Local SEO is the best way to bring your website in front of potential customers or clients in your area. 

Here are some facts to consider…

• Over 75% of consumers in the US, France, Germany and the UK use Google when searching for business information. 
• More than a billion people use Google Maps each month.
• Businesses without a listed address on Google Maps have a 24% lower click-through rate.

Aside from Google’s usual ranking factors, its local search algorithms use three main factors to help users find the best match…

Relevance

Google analyses how closely a Google My Business profile result is to the words searched for by a user in their query.

Distance

This is an area that can’t be controlled: depending on how far a user is from a business when they search for ‘restaurant near me’, will impact where your business will rank in this query.

Prominence

Prominence refers to how important Google considers a business is to potential customers.

NAP is an acronym for Name, Address and Phone number. These three simple bits of information can have a great impact on your local SEO strategy. To NAP effective, businesses must display this information prominently on their website. Adding this information to your footer will ensure it appears on every page across your website. 

Consistency is important, it helps crawlers and bots to connect your Google My Business profile, website and other local citations. 

Local Citations and Backlinks

Citations and backlinks will directly benefit your SEO. Local citation building directly enhances a company’s trustworthiness for search engines. It also improves final search rankings and overall online visibility. Having your business listed on trusted websites and online directories proves to Google that they can trust your business, improving your visibility and local rankings, which in turn will lead to more traffic and sales. 

Backlinks are sometimes referred to as inbound links or incoming links. Receiving backlinks is an essential part of SEO as it allows search bots to crawl your company’s website and rank it correctly on its content. 

The higher your average rating, and the more people that have reviewed your business, the better your business will perform. Online reviews are crucial for successful local SEO. Google recognises online reviews and factors them into its ranking algorithm.

Mobile-Friendliness and Responsive Design

Mobile-friendly content is essential for local SEO strategy. Ensuring that your website is mobile-friendly, you increase your chances of ranking highly in local search results. Local searches are predominantly done on mobile devices. Therefore, it’s a necessity that your website is optimised for people searching for nearby vendors on their mobile devices.

Location-Based Content Strategy

By implementing a location-based content strategy, businesses can enhance their relevance, improve engagement, and build stronger connections with their target audience in different geographic areas. 

Creating content that reflects local culture, language, events and trends of a specific location is more relevant and meaningful to people based on where they are located. This could include featuring local landmarks, referencing regional events or even using colloquial language that resonates with the target audience.

Social signals refer to a website’s collective shares, likes and overall social media visibility as perceived by search engines. Social media activity contributes to a page’s organic search ranking and is seen as another form of citation, similar to backlinks.

Schema Markup for Local Businesses

Schema markup gives search engines a stronger understanding of your site. Including relevant information like addresses, reviews, social media and departments in your schema that may not exist on your on-page content will tell bots and crawlers you are a respected and authoritative company within your industry without cramming all of this information on your page. 

Website Loading Speed and Performance

Not only does a fast loading speed improve user experience, but it also reduces bounce rate and local pack rankings. Google’s local pack, which appears in search results for local queries, is known to prioritise websites with fast loading speeds and high performance.

Appearing at the top of local search results will increase your company’s visibility and ultimately attract more qualified leads to your business. Local SEO is a key player in lead generation as it enables companies to target potential customers who are searching for businesses like yours in their local area. This means that leads generated through local SEO are more likely to convert into paying customers.

Targeting Local Keywords for Higher Visibility

Local keyword research will tell you exactly what your target customers are looking for. Optimising your pages for the right local keywords can increase your website’s organic visibility on relevant search engine results pages.