Local SEO
Rank your website and Google Business listing for local search keywords and outrank your competitors
Why is Local SEO Important?
Local SEO is important for several reasons. First and foremost, it helps businesses connect with their target audience in a specific geographical area. By optimising their online presence for local search, businesses can improve their visibility to potential customers actively seeking products or services in their local area.
One of the primary benefits of local SEO is that it targets less competitive, location-based keywords. Instead of competing nationally or globally, businesses can focus on ranking for keywords relevant to their local market. This increases their chances of achieving higher rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs) and attracting more targeted traffic.
Building trust and credibility within their local community is essential for any small business. When potential customers see a business prominently displayed in local search results, it signals that it is reputable and well-regarded in their area. This can increase brand awareness, customer trust, and conversions.
Local SEO is crucial for businesses with physical locations or providing services in specific locations. For instance, a local restaurant, dentist, or plumber relies heavily on attracting customers within their service area. These businesses can effectively reach their target audience and increase their local customer base by utilizing local SEO strategies, such as optimising their Google My Business listing, obtaining local citations, and targeting location-specific keywords.
With the widespread use of smartphones, people frequently use their devices to search for nearby businesses while on the go. Local SEO ensures that businesses are visible in these “near me” searches and have readily available accurate information, such as their address, phone number, and directions.
Google My Business Listing
The Google My Business (GMB) listing is a powerful tool that helps businesses to establish an online presence and connect with their target audience in local search results. When someone searches for a business name or relevant keywords, the GMB listing appears on the right side of the Google search results page, displaying key information about the business.
Setting up a GMB listing for your business is a relatively simple process, but the true power lies in properly optimising and managing it. With a well-optimised GMB listing, you can enhance your online visibility, attract more customers, and increase your chances of ranking higher in local search results.
To set up a GMB listing, you need to provide accurate and complete information about your business, including your address, phone number, website URL, business hours, and a description of your products or services. It’s important to ensure that this information is consistent with what is displayed on your website and other online directories.
Once your GMB listing is set up, optimisation is key. This involves adding relevant keywords to your business description, selecting accurate categories, and uploading high-quality images and videos. Incorporating keywords specific to your industry and location will help your listing appear for relevant searches in your area.
Local Search GMB Ranking Factors
Regarding ranking factors for Google My Business (GMB), there are several essential aspects to consider.
Primary Category: Choosing a relevant primary category for your business listing. Google gives preference to businesses that have selected the most relevant primary category, so choosing the category that best represents your business is essential.
Additional Categories: Including additional categories relevant to your business can also positively impact your GMB ranking. Adding as many additional, related categories as possible increases your chances of appearing in search results for a wider range of queries1.
Regular Updates: Posting regular updates about your business activities, specials, promotions, and events can help optimise your GMB profile. This keeps your listing fresh and engaging and signals to Google that your business is active and relevant.
Features: Utilizing special features within your GMB listing, such as menu items, product highlights, or services offered, can increase the online visibility of your brand. Including these features provides more information to potential customers, giving them a better understanding of what you offer.
Reviews: Genuine customer reviews are another critical ranking factor for GMB listings. Encouraging customers to leave reviews and responding to them promptly can help build trust and credibility with potential customers and improve your overall ranking.
It’s important to note that these are just a few key factors, and other considerations can influence your GMB ranking. Google’s algorithm is constantly evolving, and factors such as proximity, relevance, and prominence also play a role. Staying up-to-date with current SEO best practices and regularly monitoring and optimising your GMB listing will help ensure you maximise your visibility and potential for ranking success.
