SEO Blog ROOTS #3: Local SEO Explained further

Local Search Engine Optimisation or SEO refers to your business being seen in local, online searches. How many of your customers are easily able to find you in a local search?

If your business has a physical location or server a specific geographic area, you will benefit from local SEO.

Local search is not a new strategy but it has become a more prevalent search tool for business’s in today’s society. This is because more and more users are leveraging their mobile internet access to search for those “local” places.

When using Google for a local search, you may come across its ‘map pack’, this is where the top 3 business listings relevant to your search appear. 

Local SEO

Say you are a little hungry at work and decide that you would like a coffee and muffin, you start Googling “coffee shop near me”. A list of local coffee shops, near you will appear in Googles Search Engine Ranking Page (SERP). These listings will show the top three businesses who have optimised for that local area.

Types of listings

There are two types of local listings when it comes to a Google search, this includes;

• Map Pack – This refers to the top three business listing’s, listed on Google maps.
• Organic results – This refers to the first unpaid (Ad) result shown on your Google search result.

Optimising for local search

We have explained what local search is but not the steps to ranking in your local search. So, here are five ways that you can optimise your business’s website presences for local search.

• Keywords – Ensure your keywords include search terms like “near me” and “local”.
• Google My Business and Bing Places – Google, Bing and other search engines offer their own version of local listing from your business’s website, phone number, email and physical address to name a few. By having an account with search engines such as Google My Business will allow you to start optimising and appear in local listings when your searchers are searching for you.
• On-page SEO – This refers to all content whether it be written, visual or other and how you optimise it for search engines to crawl and index.
• Link Building - This refers to both internal and external link building strategies that allow you to reach larger audiences by linking back to your website.
• Local Reviews – Having your target audience review you through online platforms like Google My Business reviews and third party sites will help increase your business’s online presence and awareness.

At Novata Solutions we are here are ready to talk about your business’s SEO Strategy.