Is all of your website’s traffic coming from far away? Are you seeing a lot more competition in town and need a way to compete? You need local SEO!
Local SEO search engine optimization blends multiple types of SEO to get your website to rank for local searching. This gives local businesses more visibility and a much more relevant audience than regular SEO.
So, if you’re looking for more local traffic, keep reading to learn more about local SEO and how to leverage it for your business.
What Is Local SEO?
Local search engine optimization (SEO) combines on-page, off-page, and technical SEO techniques focused on localized searches. It’s more targeted than regular SEO, targeting specific geographic areas like towns, cities, counties, or regions.
How Does Local SEO Work?
Search engines use the same process for ranking local content as they do for regular optimized content. They crawl and index web pages and rank them based on relevancy, among other factors.
The main difference is that local SEO focuses on a much smaller geographical area, meaning it’s targeted to a much more specific (and smaller) audience. This is done by using localized keywords, among other things (which we’ll get to soon).
What Is The Difference Between Local SEO and Regular SEO?
While regular SEO and local SEO are similar, a few vital differences set the two apart, and those differences matter.
Regular SEO:
Targetted for a topic-specific but locationally-broad audience (country-wide, continent)
Regular SEO ranking factors focus on domain authority, topical relevance, and content quality
Website is the main focus, with on-page and content SEO being the most effective strategies.
Local SEO:
Targeted to topic-relevant and geographically-specific audiences (towns, cities, etc.)
Focuses more on distance, brand prominence (reviews, citations), and topical relevance.
My Google Business profile is more important than your website. (Although, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be working on your website)
Here’s an example. Let’s say you own a wedding dress shop in Toronto. Now, you could try to rank for the keyword “wedding dress shop,” and if your SEO efforts are successful, you’ll get lots of traffic.
But here’s the problem: Most of the traffic you’re getting is from other provinces and even the United States.
Now, if you try to rank for a keyword like “wedding dress shop in Toronto” or “wedding dresses in the GTA,” you may not get AS MUCH traffic, but the traffic you do get will be much more likely actually to contact you or book an appointment because they’re in your location.
That’s, at its core, what local SEO does. But it’s not just more localized keywords. Local SEO also has different ranking factors, which we’ll get to in a moment.
Is Doing Local SEO Worth It?
Whether you have a brick-and-mortar or online business, if you serve a specific area or community, you need to focus on local SEO.
Yes, regular SEO will help you grow traffic and online visibility. It will also send you traffic to people looking for what you’re offering, but their location makes them irrelevant to your business. Local SEO ensures that your traffic is valuable to your business and comes from your area.
Local SEO Ranking Factors
Just like regular SEO, there is a long list of factors. But here are the ones you really need to worry about.
Relevance
Like regular SEO, relevance is paramount for local SEO. However, instead of using keywords that are simply relevant to the topic, you need to find keywords relevant to the topic and your location.
Distance
Local SEO is all about distance. This works to serve the businesses closest to a searcher. This factor is one of the reasons that Google’s Local Pack is so important to local SEO. When someone in your neighbourhood searches for something you offer, particularly with the keyword suffix “near me,” leveraging local SEO and Local Pack will help your business come up for that search.
Prominence
Prominence is similar to domain authority, but instead of measuring your website's trustworthiness, local SEO’s approach is more centred around how well your business is known and your brand reputation. This can also include regular SEO link-building approaches, like backlinking. However, local SEO involves more citation, review management, and a healthy social media presence.
User Experience
User experience is an on-page element of local SEO, which involves making your website’s design, content, and site structure as easy and pleasing to the eye as possible for your visitors.
Content Value
Content quality is essential, not just to search engines but also to the people who actually visit your site. High-quality, helpful content relevant to your business is always one of your strongest SEO tactics, local or not.
How To Leverage Local SEO For Your Small Business
Let’s discuss some of the best ways to leverage local SEO for your small business.
Build Citations & NAPS
Citations are your business's online listings, such as on directories like Yelp, HomeAdvisor, and other review sites. NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone Number. These listings help boost your business's visibility on other websites, pointing back to your Google My Business profile and website creating better brand prominence and domain authority.
Improve Website’s Regular SEO Standings
Even though you’re focusing on local SEO, regular SEO factors still matter. In fact, the better your website's on-site and technical SEO, the easier it will be for you to appear in local searches when you start focusing on local SEO.
Use Localized Keywords
Use the same approach to finding good keywords, like highly relevant keywords with a lot of search volume and low competition rates. But you also want to include some keywords that include your service area.
Engage On Social Media
Social media can greatly help your local SEO efforts. By linking your business and boosting brand awareness, you make your business look better in the eyes of search engines (not to mention generate leads).
Encourage And Manage Reviews
Connecting your directory accounts to your Google My Business profile can help search engines access your reviews, which helps measure your brand’s prominence while making them readily available to your prospects.
Start Showing Up For Local Searches With A Local SEO Expert!
If you’re ready to start ranking for local searches, let’s chat! Check out my portfolio and contact me today to learn how I can help you start leveraging local SEO.
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