Working local SEO is one of the most effective ways for a company to reach its potential customers.
It is an essential strategy for local businesses, that is, they depend on customers who are close to their physical premises (a beauty center, a hairdresser, a restaurant …).
If most of your target audience is concentrated in a specific location, take note of our tips to work on local positioning.
Table of Contents
What Is The Local SEO Of A Business?
The local SEO consists of a series of actions (which may take place at various sites, such as the website, the page of Google My Business.) that make a business a more visible search engine for users of a particular location.
In other words, local positioning is what decides which businesses are shown to a person, based on the site they are on and the words they search for. For example, when a user searches for a word such as ‘florist’, Google will show the interested florists nearby florists with better local SEO.
In addition, working with local SEO can achieve double positioning: on the one hand, on the results page and, on the other, on the Google Maps map (which is displayed just above the organic results). In the image below we can see the example of a florist that appears on Google twice. That is, it has a good local SEO.
Also Read: Tips For SEO Services For Your Website
How To Improve The Local SEO Of Your Business?
To achieve results in local SEO, make sure you meet these criteria:
- Consistency in name, address, and phone number. The contact information that you show about your business on the internet (whether on your own page, on social networks, or on third-party websites) must always be updated and correctly written. This is known as NAP consistency and it is vital for local SEO.
To achieve this, make sure that:
- The name of your business is always the same (for example, always including an article or following the same word order).
- The phone number and email are updated and are always the same. It is important that the phone number contains a local area code.
- The address of your physical store is always the same, written in the same way and without abbreviations such as “c /” instead of “street”.
Open a listing in Google My Business: It is a key tool in local SEO since the business listings of Google My Business appear on the Google map. In addition, the Google map is the preferred form of consultation for users who do their searches through mobile devices.
Embedded Google map: Include the Google map on your website, with the location of your business marked with a pin.
Links to other sites in your area: Include on your website outgoing links to other local websites (business associations, local chambers of commerce.) to reinforce your local positioning. In this way, Google understands that your website is connected to a specific location.
SEO tags: Include the name of your city in the title tags, meta descriptions, and images of your website, as well as in the content of your blog, whenever possible and in a natural way (without forcing).
Image localization: Geolocate the images of your social networks, your website, or your Google My Business file. There are free online tools to add these tags to your website images so that you once again show search engines that your website is relative to a specific location.
Quality online directories: Including your company in quality online directories is a good strategy to create inbound links, which enhance the visibility of your website. Don’t forget to take into account NAP consistency when entering the name, address, and phone number.
Don’t forget about Bing: Although Google is the most used search engine, by far, it does not hurt to use Google My Business equivalent of Bing: Bing Places for Business. Their market share is small, but that also has the advantage that your business will have less competition.
The Essential Factors Of Local SEO
Although, as you have seen, there are many factors that influence local SEO, there are several of them that have special relevance and that you cannot ignore. They are as follows:
A Website With Local SEO Worked
Local SEO at the website level must include a content strategy with keywords that help Google understand that your website is linked to a specific location. An example of effective action is to create blog articles that mention your city including keywords in title, subtitle, URL and image tagging.
Also, make use of the tips listed above: include geolocated images, a Google map on your website, and make sure you maintain NAP consistency.
An Updated Google My Business Listing
Creating a Google My Business listing is an easy way to compete among the top search results in local SEO. To optimize your Google My Business listing
- Maintain NAP consistency.
- Update your profile by posting news and other information that may interest your customers.
- Include as much information as possible about your business, such as products, services, brands you work with, schedules …
- Includes geolocated photos and videos (also 360-degree videos ).
- If your business has more than one location, create an individual file for each of them.
- Ask for mentions and reviews from your satisfied customers.
An External Links Strategy
If other websites with good positioning and local SEO include links that point to your website, Google understands that your website also has the authority and that it is located in the same place.
Also Read: What Does SEO Mean And Why Should I Care?
