Are you worried about national or international brands affecting your local business? Or you must be wondering how to improve your local presence. A broad market influence is necessary but not at the cost of local reputation. Brick and mortar businesses at one place or several can shine with local SEO services.
Nearly 50% of the users searching for local brands online reach the regional offices within 5 miles. People refer to google searches to search for local businesses. A person looking for restaurants will search terms like “restaurants near me” or “ restaurants at “XYZ” place.
Indeed, local SEO could prove to be highly beneficial for getting more customers, increasing the number of click-to-calls, and improvement in search rankings. Let’s jump into the local SEO general introduction and further necessary description.
What is meant by local SEO and its relevance?
Local SEO focuses on optimizing the website for a specific region as compared to general searches. When we peep into local searches, we’ll find three parts in Google search results.
First is sponsored results. Marketers pay a certain amount for getting featured in this category. PPC advertising to search engines like Bing, Google, and DuckDuckGo is responsible for this.
Second, comes the snack pack. Google maps and certain restaurants are visible in the figure. Next are the search results. They are visible below the snack pack. These two forms the local SEO. Targeting them leads to higher search engine rankings.
Local SEO increases online visibility while improving brand awareness in the local market. Its benefits are:
- Invite more foot traffic to your place.
- Attract target audience to the website that increases the conversion ratio.
- Improve brand credibility and trust amongst locals.
For local SEO, it matters:
- How many users near your location are clicking on your website.
- How much time they are spending on your websites.
- The number of orders placed.
These factors ensure market relevance. It counts a lot for the increase in ranking position on SERPs. Also, local SEO experts improve your brand influence by using the best local SEO techniques.
Local SEO best practices
With local SEO, marketers can easily pitch their products and services to local business partners, prospects, and clients looking for them. Here’s how to target local search engine rankings:
Search engine listings
The most popular search engine listings are Google My Business, Yelp, Apple Maps, Foursquare, etc. Updating your information makes it easy for clients to find you:
- Name, Address, and Phone number
- Business category
- Images and relevant visuals
- Testimonials
- Available online and offline timings
- Parking availability
Including Google Maps is an excellent aid for customers to come to your location.
Count on customer reviews
Reviews from happy customers are your best friend. Most of the customers refer to reviews before making a purchase. Also, it acts as a valuable ranking factor as well.
You can add a feature of putting reviews from personal customer accounts. Google reviews are always to everyone. Further, it is essential to respond to all reviews. For example, thank clients for positive reviews and address any complaints.
Use Local Social signals.
Ignoring social signals could be detrimental to your local SEO. So, tap in the opportunities of using social signals judiciously. Add Facebook, Twitter, Instagram reviews wherever possible, like snapshots or direct links to social media.
Channelise local events
Local events are the best medium to spread the word about your business. It could be both offline and online. You can
- Write social media posts.
- Sponsor events.
- Put banners.
- Create content like blogs or articles on your website.
Target local keywords
Marketers need to watch local keyword trends to understand customers intent. Listening to what is lagging in the local market could prove to be highly effective. It can open doors to new business avenues.
Well, you can use local keywords in designing your content. Further, creating individual product pages will bring more traffic to your website. The search engine understands what you are delivering with separate product pages rather than lumped content in one web page.
Voice search SEO
Voice search SEO has shot up with the advent of Google Home, Google Assistant, and Amazon Alexa. Voice search content includes:
- Conversational language
- Local phrases and slang
- Questions covering how, who, what and why.
Use geographical location within the text and popular local areas or adjoining places to make voice search easy. Utilize them in meta content, URLs, subheadings, and schema markup.
Link building and partnerships
Digital public relations act as an effective tool for quality link building. These are the tips:
- Approach local influencers to amplify local presence.
- Look for local partnerships to mutually benefit each other.
- Write press releases for local dailies like newspapers or magazines.
- You can give insights into what’s happening in your niche in the local market.
Optimize website for Mobile
Mobile usage has increased manifold. For local mobile optimization:
- Improve the readability of your content.
- Keep website speed within three seconds.
The bottom line
Local SEO directly boosts your revenue and ROI. GMB listings, local directories, citations, and online reviews govern local user behavior. Search engines consider consistent information on all platforms and reviews for deciding local rankings. Other than that, digital PR brings indirect quality traffic to your website. So, marketers must insist on building strong local SEO.