Local SEO is vital for your business when targeting people in a specific location. For example, if you own a grocery store, you want to rank for relevant searches generated from a specific location so people nearby can find your business.
If you're not optimized for local SEO, you'll lose customers and business without even realizing it. There's no place to lose local SEO.
What is Local Search Engine Optimization?
It is an SEO technique that helps your business gain more visibility in local search results. It is suitable for businesses that have a physical location and target a specific geographic location (as opposed to a full online presence).
It includes finding and targeting local keywords, optimizing for Google My Business, and using name, address, and phone number (NAP) wisely.
Google and other search engines use different onesclassificationFactors for local SEO as traditional search:
Company profile on Google,evaluations, miquotesare the most important ranking factors for local searches. They are specific to local SEO and search engines like Google give these factors more importance than anything else when ranking local search results.
that's whatGooglesays about your local SEO:
„When someone searches for a business or place near where you are, they'll find local results on Google in places like Maps and Search..“
If you want to rank for the right keywords in a destination, you need to optimize your business and products for local SEO.
Why is local SEO important?
As the number of global smartphone and internet users increases, so does the need for local SEO. People are now using their phones to research local businesses before making a purchasing decision.
The following local SEO stats and research will show you its true power and why it matters more than anything else today:
- 46% of all Google searches are related to local information, and 97% of users have searched for a local website online. 🇧🇷Go-Globo)
- 77% of people always or regularly read reviews online when looking for a local business. 🇧🇷BrillanteLocal)
- 81% of consumers used Google (followed by Yelp and Facebook) to review a local business in 2021, up from 63% in 2020. (BrightLocal)
- 78% of people use the internet to find information about a local business more than once a week. (Brilliant local)
- 88% of local business searches on mobile result in a business call or visit within 24 hours. 🇧🇷Hubspot)
- Searches “near me” and “nearby” have grown by 900% in just a few years. (HubSpot)
- 72% of people who do a local search visit the business within a 5-mile radius. (HubSpot)
- 78% of location-based mobile searches result in an offline purchase. (HubSpot)
- 92% of users click or select the business on the first page of local search results. (HubSpot)
- It is estimated that local search results drive 70% of consumers to a physical store. (HubSpot)
- Local searches result in purchases 28% of the time. (HubSpot)
- 18% of local smartphone searches result in a purchase within a day, compared to just 7% of non-local searches that result in a purchase. 🇧🇷think with google)
- 72% of desktop and tablet users, while 67% of mobile users want to see ads tailored to their zip code. (think with google)
- 4 out of 5 people use search engines to find local information. (Think with Google).
This is how Google Local SEO works
It's important to understand how Google ranks businesses in your local search. This will help you focus on what matters for the leaderboard.
Googleuses 3 factors to determine the classification of a local business:
- relevance
- distance
- Meaning.
1. Relevance
It refers to the relevance between the search query and the Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business). When a business is exactly what a person is looking for, Google will prioritize and rank higher.
For this reason, your company profile must be complete, accurate and detailed. This helps Google to quickly and easily match your profile with relevant searches. Incomplete company profiles are difficult to match with search queries due to missing details, which has a negative impact on local search rankings.
2. Distance
Distance or proximity refers to the company's distance from the location term used in the search query. Businesses close to the location specified in the search query are preferred and ranked higher because a potential customer is more likely to visit nearby businesses.
Google determines the location based on the searcher's location or the location term used in the search query.
Having an accurate and complete business address on your profile will help you rank for the right and relevant searches and increase the likelihood that customers will visit your business.
3. Mark
Awareness refers to the popularity of a company. Select businesses and locations also get more visibility in local searches. Google determines business popularity based on a number of factors, including links, directories, reviews, the number of positive reviews, and the search engine ranking of your business website.
All of these factors help Google understand how well-known your business is. Selected local websites have higher visibility in local search results.
How to do local SEO and improve local search results
There are several things you need to look for and work on to improve your business's local search rankings, but the most important are:
- Company profile on Google
- evaluations
- local dating
- local keywords
- connections
- Onpage Optimization.
1. Company profile on Google
Company profile on Google(aka Google My Business) is a free platform from Google that allows local businesses to create a profile for their business with key information to rank in search and maps. You can create a free business profile and optimize it to improve local search rankings.
You can create a business profile if you have a physical store or office where customers can contact you personally during business hours. You must have a physical business to create a business profile on Google. It doesn't work for online businesses.
