To gain a good ranking in search engines, you need to focus on relevant SEO techniques to boost your position. One of the major ranking signals that are looked at is relevancy. While SEO tactics can work for many companies, if you cater to a local area, focusing on hitting the search in this location is crucial.
That’s where local SEO comes in.
Discover why local SEO is essential for businesses looking to target users in their locality.
The difference between traditional SEO and Local SEO
Traditional SEO is undertaken to improve the ranking of a website as a whole. This type of optimisation is all about driving traffic in a broader sense. Local SEO does all this but with a regional focus.
Local SEO helps to improve the rankings of a business in a specific location or region, and typically a brand will have a brick and mortar address. Search engines use this information to bring users the most relevant results according to the locality. It’s the perfect chance to optimise features such as ‘businesses near me’ or map searches.
Building citations
Citations are important ranking signals for local SEO. Simply put, they’re links or references to a place of business. This type of link building is often frowned upon in traditional SEO. Still, for local SEO, it’s advisable to be listed in directories and on local websites to improve your authority in the eyes of Google. Citations can help build a strong presence for your site on local searches and push you to the top of rankings.
Help reach customers at optimum times
Every business wants to be in front of customers in the search results, but for local search, it’s even more important. For example, if a user needs a dentist in an emergency or out or hours, they’ll search dentists near me with key terms like out of hours. If you provide this service, you’ll pop up in results. People searching locally generally want to take action immediately, so ensuring you are capitalising on this is crucial to driving business leads.
Make your website mobile-friendly
Studies have highlighted that local searches are more likely to be carried out on mobile devices than desktop. To utilise these findings, ensuring your website is mobile-friendly is vital. It’s also essential to set up features such as Google My Business. This is an easy way for Google to list your business even if you don’t have a website. Once this is set up, your business details will be accessible to people searching locally, and you’ll often show up in Google Map results for nearby companies of interest.
Local SEO isn’t as complicated as traditional SEO
It can be easier to target local customers as they are looking for specific products and services in your locality. However, although it is easier to gain rankings in local search, it’s essential to use this in conjunction with traditional SEO to boost your overall ranking.
