WHAT IS LOCAL SEO?

The Business Owner’s Guide to Local Search Marketing

“Go local.” 

It’s practically a mantra in India.— to shop local, go local, buy local, etc. With this line of thinking, it’s no wonder that local SEO is a hot topic for business owners. I’ve had countless business owners come to me asking about local SEO, and they all ask the same questions:

“What is Local SEO?

Local SEO helps businesses promote themselves online to local customers within a geographic area. The difference between local SEO and organic SEO is the intent. Google can (pretty well, too) pick out search queries that have “local intent,” meaning the searcher wants search engine results with local companies.

In practice, local SEO is the act of grooming your online profile so you are found for the local searches most relevant to your business.

Why Does Local SEO Matter?

Ok, we know what local SEO is, but who cares? Why does local SEO matter to your business?

Because local customers rely on the internet to find information about your business.

Because local business searches often are based on geographic factors, organic SEO isn’t enough to rank, especially if your competitors are engaging in local SEO. Local SEO increases visibility for businesses interested in ranking for geographically-related searches.

In the search results, there are usually two distinct sections dominating the top half of the search results page: paid ads and the local pack (the map listings). About 86% of people use these map listings to find the location of a business. With the right local SEO strategy, you should be at the top of this local pack for local searches related to your business.

Local SEO requires a variety of strategies:

• NAP Citations – Be sure your business’ name, address, and phone number is EXACTLY the same across all of your online assets like your website, social profiles, and Google My Business/Bing listings.
• Local directory listings – Claim and verify all listings on local directories including Yelp, Superpages, Foursquare, Yellowpages, etc.
• Reviews – Reviews are key to local SEO. Regularly solicit reviews and engage in review-building tactics on social and search profiles.
• Localized onsight content – The more relevant your on-site content is to the searcher, the more likely it will show up in search results. This means creating unique geo-targeted service pages, specifying service areas, and including maps with your location on it.
• Schema markup – Ask your web developer to implement local business schema on your website. It gives the search engines a clearer supply of local information about your business. 

The Most Important Factors in Local Search Marketing:

So we covered how to rank, but what are the MOST IMPORTANT aspects of local SEO?

• Distance – How far is each potential search result from the location term used in a search? If a user doesn’t specify a location in their search, Google will calculate distance based on what’s known about its location.
• Relevance – This refers to how well a local listing matches what someone is searching for. Adding complete and detailed business information across the web can help Google better understand your business and match your listing to relevant searches.
• Prominence – Some places are more prominent in the offline world, and search results try to reflect this in local ranking. Prominence is also based on information that Google has about a business from across the web (like links, articles, and directories). Google review count and score are factored into local search ranking: more reviews and positive ratings will probably improve a business’s local ranking. Your position in web results is also a factor, so SEO best practices also apply to local search optimization.
• Your Google My Business profile – Without an optimized Google My Business profile, you won’t appear for your top local searches. I dive into more below.

Your Google My Business listing will be your number one driver of local SEO. Make sure you claim your listing, and once you’ve done that, optimize it. To show up for local searches, you’ll need:

• A completed Google My Business profile
• All business locations accounted for with connected GMB pages
• Consistent NAP (name-address-phone number)
• A large number of 4 and 5-star reviews 
• If you offer online booking, add the “booking button” feature

We approach local SEO the same way we approach SEO, by making data-driven decisions to turn your website, and its ranking, into your strongest marketing asset. By evaluating the status of your current Local SEO and then creating a plan of attack, our content marketing specialists can take your website’s ranking to another level. Our goal for you is always the Local Pack and organic listings and we use the following tools to get there:

BASIC LOCAL SEO CHECKLIST:

• Make sure your NAP citations are consistent across the directories that matter most for your industry
• Claim and verify your Google My Business listing
• Completely optimize your Google My Business listing
• Optimize your citations across online directories
• Remove duplicate listings on the directories that matter for your client
• Add Local Business and Review schema to your website
• Optimize your on-site content to be geo-targeted
• Implement a strategy to get reviews across multiple directories
• Respond to all directory reviews
• Consistently build local links

When it comes to Local SEO, we’ve got it down to a science. The majority of our clients are local businesses, so we do this all day, every day. If your website is not showing up in local search results, you’re missing a big opportunity to grow your local business. Let us help you fix that!