Learn how to rank your local business with this Local SEO Checklist.

In this infographic, Velvet Cloud breaks down 7 essential items to have on your checklist.

• Local Citations: A citation is a complete or partial reference to your business name, address, and phone number (NAP). Most citations will also allow you to include your website. So why do citations matter? Because on google search results there is a map listing for local business and citations help with rankings.In the infographic, we can learn that making a landing page for each office you operate is useful, make sure that each of them is listed in Google. Make sure you assign proper categories when building your citation. Ensure real locations exist and avoid duplicates.
• Link Building: There is no such thing as a local sea campaign without link building. Not only should link building be a crucial aspect of your local SEO checklist, but the ability to generate powerful and relevant links is what makes SEO firms stand out.For a good local SEO, your links are not fake, not spammy, relevant to your niche and localized by all means.
• Positive Reviews: Reviews are a major ranking factor for local sea. Getting positive reviews and managing negative reviews is also part of the ranking factors. You will want to collect multiple reviews for your business. Focus on getting reviews on all your major platforms.Reviews can be found on Google maps, Facebook, Yelp or Angie’s list. However, you might have other review directories depending on your type of business like trip advisor. But here a warning: You should never pay for any reviews.
• Schema markup: Schema is one of the most underutilized forms of on-page optimization. It is also one of the more powerful on-page improvements you can make to your website. So what is schema markup? Schema markup is code put on your website that helps a search engine return more useful information to the user.By using the schema markup your search result will stand out. This will result in a better click-through rate and result in higher organic ranking.
• Responsive Web Design: Mobile devices are everywhere and many of your potential customers or clients will search the web on various devices. Because of this, websites these days need to be able to be flexible to the device being used and alter its appearances and presentation to suit the viewing device. This is where a responsive web design comes in.Keep in mind that people will enjoy more reading your website and spend more time on the site. This will help you in better organic results, higher quality leads and more conversions.
• On Page SEO: On-Page, SEO can provide that extra bump that you need to get you to the top of the rankings and increase your traffic. Check also the detailed article from Rocket Pilots which helps you through on-page SEO, you can find the link in the More Links Box.

If you follow this best practices you will gain control over your local search result and SEO. Share your experience with your peers and leave a note in our commenting section after the infographic, “What you ought to have on your Local SEO Checklist”.