Local Search Engine Optimization

Introduction:

Local SEO is often overlooked in general SEO guidelines, yet it is critical for companies with actual locations. We hope that after this blog, you will rethink not doing local SEO.

In this post, we’ll go through exactly what local SEO is, how it works, and how your company or customers may profit from it. Let’s get this party started!

What is Local SEO?

First things first, what is Local SEO? Increasing search exposure for companies that service their communities face-to-face is the goal of local SEO. These may be physical places, such as a grocery store or a dentist’s office, or service-area companies, such as an electrician or a home cleaning service, that operate across a certain geographic region.

This covers everything from claiming a business listing to ensuring a franchise location shows up in a Google local search (a process known as location data or citation management). It also includes monitoring online ratings and reviews, as well as local-focused social media interaction.

When did Local SEO start?

Local SEO has been around from 2003 to 2005, depending on whatever search engine you were using. Google didn’t have such a stranglehold on the internet search monopoly back then.

On the other hand, local search was restricted for a long time since everyone back then used a desktop or laptop computer to access the internet.

Local SEO didn’t take off until the late 2000s and early 2010s, when the first smartphones were widely accessible.

Users used to search from their PCs and laptops, but now they search on their phones. As smartphones became more common, searches like “Italian restaurant near me” or “hairdresser near me” became more common.

You don’t have to enter “near me” or your location anymore to receive map pack results. When you search for a service, search engines recognize that you’re searching for something near you, whether at home, work, driving, or traveling.

What ranking factors do matter to Local SEO?

Google uses a variety of ranking factors to decide which companies are shown to users. The most significant elements, in general, are:

Relevance: This refers to how closely a company’s product or service fits the user’s inquiry. Consider a Google search for “dog groomer.”

Because pet salons are the most relevant, you’d receive results for them rather than barbershops or human hair salons.

Prominence: This characteristic is also known as reputability. When deciding local search results, Google considers how established and trustworthy your company is.

Part of this is due to brand awareness; well-known restaurants, hotels, and museums do better. That doesn’t imply that your company has to be well-known; internet reviews and ratings can help local SEO.

Proximity: How far away is the company in question? Simply stated, the physical distance between your company and the user (as determined by Google’s data on their location) influences how high it will rank.

You’ll receive a list of local pizza parlors if you search for pizza, not one in another state.

Why is Local SEO important?

Once upon a time, everyone had a handy phone book on hand. They would rummage through the back of the book for local companies and choose the best one. You’d best make it into the phonebook if you wanted your company to thrive back then.

This is no longer the situation now. Phone books are almost extinct, and studies indicate that most consumers utilize internet searches to locate local companies.

97% of consumers learn more about a local business via the internet than from other sources. In other words, whether your company succeeds or fails today is determined by your ability to have a strong internet presence.

This is made easier with the assistance of local SEO. When consumers search for a related product or service, effective local SEO involves bringing your company to the top of the search results so that people see you first.

How does Local SEO work?

Local SEO functions similarly to “regular” Google search on a high level. When someone searches, Google searches its database to get the most relevant results.

Local SEO is distinct in that Google ranks local search results using a separate set of ranking criteria. Local SEO, in reality, has its own set of ranking signals, including:

• The individual is looking for a place based on NAP citations.
• Google’s keyword phrases My professional profile
• Google’s presence My company’s listing
• Keywords that have been used in online reviews
• Online review sentiment
• At that location, the number of “check-ins.”
• That company’s star rating on Google Maps
• Social media shares

How to increase Local SEO using Google My Business?

Smaller companies that function on a regional scale rather than a large national scale need the help of local SEO. Local SEO emphasizes appearing on SERPs, whereas national SEO emphasizes ranking searches throughout the country.

This approach involves targeting local leads and consumers with your goods, services, and brand.

Because the approach is more appropriate to your local clientele, optimizing your local SEO implies more leads, website traffic, and conversions.

You may consider this approach to compete more successfully against bigger national companies with unlimited budgets.

You can negate the advantage of larger companies that regularly optimize for more keywords and depend on brand awareness, instead of value propositions, to attract visitors by concentrating on particular local-SEO must-dos.

Moreover, research carried out in 2017 says that 35 percent of all search traffic is local. It means your company may be missing out on major traffic if you don’t do something about local SEO.

You must first establish a Google My Company (GMB) listing for your business to appear in the map pack. The easiest method to do this is to optimize your website for SERPs and establish and optimize your Google My Business listing to appear in the local map pack results.

