Most website owners are now familiar with the term SEO. Search engine optimization or SEO is the method we use to get traffic from organic search results or search engines. SEO is a broad term that has several aspects attached to it. And one of them is local SEO.
As a business, it is crucial to understand why local SEO is so important.
Local SEO or local search engine optimisation promotes and optimizes a website to get favourable results in the local search results. And that is what matters to most businesses.
Local search includes all those search terms that are intrinsically local and caters to the local audiences like restaurants near me, doctors near me, restaurants in my city, or doctors in my city.
If you have a brick-and-mortar business, and you want to cater to a local audience, then you need to work on local SEO. It can help your website to rank well on local search results when people search for businesses in your niche.
Working on local SEO means, all your efforts, namely content, on-page optimisation, and link building should have localised intent. But when it comes to localised link acquisition, you need to ensure that all potential link signals are consistent and correct across Google’s local search spectrum. If the information is not correct and consistent, then there is a chance that your local results throw up something different than what you wanted the result to display.
It is vital to understand the local SEO issue in the right perspective.
Let us, therefore, try to understand why local SEO is important, what are some local SEO services, and how do local SEO and organic SEO work together.
Why is local SEO important?
So, why is local SEO important?
If you serve primarily to a local audience, it is important to work on local SEO so that you get the desired traffic.
To explain the importance of local SEO, let us take you through some of the vital Statistics:
According to a study conducted by Google in association with Ipsos MediaCT and Purchased, half of those who conducted a local search on their smartphone visited a physical store within 24 hours, and 34% of those who conducted their search on computer/ tablet also visited a store within 24 hours.
18% of local mobile searches convert to a sale within one day.
50% of mobile phone searchers who conduct local searches are interested in things such as a local business address.
One in three searches on a smartphone was conducted just before reaching a store.
What are some local SEO services?
Local SEO is dynamic – it keeps changing thick and fast. That is why you need a lot of time and effort to get it right. To get local SEO right, you need to have an in-depth knowledge of local SEO. That is why, as a business owner, it is important to know some of the local SEO services so that you know what it takes to do well in local search results.
Here are some local SEO services that you need to know about:
Localising your website
Website localisation means that your website should have the name of your city, country, or region all over your site. If you operate from several places, then you need to create separate pages or content hubs for each place. Another way of website localisation is to involve your business in local community events and carry articles and news about them on your website.
Focus on citation building
Make sure your site is added to citation sites and online business directories. Adding your business on citation sites and online business directories improve your website visibility and help your potential customers to find you easily. Moreover, when you feature on citation sites with all your contact information like name, address, phone number, and website URL (NAPW) and add other information to business directories, it improves your search engine rankings.
Adding your business to Google My Business listing
You need to add your business to Google My Business listing so that it prominently features on Google services like local search results and Google Maps. If you want to do well on local SEO, the first thing you need to do is add your business to Google My Business listing. You should also add your business to Bing Places for Business
Focus on managing reviews and ratings
Reviews are important not just for showcasing the quality of your product or service, but it is also critical for sending the right signals to search engines. That is why it is vital to concentrate on genuine and honest reviews. Positive reviews boost trust and usefulness of your site and product/ service in the eyes of search engines. The number of reviews you receive, their quality, and the authority from where they are coming are some of the factors that can make a difference to your local search rankings.
Focus on getting high-quality and relevant backlinks
If you can get high-quality and relevant backlinks naturally from trusted and authoritative websites, it can improve your local search engine rankings. Getting backlinks from trusted sites sends a positive signal to search engines that your website is a trusted source of information, which helps you scale the local search algorithm. To improve your search visibility, ensure that you get links from local newspapers, business associations, bloggers, and citations.
How do local SEO and organic SEO work together?
Local SEO and organic SEO work in tandem. If you follow SEO best practices, it can help both your local search rankings as well as organic search rankings.
So, how do Local SEO and organic SEO work together?
When you add your business page on local listing directories like Google, Yelp, Bing, and TripAdvisor, it means you are also creating a link back to your website. When you add your phone number, address, and name of your business to local listing sites, it helps local SEO by informing search engines about your location. In doing so, you also create a link back to your website, which helps your organic SEO efforts because it is a link building strategy that can propel your ranking on search engines.
Your on-site local SEO activities like writing a blog post that talks of local issues or updating a page (adding your business address) not just helps your local SEO efforts, but it can also help your organic SEO. You need fresh content to keep search engines in good humour. And, when you write local posts or update your page, it not only helps your local SEO efforts, but it can also enhance your organic SEO efforts.
Both local and organic SEO can help improve your rankings if you do these activities in the right manner. But if you don’t follow best practices (or do it the wrong way) for local and organic SEO, it can have a damaging effect on your website rankings.
While you should do everything to please search engines, you need to understand that your potential customers should not have any problem in finding your business. After all, it all boils down to improving customer experience. And, that is exactly what Google emphasises on from the start. You need to make sure that your visitors don’t have any problems locating your business. The information they are looking for about your business, which includes the correct address, your working hours, the products and services you offer, etc. should readily be available to your visitors.
If you have any problem in managing your local SEO activities, you can get in touch with vStacks Software Solutionsnow. We are a full-service digital marketing company, and we have adequate experience and exposure in the SEO industry to propel your local SEO rankings in the right direction. You can also contact us for all your social media marketing needs.
