Search engine optimization, SEO, is a vital part of any business’s online presence growth. Too often, however, businesses overlook the importance of local SEO. Local SEO is vital to businesses that have a physical location. While SEO is a tactic used to optimize your website so that people can find your business online, local SEO optimizes your website so that people in your local area can find your business.

Small business growth in Chicago is soaring. If you want to get ahead of the competition, you are going to need to implement local SEO tactics in your strategy. Local SEO can be complicated for those who are inexperienced with SEO. Here are a few tips to help you find the best local SEO services for your Chicago business.

Vet multiple agencies that specialize in local SEO in Chicago.

There are quite a few SEO services out there. Vetting multiple companies can help you find the best SEO agency for your needs. Consider getting multiple consultations when scouting for a great SEO company because you want to find that one agency who will give you the best value for your money.

When getting consultations from these local SEO firms, ask these questions to narrow down your search to find the best SEO company for your business.

Ask for Case Studies

The top SEO agencies will be able to tell you exactly how their local SEO strategy helped small businesses stand out from their competition.

Ask if they have experience with Schema.org

Schema markup is a vital tool for local SEO. You need will need a local SEO company who can configure your data correctly. For clarification, schema tells search engines what your data means, not just what it says.

Ask them what strategies and tools they use.

Because SEO is a multifaceted discipline that includes local, national, and international, it’s important to ask the SEO companies if they specialize in local SEO. Local SEO is just not the same as national or international SEO. For example, local SEO uses citations that just don’t factor into national SEO. A local citation is your company’s name, address, and phone number, or NAP.

Citations are essential to local SEO because Google uses citations to rank businesses in local search results.

Basic Strategy. It’s important to understand your agency’s strategy for local SEO. Each Chicago SEO company is different and will likely use different SEO tactics, depending on your business and target audience. They should, however, have a basic strategy for local SEO that is usable across various industries and markets, and they should be able to explain their strategy to you. Be specific and ask how they plan on getting you into the local 3-pack on the first page of a Google search. How do they plan on ranking your business for organic results?

Tools. There are a plethora of SEO tools to optimize the tasks of an internet marketing company. Some of these tools include Advanced Web Rankings, SEM Rush, Moz Local, Yext, and many more. Ask which tools they plan on using in their SEO strategy.

Mobile Strategy. Do they have a mobile strategy? They should. Most people conduct searches on their mobile devices. Google uses a device location to determine which listings will appear in the 3-pack. Therefore, you simply cannot have an SEO strategy, whether local, national, or international, without having a mobile strategy.

Webmaster Guidelines. Another thing to include in your inquiry into an agency’s tactics is whether they adhere to the webmaster’s guidelines. Following Google’s guidelines is the right way to do SEO. Everything else is incredibly risky and not worth the hassle.

Ask them about their experience.

You want to work with Chicago SEO experts that have a history of getting results. They should have experience in the following areas:

• Backlinking
• Local Blogs and Media
• Voice Search
• Google My Business
• Customer Reviews and Testimonials

Ask them how their payment is setup.

When hiring a local SEO firm, you’re betting on a return on investment. But you can’t budget for local SEO services if you don’t know the agency’s payment structure. It’s important to not only understand if they charge by project or milestones but how they measure success.

Local SEO requires a bit more finessing than national and international SEO. That’s why it’s important to find an internet marketing agency that specializes in local SEO.