This is what a Google My Business profile looks like in search results:
Bing also allows businesses to create a physical business listing and profile. It is known asPlaces of Business🇧🇷 You can create your business profile on Bing to improve your local search ranking. Here's how your business profile will appear on Bing:
Any business not profiled on Google will not be ranked for local search. And not just profiling, it needs to be accurate and optimized for the right keywords and location. Google My Business is one of the most important ranking factors for local SEO. If you don't have a business profile, your chances of getting a local ranking are negligible.
Your business profile contains a lot of information that will help potential customers learn more about your business:
- Name of the company
- Address
- phone number
- description
- website
- Exact position
- evaluations
- business category
- opening hours
- photos and videos
- Products
- Questions and answers.
Google (and Bing) add more details about companies from time to time, so you can expect their map package to improve over time.
Google Business Profile Optimization Checklist
Follow these guidelines to increase your business's visibility and ranking with Google My Business:
- Add all the details. The more details you add about your business, the better.
- Keep your company information up to date
- Confirm your business location so it appears on maps. Google uses manual address verification
- Add photos of your products, shops, and nearby places so others can easily find you
- Manage reviews and answer questions quickly and accurately
- Add products so others can see what you're selling.
2. Reviews
Reviews are part of Google My Business, but Google treats them as a separate ranking factor for local businesses. Reviews are the third most important local SEO ranking factor, you can't ignore it.
Google uses reviews to determine how well known a company is. Contains the total number of reviews and the percentage of positive reviews. A business with 50 reviews with 35 5-star ratings will outperform a business with 500 reviews with 50 5-star ratings.
Not only are reviews important to Google, but your ideal customers value them more than you think. BrightLocal research found that a large proportion of customers always or regularly read online reviews of local businesses:
Google also considers other factors when evaluating online reviews of local businesses:
- texts and photos
- review duration
- Keywords used in the review
- Rating in stars
- check consistency
- Check the mood.
Reviews on your site and on third-party sites like Yelp also play an important role in local Google rankings. Google not only considers reviews shared on your business profile, but also gives importance to reviews from other sources.
Make sure your business profile is updated on third-party review sites, including Yelp and Facebook, as these are the two most commonly used review sites:
Also start collecting reviews on your local website. It is also used by Google to determine the authority of online ratings and reviewers.
How do ratings affect search engine rankings?
Search engines look at many different variables when evaluating business reviews for rankings. Here is a list of the top factors to worry about:
Hotfix-Update: One of the first things a search engine crawler will notice is the freshness of the rating. Newer reviews are more popular than older reviews as they are an indication that the company is still in business and doing a great job of keeping their customers happy.
Older reviews are still valuable, but if your business hasn't received reviews lately, this could cause problems. Make sure you keep getting reviews at a reasonable price.
review format: The format of the review is also crucial. Star ratings are by far the best search engine rating format. This is because search engine crawlers can easily track and understand these rankings.
GoogleFor example, uses structured data from review snippets to find valid reviews. Based on the validity of the rating, Google decides to include star ratings and a summary of the rating in the SERPs.
Your audience, on the other hand, may be more interested in video reviews with or without ratings. That's a different story. If you are interested in improving local search engine optimization for your online business, give the rating format due importance and ensure that the text includes star ratings.
Text alone or star ratings don't help much.
analyze diversity: Cross-platform ratings also play an important role in local search engine optimization. The more diverse your assessments are, the better. They give search engines rating signals via rating sites and platforms, and this establishes authority.
inspection authority: Not all reviews are treated equally. Reviews from established, well-known figures such as B. local tour guides, may carry more weight than a review from a new account.
Also, you should have reviews on different platforms. Having hundreds of reviews on Google Maps alone may not be that helpful compared to reviews on other platforms.
Your business should have reviews from all sorts of people on all platforms.
revision speed: differs from the timeliness of the revision. Analyze consistency in receiving new reviews. Getting the most reviews in a day or two and then being completely dead for a month raises a red flag.
Verification speed should be consistent across all platforms. A large gap or multiple revisions at once are not good signs.
Checklist for optimizing online reviews
Follow these guidelines for online reviews to optimize local search:
- Enable reviews and ask customers to leave an honest review
- Be active on Google Maps and ask customers to leave a review. Share the Google Maps review link with your customers and make it easier to write a review
- Ask visiting customers to leave a comment with pictures and a few lines.
- Email your customers with a link for verification. Make it easy for them to write and submit a review. You can get the review link from your Google My Business account
- Respond to reviews. Whether it's a positive or negative review, reply to all of them.
- Engage with customers who only add reviews with no text. Ask them to add a few lines.
3. Local dating
Local citations or mentions of your business is also a Google ranking factor for local SEO. A subpoena contains NAP (name, address, and phone number) and generally comes in two forms:
- structured quotes
- Unstructured dating.
