What is Local SEO and why does your company need it?

If you have a business or physical store and you don't know what local SEO is, you're most likely missing out on a golden opportunity to get more customers.

In this article you will learn what the Local SEO And how optimize your Google My Business listing to better position your business for a local audience.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO (Local Search Engine Optimization) focuses on providing results that are relevant to a search engine based on your current location. It consists of a number of factors that help you to target your local audience and achieve a better ranking in search engines.

These types of searches are mainly done on Google, the most used search engine, although there are other local services such as: Bing Places, Yelp, Apple Maps, etc.

In recent years, local SEO has gained a lot of strength given the increase in the use of smartphones when we are away from home.

For example, if we are in Barcelona and we search for “Barcelona hamburger restaurant”, Google shows us the three most relevant and best positioned hamburger places for the search query we have made. This field consisting of the map and 3 businesses is called “local package” (also known as Local Snack Pack).

According to a study, 33% of the clicks made by users go to local business results (local packages), and 40% to organic results.

The ideal is to optimize our website to appear in both listings, in the local packages and in the organic results.

Surely you have noticed that the information that appears in these lists is different from the organic results. For example, we can see opening hours, ratings, images, etc. All of this information shown in local packages comes from Google My Business.

What is Google My Business?

Basically it is your company profile on Google. It was formerly also known as Google Local, even as Google + Local.

Google My Business is very important for companies, it transmits information to different places, including the local package and Google Maps search results. Surely the appearance that you have seen the most is the module found in the upper right part of the desktop, or at the top of the mobile when we are on a search results page for a brand or business.

Example:

         GMB on Mobile GMB on Desktop

El A local business profile on Google My Business allows you to include a large amount of information about your business, such as: company description, address, telephone number, schedules, events, images, etc.

But some of the most important aspects of your Google My Business listing, which help to improve the positioning of your business, are reviews, questions and answers, in short, the consumer experience with your business.

10 Keys to Improving Local Positioning

1- Localize your website

You must adapt your website including the Name of your city and/or province in a natural way. If your business is only in Barcelona, the best thing to do is to write the name of the city within the goals and content of your page.

2- Local SEO Strategy

It is recommended that before starting to fill in the meta titles and meta descriptions, as well as the content of a web page, a previous analysis of the keywords. This previous work will allow you to know what are the most optimal keywords for better local positioning.

3- Registration in local directories

It is also advisable to have a presence in local directories or in the same sector as your business. Being in these directories will help you improve your search ranking because you will have included the name of the business, and at the same time, you will help your potential customers to find your business. It is very important to use and write the contact details always in the same way (the same name, the same address and the same telephone number that you have on your company's website).

4- Create or claim your listing in Google My Business

If your business doesn't have a page on Google My Business, now is the time, otherwise the competition will pass you by. It may also be that your business has a Google My Business listing but it doesn't have any administrators, in this case you just have to claim your token and get them to give you access to it.

5- Have a presence on Google Maps

As we have seen before, many of the searches carried out on the Internet are from a mobile phone, and the results obtained are based on geolocation. Depending on your business information and the amount of content associated with it, Google Maps can highlight your business. Don't forget that local businesses that have a presence on maps appear above Google's organic results.

6- Review Management

Las Reviews are very important in Google My Business, these provide search engines with a lot of information about the quality of your products or services. The number of comments you receive, their quality, and the authority of the review sites themselves are important factors in ranking local searches.

7- Question and Answer Management

Don't forget to respond to users who ask questions on your Google My Business listing. Users want to feel heard and Google knows this, that's why Google gives a lot of weight to comments made by users.

8- Images in Google My Business

Google My Business profiles with images give more confidence than profiles that don't have them. It's important upload new images of your products and services, but more important is that your customers upload it.

9- Backlink Quality

Backlinks that come from reliable pages with high domain authority help search engines recognize that your website is trustworthy. Links from local media, as well as industry blogs and business associations always help improve search visibility.

10- Local SEO Publications

Google My Business also allows you to publish events, offers, registrations, etc. with Call to Actions (calls to action). These posts appear below your company profile.

The trend in terms of searching by users is clear, that's why Google gives a lot of weight to Mobile First and local results. Statistics show that 57% of internet traffic comes from mobile device searches.

If you're still wondering what Local SEO is for, here are 5 reasons:

• Appear in the top positions of Google
• Allow users to find you when they search on the Internet
• Help the user to find your company on the Google map
• Improve branding and trust in your brand
• Attract new customers

And finally, and perhaps one of the most important steps, is the measurement of the data offered to us by Google My Business. As we have already mentioned on more than one occasion in our articles: “If you don't measure, analyze and quantify, you won't know what actions to improve to achieve your objectives”.

Las stats that you will find in Google My Business, will allow you to identify points of improvement and valuable insights, as well as identify new objectives and make better decisions.

How can we help you?

If you need more information do not hesitate to contact us.