How can local SEO grow your business?
The internet has turned us into a global marketplace.
Sitting at my kitchen table in Al Nahda, Dubai, I can order an item from New York and have it shipped over in a matter of weeks (so long as I’m wiling to pay for it).
But not every business suits, or requires, global reach.
If you’re a family-run bakery, you don’t just want online orders for wedding cake deliveries. You also want footfall. You want local people popping in buying baguettes, cookies and almond slices. You want local business.
The same is true if you’re a restaurant, a barbers, a beautician, a tattoo parlour – basically, any company that provides services or products to the local community.
This is why local SEO is still a really important area of SEO.
And like that beautiful, delicately sculpted wedding cake, the best recipe for ensuring you get a good performance out of your online presence is utilising all the free tools that search engines provide, along with a healthy dollop of keyword research.
A wedding cake
Not sure what I’m on about? Here’s a rough explanation.
What is local SEO?
definition of local seo as a marketing technique that can help you be found more easily by consumers in the local area.
Local SEO is a marketing technique that local businesses can use to improve their visibility in Google’s local search engine results page (SERP). This will mean your business can be found more easily by consumers in the local area. If you want to increase your business in a certain area, then you need to be familiar with this technique.
To perform well with local SEO you will need to carry out a few actions to raise your local search visibility, such as claiming and optimising your Google Business Profile (this is different to your website), adapting to Google search changes and optimising your website for local searches.
Why is local SEO important?
What’s the point you might ask? Well, according to Google, 40% of all mobile searches are related to location, and there has been an increase in mobile searches for ‘stores open now’ or ‘where to buy/find/get’. Whilst this data is somewhat out of date, the increase in mobile phone usage implies the headlines are right – more people are searching for local businesses and often this is done through Google Maps or from Business Profiles.
It makes sense right? If you are looking for an emergency plumber, then you want one nearby, not one who will be travelling from the Outer Hebrides! If you have toothache, you want to be able to search for a dentist nearby and you want to know their opening hours. Google Maps is a quick way of finding a business in the local area.
People nearby are searching for your business – if you can’t be found then you are losing out.
Local SEO Keyword Research
We cannot overstate the importance of conducting keyword research to find out what terms your customers are putting into their search engines.
Keyword research is the foundation stone of SEO. To return to our baking metaphor, it’s like putting all the dry ingredients in a bowl without an egg or two to bind them together. If you don’t get keyword research right, you could end up spending hours building an online presence that is effectively useless.
Local keyword research is the process of understanding how people search for the local services you offer. You need to understand it so that you can optimise for what people are searching for. Once you know what they’re searching for, you can include these keywords on your online profiles and website, and this will encourage search engines to point users in your direction.
Figuring out what services local people in your area are searching for, will mean you can also include these keywords in your Google Business Profile and hey presto, you will gain more traffic to your site.
What is a Business Profile?
Google Business Profile is a free service provided by Google. Using the tool, you can create a profile listing for your business on Google’s giant database. Business Profiles appear on Google Maps and in the local results of Google Search.
A local company appearing on Google Maps as a result of completing their Google Business Profile
This profile allows you to display details such as opening times, business descriptions, images and posts when your company appears in local search results. Think of your Business Profile as a halfway house between the search results page and your website – it gives your customers faster access to important details that might encourage them to investigate your business in more depth.
How can I optimise my Business Profile?
Your Business Profile gives you a great way to engage with your consumers. Consumers can interact with your Business Profile and you can respond to reviews, answer questions, enable direct messaging and set up alerts.
- Fill in all the information
Through your Google Business Profile, you can add opening hours, a link to your website, products, pricing and other details that make your business unique. - Include keywords
You can include the relevant keywords throughout your Business Profile – in your business description, in your response to reviews, your answers to questions and in the posts you publish.
A checklist for how to optimise your Google Business Profile.
- Investigate your performance
You can also use the account to gain insights into your local search performance. You can find out the queries that consumers input to find your Business Profile. If you think that there are any missing, you can add them, or remove the ones that Google suggests and you know aren’t relevant.
How can Google Maps help grow your business?
Google Maps is another arm of the marketing tools that Google offers. Many people are using Google Maps to search for new places or businesses to visit. This makes it a great tool for businesses looking to increase footfall to their physical location or to raise their profile in the local area.
Start by claiming or creating your Business Profile and then you can optimise your profile on Google Maps. Make sure you add the postal address of your company’s premises. This will ensure that it is found on Google Maps.
Local SEO: take advantage of the free tools
Google offers marketing tools that are interlinked and so any updates on your Business profile will appear on Google Maps. Your Business Profile is a free tool that is quick, easy and beneficial for your organsiation. It is worth understanding these tools and how to use them to raise your profile and reap the benefits of local SEO work.