Local SEO is one of the most important aspects of SEO to understand; yet many are still missing the point and thinking about local in the wrong way. Oftentimes companies will assume that if they’re optimizing their website and doing keyword research their business will automatically appear for local searches, but this isn’t actually the case. Even researching local keywords or optimizing for long-tail local phrases isn’t enough (although it’s a start). In order for your website to appear on local search queries, there are several steps you have to take. It won’t just happen automatically if you seem relevant. You may rank highly in the organic portion of the SERP, but not the local portion.

To help make things a little bit clearer and less complicated, SurePayroll created a great infographic that we’ve published below that helps you get acquainted with the basics of local search and how to be successful.

Once you familiarize yourself with local SEO, companies oftentimes hire agencies to help local efforts succeed because there is a lot to consider, which of course you can learn more about from our team here. Once you have a handle on how it all works, let us know what you do to improve your local SEO and what you would add to the infographic in the comments below.