This is the sixth part of a multi-part series that explains the major factors of a successful SEO (search engine optimization) strategy. In this article, we will explain what is local SEO, why is it important, and how it’s used.
Location, Location, Location
Local search engine optimization (Local SEO) sometimes referred to local search engine marketing involves marketing your local business online. This is important if you have a brick and mortar business. To keep their visitors returning to their sites, search engines have been developing easy to find business listings on their own platforms.
Why is local SEO important? Think about these four statistics:
- More than 50% of all searches online come from mobile devices.
- About 46% of all searches on search engines like Google have a ‘local intent’.
- Over 78% of local mobile searches result in an offline purchase.
- Local SEO has the highest conversion levels of all local advertising channels.
Today more than ever people are finding businesses online and chances are they are on a mobile device when they are searching. This presents a tremendous opportunity for physical location businesses to have their entity listed and optimized correctly online.
Local SEO is considered more like local business digital marketing and promotion than traditional search engine ranking. Starting a local SEO by listing your organization on business listing sites with consistent information and content.
Optimizing local SEO to gain ranking within each directory will vary from one platform to another. We will take a closer look at the most popular business listing direct Google My Business (previously known as Google Local and Google+ Local). Google My Business (GMB) as the name suggests allows you to list your business profile on Google.
To rank well in local search the following criteria must be followed:
- Proximity: How close is your business to the searcher?
- Relevance: How relevant to the search query are your products and services?
- Prominence: What do other consumers say about your products and services?
In performing a local SEO campaign your digital marketing strategist will do the following:
- Claiming and building your business profile on Google My Business and other business listing sites. Citation building might be a part of this.
- Re-aligning your website’s content to include geographic information and other techniques to signal search engines the localization of the entity on the website.
- Intake and managing reviews and ratings on listing sites
- Get quality and relevant backlinks that help build a website trust factor with search engines.
Crossing the Finish Line
Having a local SEO campaign up and running with a website content strategy from keyword analysis, a backlink process in place, and keeping an eye on competitors; will give you a strong SEO strategy and will quickly move up the search engine ranks with increased traffic to your website.
In the next article, we will finish up this series explaining the importance of reporting in your SEO campaign.