Our Local Search Optimisation Process
Review Collection & Management
Personal reviews and recommendations are one of the biggest ways that we determine whether we will purchase a product or service from a business. It is no surprise that positive reviews are one of the biggest ranking factors that can affect your GMB listing. We have developed a tool that allows you to easily collect feedback from your customers and target positive feedback to leave a review on either your Google or Facebook page. Any negative feedback will be sent back to you to be able to follow up with your customer and improve their experience
Google Business Listing Management
Managing and optimising your Google My Business (GMB) listing is essential to local SEO. Our Local SEO service handles this task for you, ensuring that your GMB listing is up-to-date and fully optimised. We will regularly monitor and update your business information such as address, phone number, business hours, and website URL to ensure accuracy. Additionally, we will optimise your listing with relevant keywords, enticing descriptions, and high-quality images. By managing and optimising your GMB listing on an ongoing basis, we help improve your local search visibility, attract more customers, and enhance your overall online presence.
Website Local SEO On-Page Optimisation
If your business provides services in one area, such as a tradesman or a restaurant providing services to Adelaide or Sydney, we can specifically target landing pages to rank for those location-based keywords such as “Adelaide solar electrician” etc by including your service location throughout the copywriting on your website. Some online marketers go overboard and the end result is a page that has been obviously crammed full of local suburbs around you and ultimately not helpful to the customer, we have found that this approach provides no impact to local search results. Google is smart enough to know the surrounding suburbs to your business, you don’t need to include a list of all of them on your website.
Directory Listing Building
One of the low-hanging fruit to quickly build links from other websites back to yours is the use of business directories. These websites rank many different businesses by categories and often offer free listings which businesses can register for. When we start your local SEO plan, one of the first actions we will take is to register your business for a minimum of 5 local business directories relevant to your local area
Competitor Audit
Conducting a competitor audit allows you to gain valuable insights into your competitors’ performance in Google Search. By analyzing their strategies, you can identify areas where they are excelling and understand what is needed to outrank them. This audit typically involves examining their website structure, content, backlink profile, keyword targeting, and overall online presence. By understanding their strengths and weaknesses, you can develop a strategy to improve your own website and optimise your SEO efforts to surpass them in search engine rankings. A competitor audit provides crucial information for staying competitive and enhancing your online visibility.
Got Questions?
Frequently Asked Questions
– How Do You Know if You Need Local SEO?
If your business operates in a specific geographical area and relies on local customers, then you likely need local SEO. Local SEO helps businesses improve their visibility in local search results, making it easier for potential customers to find them when searching for products or services in their area. If your business has a physical location, serves a specific local market, or relies on local search traffic, investing in local SEO can be highly beneficial.
– What’s The Difference Between SEO and Local SEO?
SEO (search engine optimization) focuses on improving a website’s visibility and organic search rankings in search engines for relevant keywords. It involves optimizing various on-page and off-page factors to increase the overall website visibility in search results.
On the other hand, local SEO is a subset of SEO that specifically targets local search visibility. It aims to improve a business’s online presence in local search results, such as Google Maps and localized search queries. Local SEO focuses on optimization techniques like creating and optimizing Google My Business listings, acquiring local citations, getting positive reviews, and optimizing for location-specific keywords.
– Can You get Rid of Negative Reviews & Press?
While you cannot directly remove negative reviews or press, there are strategies to mitigate their impact. For negative reviews, it’s important to respond promptly and professionally. Address the customer’s concerns and try to resolve their issue to demonstrate good customer service. Encouraging satisfied customers to leave positive reviews can also help balance out negative ones.
When it comes to negative press, it’s essential to proactively manage your online reputation by publishing positive content, addressing any inaccuracies, and working to build a positive brand image. You can also seek legal advice if the negative press is false or defamatory, as there may be options for correction or removal.
– How Local is Local SEO?
Local SEO typically focuses on optimizing a business’s online presence for specific geographic areas. The level of localization can vary depending on the business’s target market and location. For example, a small local business may prioritize optimizing for a specific city or town, while a larger business with multiple locations may target multiple cities or regions.
Local SEO strategies may include creating location-specific landing pages, optimizing Google My Business listings for each location, acquiring local citations from relevant directories, and utilizing location-based keywords in website content. The extent of localization in local SEO will depend on the business’s target market and its capacity to serve customers within a specific geographic area.
