Local search is a crucial part of any SEO strategy targeting customers in a specific neighborhood, city, or region. Here is why:
- 78% of people use the Internet to find information about local businesses in their area more than once a week and 21% search locally every day
- 46% of all searches on Google include local intent. This translates into a whopping 1.6 billion searches
- 28% of all local searches are followed by a purchase and 78% of all local searches on mobile result in an offline purchase
- Over the last couple of years, the number of people using “near me” or “buy now” phrases to find local products or businesses has increased by 500%
Four important local search factors
These are just some of the statistics that highlight the importance of local search. If you are a small business and want to feature in local searches, take notice of the following basics:
Google Business Places
Google Business Places is a business listing feature that lets you upload your business’s location, photos, services/products, and any other relevant information about your business. Creating a Google Business Places profile is a great way to increase your business’s visibility and boost your chances of featuring in Google Search, Google Maps, and other services.
Google Business Places gives you an edge to manage your online presence and helps attract customers searching for your products/services or business on Google search and Google maps. It lets you share photos of your product/services, edit your business information as and when required, and access and respond to customer reviews. The best thing about Google My Business is that it is completely free. If you want to feature in local searches, Google My Business should be your first and most important step.
link building is an important component of local search
Local link building is the process of building locally relevant links to your business website. It has been shown that links are one of the most prominent ranking factors. The goal of local link building is to drive traffic to your website and help it rank better for local searches. For a small business, earning links might be challenging but not unreasonable. You can get links from other high-ranking local businesses, get local citations, create content that is locally relevant, and add internal links. Creating local business listings can also help with local link building.
Local directory listings
A great way to boost your local search rankings is through listings on local directories such as Yelp, Yellow Pages, Yahoo Places, Bing Places, and others. While directory listings may not influence your rankings directly, they help boost traffic to your website, and traffic is an important influence when it comes to rankings. The websites that seem popular are more likely to rank higher and feature on local searches.
Social media is an overlooked local search strategy
It is needless to mention how powerful social media is in today’s age. An active social media presence across different platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube can indirectly boost your rankings. The more you engage with your target audience on social media, the more likely they are to visit your website. This can boost your local reputation.
Apart from all this, another thing that is extremely important is that you should create and share locally relevant content consistently. This will boost engagement, create link-building opportunities, and increase traffic.
If you need help taking your business’s local search optimization strategy to the next level, get in touch with our team now.