Local SEO is about making your business visible to potential customers in your local area. By creating local landing pages, including local keywords, and ensuring you have an optimized Google Business profile, you can increase your visibility in local search results.
A strong local SEO strategy helps local businesses attract local customers through local visibility by ranking higher on relevant keywords in local search results.
Google’s search results are influenced by physical location. This means that when potential customers search for a physical store, specific products, or services, Google shows results that match both their search terms and geographic location.
Therefore, local geographic relevance is of great importance in whether a local business is shown in a local search or not.
What is local SEO?
Local SEO is about optimizing visibility in local searches on search engines like Google. The purpose is to ensure a business’s visibility in Google Maps when users search for relevant keywords related to products, services, or stores in the local area.
Why is local SEO important?
Local SEO is important because it helps local businesses become visible to potential customers who are actively searching for products or services in their area. Google uses your local presence, Google My Business profile, and your website to assess your local relevance to a geographically defined audience.
Through local search engine optimization, you can achieve greater visibility in local searches, thereby increasing the chances of getting more customers from your local area to your business.
What does a local SEO strategy entail?
A strong local SEO strategy aims to build local relevance and increase visibility in local searches through various initiatives. This is to make it easier for Google and local customers to find and recognize your business in your local area.
A local SEO strategy typically consists of:
Local link building from local sources (local news media, local directories, social media, local businesses, local newspapers, etc.)
Google My Business profile optimization
Collect positive reviews
Keyword analysis of local keywords
Ensure consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number, and Business Hours)
Optimize content and separate landing pages with local keywords
Schema Markup (structured data)
Attract potential customers from your local area
If you want to attract local customers to your business, it’s not enough to rank high in local searches. To truly stand out and be chosen by customers, your business must also be credible and active online.
Here, reviews and your Google My Business profile play an important role, as they both have a great impact on your local SEO.
Google My Business profile
An important part of local SEO is having an updated and accurate Google My Business profile. It’s about optimizing all the information on your Google My Business profile so that your business appears professional and trustworthy.
A well-optimized Google My Business profile helps both Google and potential customers get an accurate impression of who you are and what you offer.
To improve your business’s credibility and get more out of your online presence, you should:
Fill in all relevant information (Name, address, telephone number and opening hours, etc.)
Select relevant categories
Respond to reviews and questions
Add relevant high-quality images and videos
Publish posts and updates
Add links to local landing pages
Reviews
In a local SEO context, positive reviews have a major impact on a business’s visibility in local search results. Reviews not only affect Google rankings, but also strengthen a business’s credibility with local customers.
That’s why it’s important to make reviews a natural part of your local SEO strategy. By actively encouraging customers to leave reviews on your Google Business profile, you show that you value customer feedback.
If you also take the reviews to heart and actively use them to improve your service, you not only strengthen your online presence, but also the trust of potential customers.
Need help ranking high in local SEO?
Although general SEO and local SEO are similar, they are different. Local SEO is about being found in local searches by customers looking for products or services in your area.
As a local SEO agency, we can help you get found in local searches, get more organic traffic, and attract customers to both your website and business.
Get help with everything from selecting local keywords, obtaining local backlinks from local media, preparing structured data for Schema Markup and much more.
Contact us for help with a customized local SEO strategy.