Yes, there are some things you can do to win the fight for local search rankings. And what’s more? They’re fairly simple.

Even time-strapped local business owners can take small steps to help out their SEO company. Here are some simple actions to consider:

1. Compelling Titles and Meta Descriptions

For titles and meta descriptions, you can simply rely on Yoast plugin SEO: which shows you exactly how your search result appears as you type it in. This is important because the length of both your title and meta description actually change. Go too long, and you’ll see the dreaded (…) in the search results. This is a huge turnoff for searchers, so Yoast SEO helps you stay on top of that so you don’t make mistakes.

As for writing titles and descriptions, answer one simple question: “So what?” This is exactly what searchers think. “So what? Why should I click on your search result instead of others?” The better your answer to this question, the more clicks you’ll receive.

Benefits, emotions, and experiences are what’s most enticing for consumers. Businesspeople want emotional benefits too, so you’ll need to complement these with benefits for their business.

2. Make Your Business 5-Star Worthy

Local business owners finally get it: positive reviews are the key to success. Research has shown that 70% of consumers will leave a review when you ask, while 84% trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation.

With this in mind, make sure your company offers 5-star products and services. Study your competition’s reviews to learn what people like and don’t like about their company. When you get negative feedback, take it to heart and change your company for the better (assuming it’s not an unreasonable customer). Publicly show you care by responding and fixing what’s wrong, and then ask your customer if he or she will revisit the review and provide a positive update.

Never, ever create fake reviews. Many businesses do this and can get away with it for a while, but it eventually catches up to them.

3. Carefully Monitor Your Analytics

If content is king, analytics is queen. Therefore, you’ll want to watch how long people stay on your website. Do they bounce? How many take the action you really want them to take?

Test small changes to your website for optimization purposes. Change what you offer in the headline. Write various calls to action. Learn what works best! This is how winners separate themselves from the pack.

If you regularly rely on these three techniques, you’ll launch yourself well ahead of most other local businesses.