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What is Local SEO and Why It Matters for Your Business

What is Local SEO
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About 45% of Google searches have local search intent. This is a huge chunk of total searches made, and if you appear in the top result, you could attract many potential customers. Work on your site optimization to attract new customers.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO

It is a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy used to enhance the visibility of a local business and help it rank higher in SERPs. It happens when you optimize your website for search queries made in your city or near your business address.

Why is it important?

Local SEO

Local SEO is important because it allows you to market your business and attract a local audience. It helps you to connect with people living in your business’s vicinity. This is important nowadays because people search for everything online before purchasing.

Benefits of local SEO includes but are not limited to:

  • It lets you enjoy better online visibility. Features like Google Business Profile, local citations, and link building increase your visibility, making it easier for Google to show your business to people in your area against your related keywords.
  • Majority of people prefer to shop online. This might be because of their busy schedule or because COVID has shaped people’s habits in such a way that they prefer to buy online. This behavior supports local businesses, thus bringing them more favor.
  • Visibility gained by local SEO leads to more on-foot traffic to your physical store. It also increases the number of calls and inquiries for your store.
  • Content marketing alongside local SEO can help you establish a leadership position in your business, thus building trust and authority in the market.
  • Reviews on your profiles, like GBP, help you attain trust, leading to more sales.

Besides these benefits, a few stats that can help you know the importance of local SEO include a 500% increase in the search term “Near me”. Likewise, a 200% increase in the search for the term “open near me”.

Similarly, 76% of users who search for something visit that business in 24 hours. Furthermore, 61% of users said they do local intent-based searches daily, and 86% rely on Google Maps to find their desired location.

What does a Local Search look like?

Local Search

You can identify a local search result by queries like “near me,” “doner kabab near me,” or “doner kabab in [city].” Now, doner kabab is here only as an example. You can search for anything with the term near me or in [city].

These phrases work alongside GBP, letting your GBP profile appear in the Google 3-Pack.

So, for instance, if someone has moved into an area near you and searches for your business, your business will likely appear in the top search results.

How does Local SEO Work?

How does Local SEO Work

Google highly uses these three factors while deciding your ranking in SERP. They are:

Proximity

Proximity refers to how far a user is from your business location. Google focuses on showing its users results that are closer to them. Ideally, you don’t have control over this factor, but you can optimize your GBP by considering this aspect.

Relevance

When a user searches on Google with local search intent, Google combines all the relevant search results and shows them to him, which refers to relevancy.

If your website and GBP profile are optimized for such keywords, you are more likely to appear as a search result. Optimize your GBP by selecting a relevant category and adding keywords, timing, contact information, address, and pictures.

Prominence

Prominence refers to how popular your business is online. If you have a popular offline business, you don’t have to worry about making it popular online. Regardless, a few things you need to take care of include:

Backlink: Focus on gathering quality backlinks from reputable websites. Google gets a signal that you are a trustworthy and authoritative website, thus boosting you in SERP.

Social Media: The engagement you receive on your social media profiles sends a signal to Google for your well-known, active, and working business in a certain area.

Positive Review: Positive reviews on your profiles are a big social signal for the audience and Google that you are a reliable business, thus letting you enjoy more sales and customers.

Besides these, local SEO has other ranking signals like:

  • NAP (Name, Address, and phone number) consistency citation.
  • Usage of relevant keywords.
  • Keywords used in the reviews given to your business.
  • Number of check-ins at your business location.
  • Google map star rating your business received.
  • Shares you receive on social media platforms.

How to do Local SEO?

How to do Local SEO

It would be lucrative for your business to invest some time in local SEO. Follow the points mentioned below to kickstart your local SEO journey.

Local Keywords Research

It would be best to begin by doing solid keyword research to improve your SEO strategy. You must also thoroughly research your competitors, conduct a SWOT analysis, and look for possible opportunities.

Besides paid tools, you can use the Google search bar, and Keyword Planner to do KW research. It gives you keywords to use in your content and profile optimization.

Working on your GBP

Google Business Profile (GBP) is the heart of local SEO. Without it, all the effort would be in vain. Fill in as many details as possible, such as your contact information, working hours, business category, media files, including images and videos, and other related information.

Upload posts and up-to-date information to keep your profile updated. If your GBP profile already exists, claim it. But if not, then create a new one and write an introduction describing your business with relevant keywords. Ensure NAP consistency across all channels including GBP, website, social media platforms and other citations.

Content Optimization

Optimize your website content using local intent keywords, such as writing content around your city or region name. This practice will ensure that your site reaches more local customers.

Get involved in local business events and festivals and showcase your business there. Write articles around these events and feature them on your website. Locality-based content is a great way to enjoy local audiences; thus, include your business and location-based keywords to enjoy local traffic.

It is important to remember that you must integrate these keywords smoothly into your website’s content to prevent any penalties from Google.

Work on your Reviews

Reviews are crucial in helping your audience decide whether to buy from you. They also help build trust and confidence in your brand. They impact customers’ decisions, help you identify trends, drive conversions, help build your brand, and increase website traffic.

Website Optimization

Your website must be optimized for local search results. It must also have an updated design, fast loading speeds, and simple site navigation.

Likewise, content must be optimized for local searches, and the site must be mobile-friendly.

How to Monitor Local SEO Results?

How to Monitor Local SEO Results

Tracking and measuring results are important to achieve your goal. It allows you to detect weaknesses and adjust your strategy to improve your campaign’s performance. Thus, monitoring is a compulsion.

Take good care of local pack ranking if you want to yield the highest returns from local SEO. The local pack is essentially your GBP ranking. The higher it is, the more valuable it is for your business.

You must also monitor your organic ranking and website traffic by analyzing your website via Google Search Console. In addition, ensure you monitor your business’s local citation, ensuring consistency in NAP.

Another powerful metric that lets you track your local SEO success is you gathering good reviews, quality backlinks and an increase in your sales and conversion rate.

Common Local SEO Mistakes

Common Local SEO Mistakes

Various SEO mistakes that can drain all your effort might include:

  • Not using the right keywords or using the wrong ones.
  • Not focusing on the collection of quality reviews.
  • Not choosing the right category and attributes in GBP.
  • Not using media files like posting images or videos related to your business.
  • Not prioritizing services and menus on your site or GBP profile.
  • Not integration GBP into your marketing strategy.

Future Trends in Local SEO

Future Trends in Local SEO

Being proactive is a trait that ensures the longevity of whatever you are doing. Local SEO can foresee these changes in the near future.

  • Search engines are becoming more intelligent with every passing day. They work more like a human brain now, especially after the release of Googe’s RankBrain.
  • Competition to rank higher in local search results will be stiffer and narrower.
  • More voice optimization-friendly websites will gain visibility in SERP.
  • More geo-specific location searches are going to gain momentum.
FAQ's

Frequently Asked Questions

Our dedicated customer services are available to answer your questions. Ask our experts about your concerns and queries.

There are different parameters that google uses to rank websites in local searches, major parameters include your distance from the searcher, your business’s relevance to the search and your prominence.

Yes, online reviews increase your business’s reputation and authority, thus increasing your website’s ranking in the SERP. They also influence your customer’s decision making on buying your products.

Local keywords can be researched using Google Keyword Planner, or other 3rd party software such as Ahrefs, etc.

NAP consistency helps search engines determine the credibility and legitimacy of your business, resulting in a boost in its rankings.

You have to create separate GBP listings for each location and have dedicated pages for each.

GBP increases the visibility of your business on Google and Google Maps, which increases your chances to appear in local searches.