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What Is Local SEO? The Key To Improving Your Local Search Results
Do You Run A Locally-Based Business? Here’s How SEO Will Help…
The majority of businesses that operate remotely need to focus solely on leveraging SEO best practices to boost their online visibility and get their business in front of consumers. But what about brick-and-mortar businesses that rely heavily on local customers to thrive?
Businesses whose marketing needs to reach nearby consumers should focus on creating an effective local SEO strategy. But what is local SEO? What role does it play in your overall digital marketing efforts? Let’s explore local SEO to better understand what it is, how it works, and how you can apply it in your business.
What Is Local SEO?
Aptly named, local SEO is a type of SEO strategy in which your main goal is to increase your visibility in local SERPs. The good news with a local SEO strategy is that the process of ranking will often be easier given the relative lack of competition. Unlike a regular SEO strategy, you’re not competing with companies across the nation.
Additionally, Google offers specific tools that are designed to help users find local businesses in their area. As we navigate this guide, you’ll learn more about how to optimise your business listings with these tools to get the best possible results.
Why Is Local SEO Important?
So, why is local SEO so important? Today’s world is one centred around technology. Whereas businesses might have relied solely on foot traffic to attract customers in the past, today’s businesses need to get online in order to get in front of customers.
Local SEO is critical to your success and your online visibility, as it makes it easier for people to find your business based on search queries that they conduct nearby. For example, if you run a doughnut shop and people nearby are looking for doughnuts in their area, leveraging local SEO will ensure that your business is one of the first to appear.
Once you’ve managed to bring in customers nearby, it’s just a matter of maintaining their business! Put simply, local SEO is crucial for any locally-based business as it allows them to be found by those conducting nearby searches for the products or services that they offer.
But with all that in mind, what are the features that are offered by Google to support local businesses and ensure that they’re showing up on SERPs? How can you use these tools to get the most out of your local SEO strategy?
How Does The Google Search Engine Work?
Being able to leverage local SEO for your business’s marketing needs means having an understanding of how Google operates, with a specific focus on how local SEO functions.
So, how does the Google search engine work? Here’s a brief breakdown to give you a more comprehensive scope of its functionality as simply as possible.
- Google checks various ranking factors to look for relevant results and provide you with a list of related sites that match your search query. However, it doesn’t do a full search of the internet. Instead, it taps into what’s called the Google Index. This features all of the websites that Google discovers by crawling the web with “spiders”.
- So, how does Google rank these results to give users the most accurate responses to their search query? Google’s algorithm uses on-site and off-site factors to find the most relevant results, placing those that best meet these guidelines at the top of the SERPs.
In regards to your overall SEO strategy, the above is largely going to pertain to things like your website or the content that you write for your blog. However, there are certain things that are unique to local SEO that will determine whether or not your business is visible to those searching for your products or services nearby.
Local SEO Strategy
One of the most important things to know when you’re building up a local SEO strategy is what’s called the local pack or Google My Business. If you’ve ever conducted a local search query for yourself, you’re likely quite familiar with the local search results that pop up at the very top of your search engine.
Rather than displaying organic search results for websites or various pieces of content, Google My Business gives you a free profile that you can optimise so as to appear at the top of the page of relevant search queries.
What does this accomplish? With Google My Business, your business will appear on local map results, you will be able to get your own profile displaying your business name, hours, and contact information, and people will be able to see all the reviews your business has received to get a better idea of how much locals like your business.
More importantly, you can share photos to display your products and services or even your store to draw in customers. You will still want to focus on making sure that you’re creating stellar content that ranks well on Google. That being said, your focus on on-page SEO will be a bit different for your local SEO needs…
Keyword Research
The problem with keyword research when you run a company that doesn’t depend on local customers is that your content strategy is going to change over time. You have to make sure that you’re accurately finding keywords you can rank for, looking for ones that have a greater number of visits that fall within your DA over time.
When you are trying to rank for local keywords, you’re likely going to have a much easier time doing so. Why? Many local keywords are longtail keywords that have much lower DA requirements, making it so that you can easily incorporate them into your website or your blog posts.
Of course, this might vary depending on location. Smaller cities or towns with less competition are naturally going to have an easier time ranking than businesses centred in major cities (Los Angeles, New York, etc.) that have lots of competition from surrounding businesses.
Even so, with the right SEO strategy, ranking for these local SEO keywords won’t be too difficult once you manage to grow your DA. Remember these tips for local SEO so that you don’t try to rank for much larger keywords that won’t be as relevant to your business!
Content Creation
As discussed above, the local keywords that you choose will make it easy to optimise your website so that those searching for certain terms will be able to find you nearby. However, you won’t just stop at the copy that you create for your website. Content creation will be a major aspect of your local SEO strategy as well!
Localised content is great because it not only directs customers to your place of business or encourages them to take action, but also helps them better understand your level of experience and authority in your industry.
Let’s imagine that you are a local contractor that specialises in bathroom renovations and remodels. Creating a host of great content ideas like “signs you need to replace your tub” or “fun ideas to spruce up your bathroom” can help you create a connection with prospective customers and gain their trust, gathering more leads and boosting your conversions along the way.
That being said, tackling local SEO by yourself is often easier said than done. Where do you get started? With an SEO agency in Sydney, of course!
Get Your Business In Front Of Local Visitors With Sydney Digital Marketing
Sydney Digital Marketing is your go-to local SEO agency offering a wide array of local SEO services and other digital marketing support to help your business thrive. If you’ve been doing some local SEO searches of your own for “SEO agency Sydney”, you’ve found the perfect company to support you in your SEO endeavours.
Contact us at Sydney Digital Marketing today!