Local SEO is the practice of improving a brick-and-mortar business’s visibility in search results tied to a specific city or region. It blends traditional SEO with geographic signals like social profiles, links and citations so your site shows up when nearby customers search for what you offer.
Below are the core tactics covered in this guide: fighting spammy citations, generating customer reviews, building content around local customer personas, tracking competitors, building links, and understanding how Google formats local results.
What is local SEO and why does it matter?
Local SEO combines traditional SEO with geography to increase the visibility of brick-and-mortar businesses on search engines. It focuses on social profile pages, links, citations and other factors that are local to the city where your business is located. When local customers type in a search query, they are likely to click on your website to find what they need.
With the rise of mobile usage, local SEO has become more important than ever. Nearly eight in ten consumers now use the internet to find local businesses, and seventy percent of them end up making a purchase. Coronavirus has made the local search trend even more prominent, and consumers are more likely to buy from local businesses they find through search.
Google has also begun placing more ads in local search results. While you will still find organic listings on the first page of Google, the first result is usually an ad. The map pack usually includes three listings and is influenced by local SEO. By using local SEO, you can boost your business’s visibility in the local search results, attract more foot traffic, improve your brand’s reputation and help customers find your business.
How do you avoid spammy local citation tactics?
Local SEO relies on quality content, contact with other local businesses and local citations. Despite the importance of building local citations, you should be wary of spammy tactics. Some of these tactics include keyword stuffing in the business name, listing inaccurate location information and creating fake accounts. Fighting spam will take time and effort, but it is worth it if it pushes your profile up the rankings.
How can customer reviews improve local SEO?
Encouraging people to leave reviews is one way to improve your local SEO. A lack of reviews may result in lost sales. To encourage reviews, provide an exceptional experience for your customers and respond to negative reviews. Positive reviews help your local SEO campaign, and a better experience for users leads to better rankings in Google.
How do you build content for a local audience?
Local SEO involves creating and using customer personas to understand your potential customers. Develop profiles of these potential customers and write content that addresses their needs. The personas should include topics that they are likely to search for on Google, which can help you plan content for your website.
Another tactic for local SEO is to create content targeted to the area in which you operate. This can include blog posts about local events, listings of nearby businesses and general information on the area.
How do you track competitors and build local links?
Monitoring your competition is another way to boost local SEO. A free tool called LocalRank Flux can keep track of the performance of your competitors in the search results, alerting you to algorithm changes so you can stay ahead.
Link building is also a major factor in local SEO. Links help search engines understand that your content is local and valuable to the community.
Related coverage
- The Importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Business Owners
- SEO Demystified: A Step-by-Step Action Plan for Growing Your Business Online