If you own a restaurant, saloon, or any type of business with physical locations, local search engine optimization (LSO) may be one of the best investments you can make to grow and strengthen your business. LSO will bring highly qualified traffic, loyal customers, and competitive edge.
Consumers tend to trust businesses that rank highly in search results and will keep searching for you if your results remain reliable.
Local Keywords
Local keywords are at the core of any successful local SEO strategy. By optimizing your website and business listings with search terms that have an explicit or implicit local intent, they allow you to optimize them more efficiently and gain a competitive edge online.
Local SEO requires conducting keyword research for both organic and map pack results. When targeting organic keywords, aim for those with high conversion potential for your type of business; with map pack results, focus on those with high traffic volumes and competition levels.
Keyword research for local SEO begins by compiling a shortlist of core keywords, then finding modifiers and location keywords to target. Google understands these as signals from users seeking local solutions, making these words highly likely to convert. For instance, users searching “boiler installation” want the service nearby not on the opposite end of the country or world – thus rewarding businesses targeting nearby locations with better search results.
Local Listings
Local listings, or NAP mentions, play an essential part in local search rankings. While getting listed is critical, ensuring accuracy in each listing is equally vital – otherwise potential customers may struggle to locate you and may become disenchanted with your business altogether.
Google uses NAP citations of nearby brands to establish relevance, distance and prominence when performing local searches. Google also takes into account their Google My Business profiles and reviews as indicators.
Google My Business profiles form the cornerstone of successful local SEO strategies, but keeping up with listings can be challenging when running a busy company. Tools like Semrush’s Listing Management allow you to scour the web for your NAP information and automatically update major directories so your listings remain accurate – keeping customers satisfied and increasing local search ranking simultaneously!
Local Awareness
Businesses’ local SEO strategies are built around the belief that rankings and conversions are directly correlated. To rank highly in Google Map Pack, a business must be relevant, well located, and prominent online; to assess this through a scan of Google My Business listings or using an effective tracker like this one is easiest.
To successfully optimize for local search, businesses must ensure their NAP – Name, Address and Phone Number – remains consistent across platforms and directories. This consistency tells search engines that your company is active and trustworthy when sending customers its way. Social media monitoring tools can identify issues like misspellings or incorrect addresses/phone numbers which should be corrected in order to boost visibility in local search results. Moz has provided an invaluable list of local ranking factors which may guide a company’s strategy; such factors might include reviews collected on consumer platforms like Yelp/Facebook as well as link quality/cost per impression/impression etc.
Local Conversion
Search engines search for information that addresses user intent. Using keywords related to local services in your service area can turn visitors into qualified leads; keywords can help customers discover your product or service – for instance a bride-to-be searching “bridal boutique Charlotte North Carolina.”
Businesses operating multiple locations should add location pages to their website in order to enhance local SEO. These pages serve as powerful local SEO tools by providing individual store descriptions, hours of operation, parking/transit instructions, promotions/offers/testimonials etc. on each individual store location page.
Focusing on reputation management through soliciting customer reviews and expanding your overall average star rating can increase both snack pack and organic search rankings in Google search results, which ultimately means more calls and in-person visits for your business.