What is Local SEO?
Local search engine optimization is a digital marketing strategy that gets your business in front of customers in your area, increases your business’s online presence, and boosts your revenue. With the help of a local SEO consultant, your business can rank higher for relevant keywords and show up in online maps or local listings.
Why does it matter?
Today, Google and other search engines have become the equivalent of the Yellow Pages in a newspaper — most people head online to search for local service providers.
Local SEO solutions let you target nearby customers who are actively looking for solutions that you offer. Here’s how it works:
First, we need to look at local search intent and related terms. These are search terms that include a physical location like “bakery San Francisco” or have specific terms such as “bakery near me.” (Did you find us by searching “SEO services near me?”)
Instead of focusing solely on ranking for broader terms like “how to choose a lawyer,” local search engine optimization hones in on phrases that are searched by people with immediate purchase intent, such as “family lawyer near me.”
Search engines have adapted to display locally optimized results, providing searchers with relevant information while simultaneously giving businesses opportunities to showcase their contact info and reviews.
A crucial part of local search optimization is the ‘local pack’ or ‘3-pack’ system that’s used to display the three most relevant local businesses for any query.
Getting a spot among the ‘3-pack’ for your local keywords gives you an enormous advantage over the competition since it provides all of the relevant information about your company: what you do, how to contact you, your working hours, and even your rating based on customer reviews.
But to increase your local rankings and your odds of being displayed in the ‘3-pack’, you need to have a Google Business Profile account, which is another integral part of the local SEO equation. Google Business Profile (formerly called Google My Business (GMB)) will essentially act as your business’s “About me” in search results.
What Are the Benefits of Local SEO?
There’s a reason why the demand for local SEO services has skyrocketed: more and more businesses are seeing the unique advantages of reaching potential customers via organic search.
When someone decides to go online and type in a query for a local business, they’re usually already aware that they have a problem that they want to solve and that they need a nearby company to help them.
Increase Your Local Search Visibility
Local SEO strategies such as citation building help make your business more visible online. People will be able to find you not only on Google but on various other business directories as well. It’s in these business listings that people will easily find your address, resulting in more foot traffic and more sales.
Local SEO services will also improve your business’s visibility on Google Maps, as well as increase the potential for your business to appear among the “3-pack.” That not only means a lot more traffic to your site but also a boost to your reputation and authority.
Build Customer Trust
With a local search engine optimization company, you can target ready-to-buy local customers. By using on-page local SEO solutions (improving load times and providing more relevant information with in-depth content), you’ll be able to provide a quality experience to your visitors.
Today’s consumers read around 10 reviews before trusting a business, and appearing at the top of local search rankings will help you quickly accumulate dozens of positive reviews from happy customers, especially when you consider how most of today’s users browse the web.
Why Is a Local SEO Strategy Important for Businesses?
Ever since Google made its first steps towards optimizing local searches back in 2003, local SEO has become the best way to generate leads for local businesses.
Today, if you’re operating a law firm, a medical practice, restaurant, or if you provide local services such as plumbing or other repairs, the vast majority of your foot traffic or offline customers are likely to start on a search engine like Google.
Even if someone hears about your business from a friend, they are very likely to look it up online before making a decision. 71% of people confirm the location of the business online before going, so your public information needs to be available in multiple places, be accurate, and remain consistent.
SEO vs. PPC for Local Businesses
Some businesses decide to focus on paid strategies like PPC campaigns, where you pay for every click to your site. Meanwhile, others pursue organic strategies such as content marketing and local SEO campaigns.
But which one should you focus on? And how are they different?
Benefits of PPC
The obvious benefit of PPC (Pay-Per-Click) campaigns is that they can start bringing in new customers from day one. Once you set up the campaigns, you can expect clicks to start coming in within hours, and if the ads are profitable, scaling is quite easy.
The caveat is that making the campaigns profitable can be a challenge at first. Local keywords tend to be very competitive, so you will likely need to pay a lot for each click, and that can rack up expenses quickly.
Benefits of SEO
SEO is a much more organic process, which means that you can’t expect to set up your Google My Business page and start seeing leads immediately.
What you can expect is that, even though getting a spot among the ‘3-pack’ and earning a place on the first page of the SERPs can take time, once you get there, you will have a steady stream of leads that will come to your site month after month.
What’s more, since the results are organic, they pack a lot more social proof and trust, which will show prospects that your business is trustworthy.
Google Business Profile Optimization
Optimizing your Google Business Profile is essential to your local SEO strategy. We consider Google Business Profile a fundamental pillar of local search engine optimization and have a comprehensive approach to setting it up for our clients.
Your profile needs to contain accurate and up-to-date information about your business. Details like your location(s), contact details, and working hours help Google ensure that crucial business data remains consistent throughout the web.
Images are another vital part of Google Business Profile setup, as they help prospects see how your business looks, how to recognize it, and who works there. And, of course, you can insert relevant keywords throughout your listing and use geotagging techniques to verify your locations and make your business more trustworthy to Google and prospective clients.
Local Link Building
Local backlinks are one of the most critical local SEO ranking factors, as they are used by Google to determine a site’s value.
And since local SEO revolves around a specific location, your strategy should focus on links that not only point back to your site with relevant anchor text but also links from websites that may potentially be seen by your local audience. With local SEO, getting a backlink from a relevant local blog or website can often be more powerful than a link from a high-authority source like Forbes.
Another useful tool for increasing your link equity is local citations, which are directory listings of your business that contain all of its essential information, such as your location, contact details, and business name.
How Does Local SEO Help Grow Your Business?
Did you know that 92% of people find the company they want to work with on the first page of search results?
That means that if you’re not visible on the first results page when local searchers type in a query on Google, they aren’t going to consider you. And if they’re not finding you, they’re finding your competitors.
People also need to trust a business before they can consider choosing its services. Seeing your business among the ‘3-pack’ results or your high review rating on Google Maps can serve as undeniable proof that your company is reliable. In fact, this type of proof can be a primary decision factor.
