changing your primary domain to include keywords.
- Internal links to service pages from Google My Business landingpage
Read through the content on your Google My Business landingpage (usually the homepage) and look for opportunities to add in-content links to the service pages of your website.
- Keywords in Google My Business landingpage H1/H2 tags
Ensure that the headings in your content include your primary keywords.
- Volume of quality content on service pages
Make sure you have a separate page for every service, and make sure you’ve gone into extreme detail on how you perform the service, why people should hire you, frequently asked questions, etc. The more text content the better.
- Quality/authority of structured citations
Get your business listed on the highest rated general, local, and industry business listing sites.
- Clicks to call business
Build out a complete and engaging Google My Business listing with lots of information, photos, and reviews to encourage more people to click to call you.
- Html NAP matching Google My Business listing NAP
Make sure that the name, address, phone nuber (NAP) on your Google My Business listing matches the name, address, and phone number on the page your Google My Business listing links to. Note that it’s ok to use a call tracking number on your Google My Business listing if you set it up correctly.
- Volume of quality content on entire website
Ensure that every topic related to your business has a dedicated page, and ensure that all those pages have a significant amount of text based content.
- Matching Google account domain to Google My Business landingpage domain
Make sure that the email address you used to claim your Google My Business listing is an email on the same domain as your website instead of a @yahoo or @gmail email.
- Proper hours set on Google My Business listing
Make sure your opening hours on your Google My Business listing are correct and up to date.
- Quality/relevance of photos
Upload plenty of quality photos on your Google My Business listing. Use no stock photos.
- Quantity of inbound links to domain
Get backlinks to any pages on your website from a diverse set of websites, blogs, news sites and directories.
- Volume of searches for business name
Look for ways to encourage people to search for your brand name in Google.
- Authority of third party sites on which reviews are present
Get Google reviews for your business on a diverse set of review websites, particularly industry relevant sites.
- Quantity of citations from locally relevant domains
Get citations on local specific business directories.
- Reference to location specific entities on Google My Business landingpage
Include mentions of authoritiative local specific landmarks and entities on the page that your Google My Business listing links to.
- Keywords in third-party reviews
When you ask your customers for Google reviews, ask them to mention the service or product in their review.
- Quality/authority of unstructured citations like newspaper articles, blog posts, gov sites & industry associations.
Get your business’ name, address, and phone number mentioned on non-directory sites.
- Driving directions to business clicks
Build out a complete and engaging Google My Business listing with lots of information, photos, and Google reviews to encourage more people to request driving directions from your listing. Also, include a Google Map on your website.
- Keywords in Google posts
Ensure you’re posting new Google Posts at least weekly, and include your primary keywords in some of your Google posts.
- Consistency of citations on key sites for example Yellowpages, Yelp, D&B & CityGrid
Audit and clean up inconsistent and duplicate citations on the primary data aggregators.
- Quantity of inbound links to Google My Business landingpage url
Get backlinks to the page that your Google My Business listing links to from a diverse set of websites, blogs, news sites & directories.
- Mobile-friendly – Responsive website
Be sure your website has been designed and developed to work well on mobile devices, not only just desktop.
- Dedicated service page for each category in Google My Business
Make sure you have a separate page for every service, and make sure you have gone into detail on how you perform the service, why people should hire you or frequently asked questions (FAQ). The more text content the better it is.
- NAP in Schema/JSON-LD on Google My Business landingpage url
Use local business ‘schema markup’ on the page that your GMB listing links to.

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Herman Geertsema is the owner of Connect your World based in The Hague, The Netherlands. He is an experienced SEO consultant & Content Marketing expert. Connect your World can be hired for SEO & Content Marketing projects in the Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Breda region and in The Hague. If you need an answer about the question ‘How to improve your local SEO‘? Or if you want to hire me? Please contact me below.