Local SEO
Search engine optimization is extremely important for businesses that operate primarily online, but it is just as important for businesses that operate out of a traditional brick-and-mortar location. However, there is one area of SEO which businesses relying on physical locations should pay particular attention to: Local SEO.
What is Local SEO?
Let’s say you’re on vacation in Nashville and have a craving for some Italian food. You’re not from the area, you’ve never been here before, and you don’t know any of the local restaurants or where they are. What are you going to do? Most likely, you will pull out your phone and google “Italian restaurants in Nashville” or “Italian restaurants near me”. This is where Local SEO comes into play.
Local SEO is an SEO strategy which focuses on optimizing your website’s presence within search results for a specific geographic area. This is crucial if your business operates a physical storefront, as it ensures that customers/clients who would be interested in visiting your place of business are able to easily find you and do so.
Understanding Local Search Ranking Factors
Ideally, you will want your website to be in the top five results on a search engine when someone makes a search with local intent for the services your business provides. At the very least, you want your webpage to be on the first page of results. However, even better than either of these is if your business is in the Local SEO pack. You may not recognize this term, but you have definitely seen it before. The local pack appears on the first page of search results. It shows a map with the locations of three local businesses relevant to the search query.
So how do Google and other search engines decide where in the results your website ranks? Well, rankings are decided by seven main factors that are taken into account when a query is made. These factors are:
- 1. Google Business Profile(GBP): This encompasses everything in your GBP, including business title, categories of the services you provide, and your website URL.
- 2. Reviews: This does not just refer to Google reviews, but also reviews on third party sites such as Yelp. Google will take into account how recent reviews are, how often new reviews are made, and how legitimate the reviews seem.
- 3. On-Page: This refers to the different elements that make a website strong. Such as domain authority, page authority, optimization, quality, and security.
- 4. Citations: Google will look to see how often other sites have mentioned yours. These mentions are called citations. Taken into account will be the accuracy, distribution, quality, and relevance of these citations.
- 5. Links: These are a lot like citations. However, instead of just mentioning your business, they link directly to your website.
- 6. Behavior: This does not refer to your behavior, but that of visitors to your site. Behavior includes click-through rate, dwell time, clicks-to-call, clicks-for-directions, and clicks-to-site.
- 7. Personalization: This is when a search engine will change rankings based on the personal profile of the searcher. The most important part of personalization when it comes to local-SEO is the searcher’s location.
These local ranking factors should always be kept in mind when developing a well thought out local-SEO strategy.
Google My Business
The start of any local-SEO strategy should be setting up a Google My Business account, also called a Google Business Profile. This allows your business to have a presence on Google. After creating this account, your business will show up in maps and be able to appear in the Google Local Pack listings. Both of these will make it much easier for potential clients/customers to find you. In addition, a Google My Business account will also allow your customers to leave reviews, which can be invaluable when it comes to local-SEO. Finally, Google My Business provides insights into who is clicking on your business and what their search queries were, allowing you to use this information to improve your SEO strategy.
Content Strategies for Local SEO
Content made for Local-SEO is, in general, similar to content made for any SEO efforts. It should be relevant, engaging, and of high quality. Where local-SEO differs is in that your content should be making it clear where your business is located. This can be done by making a location page on your website, having blogs about your business’ participation in the community, and by using local phrases in your content.
On-page local SEO refers to steps that can be taken on your own website to help your local search ranking. On-page elements are a crucial part of a comprehensive local-seo strategy, and include the use of localized keywords, location based schema markup, and the use of reviews.b
Localized Keywords
Localized keywords are exactly what they sound like, keywords containing location-specific phrases or terms. This helps your website to rank when someone searches using anything related to the same geographic location as your business, driving people in your area to your business. Localized keywords can be peppered throughout your website using blogs, landing pages, and any other content. Used correctly, localized keywords will make a marked difference in the amount of local traffic you see visiting your website.
Schema markup helps search engine crawlers to comprehend your landing page and what your business does. At the very least, your website should have schema markups related to what category of business you’re in. However, by using location based schema markup, you can give a large boost to your local-SEO efforts. You should include markups detailing your address, business name, geolocation, and the area your business serves. Adding this schema will ensure that search engines know exactly where you are doing business, and increase the chance of your business ranking in local search results.
Using Reviews to Improve Local Ranking
Reviews are a crucial part of improving your local ranking in search results. Search engines are likely to rank your business higher if you have positive reviews. However, the search engine will also take into account how frequently you get new reviews, the legitimacy of the reviews, and the quality of the reviews. For this reason, it can be very helpful to ask customers to leave reviews of your business. This way, your business is always receiving new, legitimate reviews. It is very helpful if the reviews are lengthy and include images, which will make the search engine view them as high-quality.
As with any type of SEO, local SEO relies heavily on the practice of link building, with a slight difference. In traditional SEO link building, the focus is on sites with high domain authority and high traffic, which in turn boosts your own site’s authority. On the other hand, local SEO link building focuses on websites with a large local target audience. This mainly includes local directories and local news sites.
Business Listings
One of the best ways to begin local SEO link building is through the use of business directory listings. Having your business listed on high-value directory sites is a great way to quickly ramp up your link building. These directories include well known ones, such as Yelp and Facebook, as well as niche directory sites, such as ones focused only on businesses in your area or industry-specific sites. All directory sites that you list your business on should have real, qualified organic traffic containing users who may be searching for sites and services like yours.
Multi-location SEO
Local SEO can get a little tricky if your business has multiple locations, as is often the case with restaurants, service-based businesses, and retail stores. However, through the use of multi-location SEO you can ensure that users find the location closest to them when using a search engine.
First, there needs to be location-specific landing pages on your website for each location your business operates out of. Then, these locations must be added to your Google My Business profile, allowing each location to appear in the local pack for the area it operates in. Finally, the previous local-SEO practice must be done for the new business, such as local link building and reviews.
Local SEO Services
Implementing a local SEO strategy can seem daunting when it’s not your area of expertise. Rise Marketing Group offers comprehensive local SEO services to help your business stay competitive in your local market. These services include GMB accounts, content strategies, on-page local SEO, and anything else necessary to ensure that your business is ranking well in local search results.
Local SEO Checklist
To get started with local SEO, review the following checklist to make sure that your strategy fully covers areas that will improve your ranking within local search results:
- Understand local ranking factors
- Conduct a local SEO audit
- Set up a Google My Business account
- Write local-based content
- Localized keyword research
- Location-based schema markup
- Obtain high-quality reviews
- Conduct link building
- Be featured in business listings
- Perform multi-location SEO if applicable
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