With pandemic shattering the way we do business, local firms and shops have been forced to change their way of marketing.
Gone are the days that you can entrust your marketing efforts solely to the conventional approach. More than 93% of consumers research first to find a business within the vicinity as per Brightlocal. Hence, just imagine losing this opportunity to get a possible customer. What if your website is not found among the first results?
Freak not because there is still a chance to win them back. In fact, there are so many ways to get your website ranked locally. Local SEO is the best way to achieve this.
Brace yourself as GoSEO will guide you through the process!
What is Local SEO?
Let us introduce local SEO to you in a simpler way.
Ara has a vegan restaurant business. The restaurant is based in Manila. It has all offerings on its website to showcase its services, the menu, the delivery area, and so on.
Now, Ara is in dire need of marketing her business.
Unfortunately, her business is not found in any of the major search engines when searching for “Vegan restaurant Manila” in Google. Moreover, then there are no listings in Yellow Pages, TripAdvisor, and other directories. She mainly relies on word of mouth and recommendation from friends and family.
She’s quite stressed since there are tons of customers looking for her business online.
Worst case scenario, the customers get frustrated knowing that there are no options to avail of Ara’s services.
What does Ara need to do?
In her case, she has a promising business. The thing is, she lacks visibility and credibility online. Knowing that 72% of consumers read first online reviews before visiting a business, she certainly has to boost her reputation online.
If Ara can take these aspects into a newer height, she certainly gets the customer’s trust, too. She also gets the satisfaction of being on-site when it comes to order or get her services locally.
This is where local SEO can save your day!
Why Local SEO is Important?
For novice digital marketers out there, local searches are more important than broad ones. This is because the local searches are focused on a more local radius compared to the broad searches.
In fact, Chat Meter indicates that the possibility of being clicked by a user is 46% are local searches in Google. What’s more surprising is that, users spend 13 minutes and 45 seconds reading reviews before making an informed decision as per Brightlocal.
With that in mind, you can expect as much as 25,000 people in a radius of 10 miles to search for the services you offer per month.
This is more than enough reason why local SEO is important and needs your attention. This is not just about getting visibility and increasing the traffic to your website. It is also about improving the quality of your business.
Local SEO is the process of getting your website ranked in local search results. If your business has a physical office, then it is more accurate to say that local SEO is about getting your listing in local directories.
What are local search results? These are the results that appear when you type in a certain keyword in Google or Yahoo! or Bing, for instance. For Ara’s business, the keywords she may consider are “vegan restaurant Manila” or “best vegan food in Manila” or “vegan restaurant near me.”
Using keywords with “close by” and “near me” can fire up her online presence 900% than using a keyword with “restaurant” alone. Ara needs to be active in the local search results because there are many vegan restaurants in Manila. She needs to stand out among them!
More than that, local SEO is a good way to reach the right audience. Say, if you are an apple vendor, then you can think of how do you reach out to the potential clients in the surrounding areas.
With the recent Google’s MUM (Multitask Unified Model) update, it specifically emphasized eliminating the need to do multiple searches, language and geographical barriers. This update focuses more on user intent and journey.
In other words, if you are relocating to another city, Google prioritizes answering all related question you have in mind. From “How to get there in Manila” to “Where to Stay in Manila” to “What to See in Manila,” Google shows info cards or results about it right on SERPs. Google definitely considers local search intent.
Hence, this is favorable for local businesses over huge companies that may not be known in the new cities they are moving to. Mastering local SEO can get your business on the radar of the locals if you are a real-life business.
Failing on this aspect will lure generic leads that cannot be converted due to geographical reasons. It will lose your chance to appear on the Google 3-pack. Although this is not really a bad idea but always bear in mind that users won’t scroll more than the first page of SERP.
Therefore, make a way to get to the first page. And the only way to do so is through local SEO.
Local SEO Strategy 101
Local SEO is considered the most prevailing approach you can utilize to connect with customers at key micro-moments. It ensures that the business is properly exposed to the right audience according to the nearest possible location.
The question is, how can you link your company to the key micro-moments of the consumers? Here are some tips to keep in mind:
1. Make use of Google My Business
Google My Business helps business owners to showcase their business profile, generate reviews, respond to customer inquiries right away, and more. As of today, it is considered as one of the most reliable tools that can boost your credibility. It also ensures that your local listing appears on Google searches.
