seo best practices 2015As Google keeps refining their local algorithm, we’re finding that local SEO is taking on even more hats we need to wear. You truly need to be mindful of an ever-growing number of aspects that make up local SEO. While that is true, what’s also true is the opportunity here for those willing to do the work to get it right.

Toward that goal, we’ve listed a number of best practices you’ll want to be aware of when it comes to local SEO for 2015. Some might not be new to you, while others will. Remember, it’s a stew, and all of it works together to make it tasty!

2015 Local SEO Best Practices

Increase your site speed – Google loves a speedy page load, and besides, people simply won’t wait for your slow pages to load.

Mobile – If you’re wanting to lose out on half the traffic on the Web these days, go on and forget about making a responsive mobile design of your site.

Do you on-page SEO – While it can be dead boring and tedious to do this, your title tags, descriptions, internal links and website schema are vital cogs when it comes to ranking your pages.

Get more Reviews and Citations – Reviews are starting to overtake citations, but for now both are still important.

Acquire high-quality links – Make it your business to get the best links you can, from relevant high authority sites and high traffic sites. This is best if it originates from your content.

Color your content local – In addition to giving Google clues to where your business needs to be found for, it is also very beneficial for your visitors.

Geotag your images – Geo-tagging your images with local geographic information tells Google what it needs to know, and greatly boosts your chances of showing up accurately in Maps.

Encourage social signals – Besides likely being a search engine signal, social media can become a far-reaching evangelist for your brand.

NAP data – As always, making sure your business information is consistent across ALL your platforms is critical. You should probably start right here!

Given all of this, doing well in local requires you to cover a number of areas, but keep your focus on making your SEO work for you, and not the other way around, by keeping sales and conversions front of mind at all times.