Structured Local DatingAdd listings to local directories and listing platforms like Better Business Bureau, Yellow Pages, and Foursquare. These dating platforms allow you to create dates with all the necessary details of your local business.
Unstructured datingthese are mentions of companies on uncited platforms such as blogs and websites. These local citations are not as organized as structured citations and can often overlook important information.
Google considers both structured and unstructured citations for local SEO. Factors include:
- precision
- consistency
- Offer quality and quantity
- Relevance.
NAP accuracy and consistency is key to local SEO. You must ensure that all local listings contain accurate information about your business, which must include:
- Company name and website
- Full address
- phone numbers
- E-Mail-Addresse
- Pictures
- description
- opening hours
- Links to Social Networks.
Local Dating Checklist
Here's a checklist for optimizing your local citations to improve your business' local search visibility:
- Conduct an audit to find all NAP data available online
- Update all offers on all platforms, business directories and websites
- Contact websites for incomplete mentions of your business
- Add your business listing to niche local directories
- Request your NAP on all major business directories and dating platforms
- Keep NAPs consistent and accurate
- Use unique descriptions for different citations
- Find competitor offers and create your trade offers on the same websites and platforms.
4. Local Keywords
On-page SEO is a very important factor that Google uses to rank local businesses. And local keywords play a key role in improving SEO on your business page.
You must find and use local keywords in your listings, website and content. Google and Yelp are the two best sources for finding the best local keywords for your business.
Here is an example from Google:
Yelp also offers a wide variety of niche-based suggestions to choose from:
You can take your keyword research to the next level by using a keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, Semrush, or another.
You shouldn't just use the place name in your business, like a plumber in Akron. All Akron plumbers do it. You need to find more specific local keywords to outperform your competitors and boost local rankings.
Local keyword research checklist
Follow these best practices to find appropriate local keywords for better local search visibility:
- Always add the location in the title of your business
- Find relevant keywords in Google suggestions and Yelp lists and add them to your website and citations
- Use a keyword research tool like Ahrefs to find specific local keywords relevant to your business.
- Analyze your competitors, their websites and business listings. This will give you a good idea of which keywords to target.
- Target local long-tail keywords to rank for voice search
- Use images with appropriate local keywords to rank for image searches.
5. Local Links
Backlinks are still important for local SEO. However, you don't need to acquire links from random sites, local links do.
Google prefers local links over authority links for local SEO. Links are used to rate businesses on Google Maps, so don't ignore them.
When acquiring local links, you need to focus on two things:
- Get links from relevant websites and blogs in your industry
- The link must be from a local business owner or website in the same location.
The good news is that you don't have to build tons of links. Here is oneexamplefrom a local search query with the number of referring domains:
A few links will do, as long as they are relevant and local.
But are local backlinks enough?
Probably not.
As your business grows, you also need backlinks from authority sites. These non-local links help build authority. Don't just focus on acquiring a single type of backlinks to improve your local search engine rankings, keep it all mixed up.
Local links checklist
Follow these best practices to build local backlinks:
- Browse commercial mentions without links. Contact the source and ask them to add a link
- Contact business partners and local networks for links
- Reach out to companies that offer complementary services and products in the same industry and write a guest post for them
- Convert quotes to links.
6. On-Page Optimization
One of them is onpage optimizationmostLocal SEO positioning factors. Even when you consider all other local SEO factors, a poorly optimized website will ruin everything. You should analyze the on-page optimization carefully:
On-page SEO factors include pretty much everything from NAP, quality content, image optimization, HTML tags, internal links, and more. However, you should keep in mind that on-page search engine optimization would be different for local businesses than traditional online businesses.
Here is a list of the top on-page SEO factors you need to consider for local SEO:
- Feliz
- SIXTH
- HTML-Tags
- URL structure
- Interne Links.
1. Content
Write great linkable content. Local SEO not only means that your business needs to be visible on Map Pack, but it also needs to rank for local keywords. You must write and publish quality content that targets local keywords and focuses on local intent.
For example, if you sell plumbing work in Denver, you should write content for relevant keywords like:
- The best plumbers in Denver
- cheap plumber denver
- commercial plumber denver
- Notklempner in Denver.
You can find these keywords in Google's suggestion box or in a paid tool like Ahrefs. Write useful content around your top keywords to organically rank for relevant terms in local searches.
Make sure you align the local intent correctly. Understand what local searchers are interested in when they use this keyword. This will help you better understand local intent, resulting in increased visibility in local search engines.