Long time ago, if you are wanted to hire a local plumber in Manila, you need to use a Yellow Page. You need to spend an hour or so flipping the pages until you can find then plumber section, choose a number and look for the nearest shop/provider in your area. After that, you will need to call them up and make sure you get a confirmation about the job.
It takes a lot of time and not a good way to get the best possible option. Just imagine the nightmare of waiting on the phone for a few minutes, if not more. In the end, you do not really know if they are really reliable or not. That can be frustrating.
Now, you just need to type in the search bar “plumber near me” or your closest place and Google will display all your options. You need to consider using keywords like “best service provider” or “most reliable plumber in Manila”.
Creating an account in Google My Business is crucial as it will serve as your Business Profile. Google will ask the full name of your company, do business under or owner’s name, address, phone numbers and website. This makes it easy for people to find your profile and check out what you offer.
If they liked your business profile and reviews or photos, they may contact you directly instead of wasting their time searching for the best service providers. This is it! Not only Google My Business can boost your credibility but it can also give you more visibility that will eventually bring more traffic to your website.
More importantly, it helps you communicate with the potential customers by making it easy for them to contact you or reach out to other users for business or personal purposes. It makes it possible to get in touch with the right user at the right time during their search.
Here are some tips to optimize your Google My Business:
Create a review page for your business so you know the kind of services and products people are looking for.
✔ If you want to provide information about your services, create a press release so people can find out all the information about you and what you offer.
✔ Have a customized sign-up page where visitors can go and request more information.
✔ Link your Google My Business account to your website so the content is more visible for people.
✔ Create a contact page where you can list your number, address, and email address. This will allow people to contact you whenever needed without redirecting them to other pages or landing pages.
✔ Make sure all the information in your Google My Business is accurate so it can be easily seen by people who are looking for you in Google search results.
2. Make your website mobile-friendly.
According to Google, more than 76% of the searches are now done on smartphones when searching for a local purchase. Long gone are the days when people go to a store, ask a clerk to check a product, and then decide to buy it shortly.
Nowadays, there’s a heightened concern among consumers about online shopping – especially for items that have been checked out from an online site – and they expect the site to be mobile-friendly. This means you need to make sure your website follows best practices as it will make it easy for them to checkout faster.
Another reason is the larger percentage of internet users to get on their phone for research. As of today, there are 6 billion people who access the internet via smartphone.
They use mobile devices like tablets, laptops or any other technology that’s powered by a software that’s compatible to their device. That made it more convenient for consumers to use sensitive information like credit card number and other personal details when making purchases online.
If it’s mobile-friendly, they may do it right away without a hassle. But if your site isn’t, you can lose a potential customer.
3. Get consistent review from satisfied customers.
Consistent review means that you get positive reviews for your business from consumers who were already satisfied with the services provided. When someone has an experience, they’re more likely to talk about it and share it online.
Reviews and testimonial pages prove that you, your business and your staff can do what others did and commit to offer a service to the public. But there’s more: it also lets people know if there’s a chance they’ll experience similar issues because of their purchase.
As per Google, they are looking for credible reviewers who have knowledge about your business. They will judge the credibility of the reviews by asking the reviewer. Here are some questions that can be asked:
“What do you like about the company, business or staff?” “How was your experience with the company, business or staff?” “How likely are you to recommend this company, business or staff to a friend or family member?” “Any other comments?”.
Writing a review doesn’t just mean you need to list all the good things about the business. It’s more than that. Because they don’t just buy your services, they also use it and hopefully it’s a positive thing.
4. Take advantage of local business listings.
You might be asking, what kind of local business listings you should deal with? Well, there’s a lot of different options like Yelp, Foursquare and TripAdvisor. Each one of these sites has unique features such as ratings, reviews and other valuable information.
This tactic is geared towards reaching out to potential customers by answering questions. It can be an opportunity to provide information and let users know more about your business.
5. Improve the visibility of your business on Google Map.
The next thing you need to do is improve the visibility of your business on Google Maps. With this feature, Google Maps will be able to show a map with all the businesses that are close to a specified place or a place where users search for something on their smartphones.
It can be anything like restaurants, banks or gas stations. For small businesses, this feature can help them get more visibility in the area where they want to target customers.
6. Maximize the power of local keywords.
Region-specific keyword can help you reign in local rankings.
When you optimize your site for local keywords, it also gives you more control over the city or region where you’d like to rank. For instance, if you want to rank higher in search results for “marketing agency Manila”, there are keywords you can optimize your website for people residing close or nearby Manila. You may use keywords such as “local SEO”, “SEO services” and the like.
