How does local SEO help your website rank better on Google?

• local seo

Everyone searches for something almost every day. When someone searches for a business or place near where they reside or work, they usually end up with local results across Google. Local SEO plays an important role in helping your website rank higher than your local competitors, making sure you are more visible and credible to your local audience.

In this article, we’ll understand what Local SEO is, factors that affect the ranking for local searches, and strategies that boost your rank.  

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO is a marketing strategy that optimizes your business to be more visible in local search results on every search engine. Any business that has a location or delivers a geographic area can take full advantage of local SEO. Almost 8.5 billion Google searches are made on a daily basis, and, with a lump sum, half of these searches happen to have local intent. 

Let’s say for example, you want to get a haircut. When you search the keyword “salon near me”, you get results of the salon within ten kilometers of the radius. If you enhance your local SEO, you’ll be able to expand your business and build stronger relationships with buyers and users around you. 

What factors Google consider to rank for local searches?

Google algorithm considers a wide variety of signals to rank websites for local search results. But let’s discuss the most important factor that influences the local ranking – 

1. Relevance –  Relevance here means, how relevant is your business to the requirement of the users when they are searching for something. Google ranking algorithms ensure to provide search results  as relevant as they can be for users. Therefore it is important for you to understand your audience how well youfit in the search. Give out accurate and complete information about your business online. 

2. Prominence – Prominence simply means how popular your business is. Google uses some factors such as count and score of your business reviews, inbound links, etc to evaluate the prominence of your business. It also considers your position in search results, thus the good seo strategy becomes an important part in local search. 

3. Distance – How near are you to someone looking for a particular business? Search engines show results based on the location of the user and the location of business.If a searcher does not specify a location, Google calculates distance based on what they do know about their location. Proximity is hard to manipulate because you cannot just move your address in Google to rank in other locations. The only thing you can do is to optimise your Google Business profile and use localised keywords on your site to widen the radius.

How to improve Local SEO ranking on Google? 

Let’s dive into how we can improve Local SEO rankings. 

1. Optimise website for mobile phones – A study which found that around  82% of searchers had used their mobile devices to conduct a “near me” search. This indicates how much people are using their phones for local search. So it’s essential that you cater to these searchers by developing mobile-friendly websites. Make sure visitors don’t  have trouble navigating information.in addition to this, add call-to-action buttons on your website and on your Google My Business listing. 

2. Create & optimise  Google business profile account – Having Google Business Profile  is essentially the most important part of your local SEO strategy. And it is a crucial ranking factor in google local search results. Optimising  it is all together the most productive way to rank better on Google Maps, as well as gain visibility in Google SERPs. How to optimise google my business:

• Make sure all your information in google my business is complete, accurate and up to date. Example – Address, contact number etc.
• Google Business Profile lets you upload pictures and videos of your business. Highlight your products and services through visuals  
• Businesses with positive reviews on their profile can be beneficial from higher click-through and conversion rates. Ask for review from customers and engage with them by responding to them
•  Ensure to add targeted keywords & Leverage the GBP post by publishing your offers, events, products and services.

3. Collect reviews from local customers – Review signals play a critical role in your local search and search engine ranking. Therefore having a bag full of authentic reviews, especially positive ones, could work better to boost your visibility in local search and will help you with enhancing your reputation. This means you need to work towards collecting more engaging customer reviews for your business. Maintain your focus on websites where Google would anticipate businesses to have reviews. 

4. Optimise Voice Search – About 58% of U.S. citizens use voice search on Google on a day to day routine. Voice search helps users search long tailed keywords with ease. Keywords like “shops near my home” or “blue running shoes for men” are some long tailed keywords which users mostly voice search. Therefore optimising such keywords on Google voice search enhances users experience helping you get more traffic and build credibility

5. Local link building – Local Link Building is the method of constructing links in reference to local business. The motive is to drive local traffic to your website which will help you rank better on search engines. Some of the link building strategies are – 

• Find local business dictionaries
• Monitor competitors’ backlinks 
• Connect with local bloggers and influencers
• Reach out to local newspapers and channels
• Create social media pages

Conclusion:

Now that you have a better understanding of Local SEO and how Google ranks local search results, you can begin to enhance on signals that will optimise your site’s digital mark in the local search ecosystem. There are many factors that affect your visibility in local searches like creating GBP and optimising it, building local links, optimising for local keywords, optimising for mobile etc. We know it’s a lot and can be overwhelming. Indian Marketers can help you build fresh and effective strategies. We have the expertise and the patience to understand what needs to be carried out and curate a plan of action that eliminates all the obstacles to your website.