Follow these guidelines for local SEO content optimization:
- Add your main keyword in the title
- Understand why your target audience is searching for a specific keyword and try to provide an answer in the form of content. Understand local intent before writing content
- Use long-tail keywords as they are easier to rank for
- Add headings and subheadings to all your content
- Write short paragraphs, add bullet points and multimedia elements
- Your content should be easy to scan
- Research and write highly useful, link-worthy and shareable content
- Avoid writing overly promotional content.
- Create images and videos of your property in your content
- Avoid using AI content as it will do more harm than good
- Focus on long-form content as it ranks better (2000+ words)
- Make content readable by typing and formatting it
- Instead, avoid keyword stuffing, add keywords naturally
- If possible, add rich snippets to make your content stand out in the SERPs.
2. Siesta
We have already discussed the meaning ofName,Trusted, miphone numberYour company It must be clearly mentioned on your website.
Yes, the presence of NAP on your website is an on-page SEO factor and Google considers NAP for local searches.
This means that Google can only show your website to local searchers in search results based on NAP, even if you don't have specific content targeting that keyword. However, your NAP must be consistent and consistent with the NAP on Google My Business and elsewhere.
Not only does it have to be consistent, it also has to be spelled correctly.here's howto write the NAP in the correct format so that it is understandable and readable by search engine crawlers and humans:
Where do you write NAP on your website?
All of these places on your website require you to include your company name, address, and phone number:
- header and footer
- contact page
- About us page
- Service area page.
Here is oneexample:
The company name, address and phone number are clearly mentioned in the footer in the correct format. Not only is it visible to website visitors, but search engine crawlers can also see it on every webpage across the site.
3. HTML-Tags
An important part of content optimization is using appropriate HTML tags. An HTML tag is a small piece of code that helps search crawlers read your content properly. These tags improve the search visibility of your site and content.
HTML tags are also useful for making content easier to read. The output of most of these tags is visible to visitors, improving understanding, readability, user experience, and aesthetics.
Here is a list of the most important HTML tags for Local SEO:
title tag
It is a tag used to give a title to a webpage. The title you give a page is its title tag. Every web page has a title tag and is visible on SERPs as follows:
These are all different page title tags.
Google doesn't necessarily display the title you enter in search results and may adjust it based on your search query. But that doesn't mean you should write a title for your web pages.
These titles are visible to anyone who visits your site, so title tags serve both search engines and humans.
Follow these best practices for writing compelling title tags for local SEO:
- Keep it short (less than 60 characters) so it can be viewed on all devices
- Add your main keyword in the title tag
- Make it attractive and compelling so people can't resist clicking through to your site in search results.
- Include your company name in the title, preferably at the end
- Avoid adding keywords that don't make sense and keep the titles interesting instead.
Header-Tags
These tags are used to structure your content and break it down into headings and subheadings. There are 6 title tags that go like thisit is:
These heading tags are ranked by importance, with H1 being the most important heading and usually being the title of your page (becomes a title tag). So H2 is the second most important title and so on.
You only have a single H1 for a given webpage, but you can use multiple H2-H6 tags. These tags help structure the content and make it easier to read.hereIt's like making your content reader and search engine friendly with title tags:
Title tags work both ways.
They divide the content into different sections so that search engines understand what the content and the different sections are about. This helps with indexing and sorting.
At the same time, the header tags make the content easier to read. This makes your content readable and improves its visual appearance. Content without title tags looks weird no matter the quality.
Follow these title tag best practices and take your local SEO to the next level:
- Just use a single H1 tag and this should be the page title
- Keep title tags meaningful
- Adding keyword variations to your header tags is a good idea to rank for relevant search terms.
- Use title tags to structure content and create a well-defined hierarchy
- Add title tags to large blocks of content.
meta description
It is an HTML tag that summarizes the content and purpose of a web page. It tells search engines what a page is about and this helps in indexing and ranking.
The meta description is visible on the search results page, so your target audience will read it too. Here is an example of a meta description:
Google may not show you its version of the meta description, but instead pulls content from your webpage and uses it as the meta description. This is done to make your website relevant to the search query.
But that doesn't mean you should stop writing meta descriptions. Even if you have pages without meta descriptions, they will still rank for relevant search terms. But this puts a lot of pressure on Google, because it now has to scan the entire website to match the search queries.
Having a meta description makes things easier for search engine spiders. It makes it easier for crawlers to better understand your page, its content and relevance. The decision to use your meta description in search results is still up to Google.
You should do your job of writing compelling meta descriptions and let Google do the job of showing your users the best content (metadata or otherwise).
To write the best meta descriptions to improve local SEO, follow these guidelines:
- Your meta description must be between 150 and 160 characters. Meta description space is limited, so keep it short and sweet.