7. Don't forget about link signals.
Keep these pointers in mind when acquiring high-quality backlinks:
1. Pick a strategic anchor text.
2. Use nofollow keywords.
3. Don’t redirect to your competitors
4. Create quality content.
Local SEO Tools
1. Moz Local
Moz Local gives you local SEO reports, alerts, tools, and data to help you grow your local business. It is a paid tool but will definitely be worth it! When you are creating or managing your listing on sites like Google My Business, Yelp, Facebook, and Foursquare, you may want to check the accuracy of the details.
Your business information is important in order to optimize it for local SEO. Moz Local offers tools that will test the data you provided on Google My Business. It also offers alerts about your listing so that if there is an update or any error found with your business information, it will be directly sent to your inbox.
Features like Advanced Web Search, PostRank, and Local News Alerts will help you to have a better understanding about your listing.
2. Bright Local
3. Google My Business
Google My Business is a free tool that any business can use. You can check it out and see how it works for you. It will still give you good suggestions about how to optimize the listing of your business in just a few minutes!
You can put your google listing to “Verified” if you verify the Google review such as Alexa, Bing or Yahoo! Reviews, then you will get more points in the page google ranking.
4. GrowthBar
GrowthBar is a local SEO tool that helps to boost your local business. You can get an overview of your business and the results for it. When you want to get information about any aspect, you can check it out by clicking on “Show This Info” and get the details you need.
This is a good way for local businesses to interact with other locals.
You can also do the same with Yelp, Facebook, Foursquare and SocialSEO.
5. Listing Management Tool by Semrush
Another local SEO tool is the Listing Management Tool.
This tool helps you manage your directories and listings in one central location. If you are interested, then it is very essential that you install the plugin onto your website.
The plugin works by adding a widget on your WordPress site that allows users to easily submit new listings to directories, edit existing information, and remove incorrect information.
What’s more , you can also see the traffic that comes directly to your website or through directory links based on your keyword or location.
It helps you monitor the presence of your local business on major search engines and local directories. This tool allows you to track your rank in major search engines and get a personalized report about it.
You can also check out what keywords are being associated with your business name and which of them are appearing more frequently than the others. Featuring extensive keyword research tools, SEMrush Local can be used to create research reports.
Keywords are the most important aspect of local SEO. If you want your website to rank high in SERPs, then it is important that you become an expert about them. The SEMrush Local allows you to easily monitor what keywords are trending for your business and which ones are dominating the SERPs at any given time.
USE LOCAL SEO TO DOMINATE THE SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS
Steal customers from your nearest competitors. Stand out from all the other businesses in your area by optimising your online presence with the help of local SEO.
You need to think global to dominate local search engine result. Use local SEO to strengthen your brand and increase your company’s visibility.
It’s a complicated process but it’s absolutely worth it. To find success with local SEO, you need to do work consistently and make sure that you optimize all the aspects of your site for Google search.
If you are still lost about how to get local SEO, we are here to help you. Schedule a FREE consultation session with us and we will be glad to guide you towards the right direction.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What does local SEO involve?
Local SEO mainly focuses on optimizing your website for the geographic location of your target audience.
Some of the things that you can do to optimize for local SEO include:
-Optimize your NAP, or name, address and phone number, to get it consistent across all web properties
– Optimize the location of your business on Google Maps and update any new locations
– Optimize Geotargeting settings in Google AdWords
-Create a separate site for each country or region where you operate and include localized content within its pages.
Staying consistent with all of your local SEO practices will help to increase your ranking on Google Maps and in the search engines.
What is the difference between SEO and local SEO?
The main difference between SEO and local SEO lies in the geographic location of the business and its target audience. Businesses that operate in a broader area such as the United States, often advertise on a national scale. These companies may choose to do SEO on a national level in order to increase their online visibility and eventually grow their customer base.
Local businesses however, typically want to target their ads or content towards people in their immediate vicinity; these businesses will conduct local SEO with the intent of drawing in local customers and increasing revenue in the region they’re located in.
How do you know if you need local SEO?
You will need local SEO if:
*Your business doesn’t have an online presence
*You are trying to rank well in the search engines for local, geographic keywords
*Geo-location is important to your customer. For example, if you are a law firm with multiple locations all over the state, you want to rank for those cities too.
If any of these apply to your business, then it may be worth investing time and money into local SEO.
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