You can also obtain a listing for your company on Bing Places or Apple Maps. Still, these are easier to set up than Google My Business, which has a greater degree of sophistication and more personalization options.

As a result, we’ll show you how to create a Google My Business listing for your actual address.

1.     Type in the name of your company:

To begin, go to the Google My Business creation page and enter your company’s name. It will indicate whether you wish to claim an existing company name.

Create a new one if you don’t have one. Remember just to enter your company’s name. Don’t attempt to over-optimize it by stuffing it with keywords. This will almost always result in a penalty.

2.     Decide on a category:

On Google My Company, your business description can only have one category. As a result, you must ensure that your chosen option is the greatest match for your company.

We suggest concentrating on who you are rather than what you do when choosing a category. It’s simple to choose a category that describes your restaurant, but choosing a category that represents a yoga class or a pet grooming store is more difficult.

It will auto-complete the category as you start entering in the box, making it simpler. If you still have concerns, we recommend that you look into your major rivals.

What category do they fall into? It should be similar for you.

3.     Fill up your company’s address:

This stage should be simple if you just have one location where clients may be served. However, there are times when adding an address is more difficult.

If you’re unsure what to enter as your address, use these guidelines:

• Use your actual office address if you have one.
• If you (and your coworkers) work from home, use the closest address to the location where you offer services.
• Do not use this address if you have a virtual office and solely use a physical address for mail and other similar reasons.

You may post your home address for Google My Business but conceal it from users if you operate from home. Simply put in the address and choose “Hide My Address” from the drop-down menu.

In this scenario, Google My Business will register your address, and you can appear in search results for your area, but your specific location will be concealed.

4.     Draw a map of your precise location:

You’ll discover a map of your region on the following screen. It should display your company’s precise position, but if it doesn’t, just take the pin and place it where it belongs. This adds to the information you already supplied.

5.     Fill in your contact information, including your website and phone number:

This should be a breeze. All you have to do now is type in your website’s URL and phone number. However, Google offers its suggestions for doing so:

• It’s always preferable to call a local number rather than a national hotline.
• Use no phone numbers or URLs that lead to other websites, including social media networks.
• Never use a toll-free or premium-rate phone number.

6.     Double-check your listing:

In most cases, you’ll have to wait for Google to give you a verification number through the mail. In certain instances, you can validate your listing using your phone, but most of the time, you’ll have to wait for a postcard from Google with the verification code.

You should be OK if you just follow Google’s recommendations. Make a note of the email address that you used to request the code.

7.     Make your listing more appealing:

Your work isn’t done just because you have a listing. It’s a never-ending effort to improve your listing. You may include photos taken on the premises, your opening hours (which we strongly advise), extra phone numbers, and a list of all the services you provide. It is preferable if you can give as much information as possible.

 

Other major ways to increase your local SEO:

If you’re currently using an organic SEO approach, you may be wondering why you should be concerned about local SEO. Depending on the keywords and techniques you’re employing, you may already be executing a local SEO strategy without recognizing it.

Simply stated, local SEO raises your online exposure in the eyes of potential customers. Did you know that 64% of local consumers rely on search engines and directories to locate a local business? In addition, 50% of local searchers visit establishments within 24 hours of searching.

Start with these steps to implement a local SEO plan for your company.

Get regular feedback from satisfied clients:

Getting your clients to provide good reviews about your company not only improves your position in Google My Business ranks but also encourages additional local consumers to shop with you. One important thing to note is that customers believe in online reviews as highly as personal recommendations.

Some of the suggestions for getting your clients to write reviews are given below:

• Request a review in person after a transaction is completed.
• Direct a post-purchase email or text to consumers asking them to give a review (this should be done only after you’ve vetted them using an internal survey to ensure you’re not contacting unhappy consumers).
• You should respond to existing reviews in a professional way, thanking your reviewers and resolving concerns in negative reviews.

Get High-Quality Backlinks:

Link signals are the first- and second-most significant criteria for local pack (or snack pack) results and localized organic results, respectively, according to research. Backlinks leading to your site are known as link signals.

It’s critical to get links to improve your local SEO, but the quality of those links is as critical. Here are a few pointers on how to get high-quality backlinks:

• Create high-quality content for your site so that people will want to connect to it.
• Blog on trustworthy sites with a high domain authority as a guest blogger.
• To attract local influencers to link back to you, engage with them on social media or email. Make a separate web page for each product or service you provide.
• While it may be appealing to cram all of your goods or services into one large page, avoid the temptation. Instead, create a page for each product or service you provide.