- Use your local main keyword in the meta description
- It must be relevant and consistent with the content of the website.
- Make it descriptive and a summary of your website.
- Add a powerful CTA to the meta description to convince readers to click through and visit your website
- Avoid keyword stuffing
- If you can't decide what to write, skip it.
Alt-Text
Image alt text is the alt text tag used to describe an image. This is the text to use in place of an image if the image fails to load. This text is also read by screen readers and other devices when the images cannot be displayed or when there are accessibility issues.
Alt text serves two purposes:
- To help search engines understand what an image is about so it can rank properly in image searches.
- To help users understand an image when it won't load or can't be viewed.
Image alt text plays a crucial role in local search engine optimization, where many people search for product images. You must use appropriate alt tags for all images on your site.
that's whatJohn Muellerof Google said about alt text:
How to use alt text instead of oneBild:
and here it isas theScreen readers use alt tags:
You can see the image alt texts are linked to the UX. Follow these guidelines to write the best image alt text for local SEO:
- Enter descriptive alt text that explains the content of the image.
- Explain the picture and its content.
- Be short and precise
- Add the local keyword of course if it fits
- Avoid keyword stuffing
- For abstract images that are difficult to explain, you can omit alt text.
4. URL structure
The way you structure and write the URLs for your local website affects local SEO. URLs may not have much of an impact on ranking as it is a minor ranking factor, but you cannot ignore URLs. They are still considered by search engines.
The URL is also visible to your target audience. You can see it in search results and in the address bar. This is one of the reasons why simple and user-friendly URLs should be your top priority.
This is an example of how your audience sees URLs:
A well-structured URL design helps search engine crawlers better understand your site's design. It provides web spiders with important information about the hierarchy of your website.
Here is oneexamplevon bons x ruins URLs:
Follow these best practices to create SEO-friendly URLs that improve local SEO and user experience:
- keep it easy to read
- Avoid writing very long URLs
- Avoid using special characters. Use only a hyphen to separate the words
- Add your keyword in the URL
- Your URL must be descriptive and relevant to the title of your website
- Use the right directory and folder to tell search engine spiders the exact location and meaning of the URL.
5. Interne Links
Internal linking is a crucial on-page optimization technique. It connects the pages of your website together.
Internal links help with everything:
- Help users easily navigate and navigate your website
- Distribute link juice between different pages on your website
- Help search engine crawlers understand and fully crawl your site
- Avoid orphaned websites
- Create a site structure and hierarchy
- Target relevant keywords and improve search engine rankings.
Here is oneexamplehow internal links help improve the authority of new websites:
You can link high authority pages on your site to new pages to pass on the link juice. This is a great way to improve crawling and ranking of new content.
This helps avoid creatingorphanedPages that search engines never see and are therefore never crawled, indexed, or ranked:
Here's how you should create internal links to improve onpage optimization for your local business website:
- Create meaningful internal links to relevant pages on your website
- Use relevant anchor text. Here you can use local keywords to improve ranking.
- Link to new websites from old and authority websites with many links
- Avoid linking to too many websites on one page
- Check that all pages on your website are correctly linked and that there are no orphaned pages.
OnPage-SEO-Checkliste
Here's a quick rundown of local on-page SEO best practices:
- Write quality content and promote it religiously.
- Target the right local keywords with a focus on long-tail keywords
- Add NAPs throughout the site, especially in the header and footer
- Keep NAP consistency
- Use HTML tags to your advantage
- Keep the URL structure simple and user-friendly
- Feel free to use lots of internal links for local SEO.
NEWMEDIA Local SEO Services for local businesses
At NEWMEDIA we offer local SEO services to help you improve your local business ranking. You don't have to go through the painful process of doing all the hard work of creating a Google business profile, citations, local SEO work, review management and more. We take control of your local SEO while you can focus on serving your clients.
When you work with NEWMEDIA as your local SEO agency, your business will benefit from our comprehensive local SEO services to grow your online presence, target the right audience and ultimately win clients.
Here is an overview of the local SEO services we offer:
- Local SEO Strategy
- Set up, verify and manage Google and Bing Places business profiles
- revision management
- Online-Reputationsmanagement
- Local Business Marketing for Local Business Owners with Custom Local SEO Strategy Services
- Local citations and local business listings for major directories and platforms
- appointment management
- NAP audit for consistency
- Ecommerce Website Optimization
- Local keyword research and competitor analysis
- Onpage optimization for local SEO
- Local backlink acquisition strategy
- Local Digital Marketing Services
- analyzes and reports
- Dedicated local SEO specialist
Get in contactJoin us today and see how our award-winning local SEO agency can help your local business reach new heights.