Because search engines do not view a brand as an authority in one specific area, putting everything on a single page decreases the local SEO juice. This reduces your chances of being ranked higher.

If you’re a company with many locations but no distinct goods or services, use a location-based copy for each page. “Dental marketing,” for example, will be renamed “New York dental marketing” or “Buffalo dental marketing.”

Make voice search a priority:

In the next years, voice search will be a priority. So, optimizing how people ask queries while speaking into mobile phones, rather than writing out their searches, is important in local SEO.

If we talk about voice searches, your consumers utilize a lot of long-tail keywords than when they conduct standard searches. So, you’ll need to modify your content’s SEO to match the more conversational tone of someone speaking.

You’ll need to account for conventional question phrases, for example (what, who, when, why, where, and how). When optimizing for voice, it’s also important to consider your user’s intent because these searches are often conducted when the user needs particular information.

If a prospective client uses voice search to ask about your business’s hours, you can provide that information quickly.

Make your website mobile-friendly:

Nowadays, the transition to mobile is occurring quicker than anticipated. According to research, mobile website visits increased from 57% to 63% within a time period of one year in 2017, whereas desktop website visits reduced from 43% to 37% in that year.

Another research says that local search traffic may be particularly cost-effective, with 75% of all the mobile searches with local search intent resulting in offline, in-store visits in 24 hours.

Hence, if you want to win the competition in local SEO, you need to optimize your website for mobile.

Some of the things that will help you in this regard are,

• Make sure that your website loads fast (no more than two to three seconds)
• Try to make your fonts larger as well as easier to read.
• Use content and pictures minimally, delivering just the information you need (a mobile screen has no space for filler!)
• Make sure that it has a user-friendly interface for a positive UX.

Create content based on current events or local news:

Nothing beats creating material that speaks to or is directly related to a local problem to grab your local consumers’ attention.

The following are some examples of strategies:

• Creating blog articles centered on local news, activities, or events
• Making films on local charities or issues that your company supports is a good idea.
• If you serve various areas of a region, creating location-specific sites on your website with high-quality local content local SEO voice search

Assume you’re a local real estate company. You may create separate sites for each of your locations, where you can post hyperlocal information like current events or developments in the local real estate market. This approach may also assist you in obtaining a ranking for each particular site.

Concentrate on keywords that are specific to your area:

One important thing to consider is that keywords that are relevant to local consumers should be used. It’s only natural, isn’t it? Google’s Keyword Planner helps you limit your keyword searches by location to understand the most popular search keywords in a certain area.

This allows you to make a list of keywords that are most relevant to your area. They should show in your site’s copy, meta-text, and URLs once you have them. Incorporate references of regional hotspots and landmarks into your material as well.

Use online business directories to your advantage:

Adding your company’s name, phone number, and address to these directories will assist with exposure and help with local SEO.

The following elements should be included in your business listing:

• All directories have the same accurate business name, location, and phone number.
• A backlink to your site
• A detailed description of your company

Use the “About Us” section that is specific to the location:

If your company has a lot of areas in a specified region, location pages are a necessity. At least, these pages must include the following:

• Operational hours of the store
• Name, contact information, and address
• Descriptions tailored to the individual
• Testimonials
• Promotions
• Parking is available.
• Google Maps link in each location page.
• When you have numerous locations, be careful since each page requires specific content.

If you just have one location, you’ll need to create an “About Us” page that focuses on relevant, local content. If you run a florist shop, for example, your “About Us” page is the ideal place to highlight your business’s role in providing flowers for parades in your city.

Final words:

SEO is evolving at a faster pace. You don’t know when Google is going to add new features to its SERPs for local searches, but you can always anticipate them. That’s why it’s always critical to remain on top of local SEO.

By adopting the above-mentioned actionable things, you’ll guarantee that your company benefits from profitable local searches as well as has a strong foundation for when new SEO capabilities are released.

If you don’t have the time to make these changes, you may consider hiring a local SEO service provider. As you can see, local SEO isn’t as straightforward as it seems.

On the other hand, local SEO may be highly effective if you put in a bit of time and effort. Because of the popularity of mobile search, being where your customers and prospects are is essential than ever.

This doesn’t simply imply that you should be on social media or have a website. It also means that your material should be optimized for local searches.

By reading this post till the end, you will now be able to do something about your local SEO and to outrank your competitors in this technological war!