Local search engine optimisation can play a hugely important role in attracting nearby customers when they search for the specific services you provide. If you manage an independent coffee shop, for example, you’ll want to make sure that a customer searching for “great coffee near me” will find your business at the top of the search page. Luckily, there are plenty of things you can do to help get your business into the coveted top spot, free of charge.
In this short read, you’ll learn:
- The basics of local search and the ‘three pack’.
- Why you should use Google My Business, and how to optimise your listing.
- Increasing your customer reviews.
- What are backlinks and how to earn them.
- How to optimise by writing better content.
A Digital Marketing Agency such as ourselves may be able to provide your business with a local SEO audit, analysing your current online performance and outlining steps your business could take to improve its digital marketing efforts.
This blog post will hopefully prove useful to you in improving your Local SEO performance, but please feel free to get in touch for a consultation specific to your business.
Local Search
When a customer is actively searching for nearby services, such as ‘plumber near me’, this is referred to as a local search. The search algorithm is likely to prioritise businesses that are local and that offer the product or service being searched for. The ‘three pack’, highlighted in the search example to the right, often appears at the top of search results for a product or service. Roughly 46% of all Google searches are local, while the three-pack results appear in 93% of all local searches.
The three-pack shows a snapshot of local businesses, and prioritises those that are optimised for the specific search term and have a sound Google My Business listing. Searchers can easily be directed to the business website, explore photos and reviews or get directions. It is therefore an extremely powerful marketing tool, showing your business to potential customers who are both nearby and seeking your products and services.
Google My Business (GMB)
GMB is the local business listings service provided by Google free of charge, and provides a tool for businesses to easily improve the ranking of their site in local search results and on the three-pack.
Enlisting your business with GMB will provide your business with prominence in search results, allow you to stay ahead of the competition, and improve credibility for your business in the local area. In your long-term strategy, GMB can provide you with detailed insights into your customers google search behaviour and how you are performing online against your competition.
When optimising your GMB listing, you’ll get the most return on your time investment by sticking with the basics. Consistency is the name of the game: make sure to use the same business name across GMB, your website, social media and business directories.
Update your listing with accurate contact details, location and operating hours. Choose an accurate business category, and select the subcategories prioritising the most relevant to your business. There are over 4000 categories for you to choose from, so take your time and be specific.
60% of customers say that great images will catch their attention when browsing local search results, and they help the algorithm too! We say a great place to start is to include 3 external photos of your business, 3 internal photos and 3 of your staff, products or services.
On a regular basis, you will want to use your GMB listing to manage your online reputation by creating posts, answering questions and responding to reviews. Showing your business as active and engaging will not only improve your search results performance, but also show you to potential customers as being responsive and trustworthy.
For more detail on Google My Business, be sure to check out our dedicated blog post here. -> Why You Should Have a ‘Google My Business’ Listing?
Generating Customer Reviews
In various industries such as hospitality, medical and automotive, consumers are extremely likely to have read reviews of multiple businesses during their decision-making process. Only 48% of consumers would consider using a business with fewer than 4 stars, and 73% of consumers would only pay attention to reviews written in the last month. This highlights the importance of generating positive and regular reviews from your customers.
A growing number of customers are becoming inclined to leave reviews of businesses they have interacted with, both positive and negative. Nevertheless, especially when first establishing your business, it is important to ask your customers to leave reviews. This can be achieved through follow-up emails, on social media, over the phone, on a receipt or in person. Roughly 70% of customers went on to write an online review when prompted to do so, but it may be helpful to provide them with an incentive such as a small discount.
Generating a growing number of reviews, especially in competitive industries such as hospitality, will allow your GMB listing to stand out above your competitors and increase the perception of trust and validity in your business.
Backlinks, and How to Earn Them
In simple terms, backlinks (or citations) are instances of other websites linking to yours. They are extremely important for search results, as they validate both the online and physical location of your business. The Google algorithm views backlinks as a form of trust shown by third parties, and a large, established online source linking to your site can significantly improve your search engine performance.
You can easily grow the number of backlinks to your site by adding your business to various online directories. You’ll find a number of examples below. You can also earn organic backlinks by posting informative content on your website, such as high-quality blog posts and videos, that are likely to encourage positive engagement and reposts.
Great examples of citations that you can claim for your business:
maps.apple.com
thephonebook.bt.com
facebook.com
directory.independent.co.uk
directory.mirror.co.uk
walesonline.co.uk
yell.com
yelp.co.uk
192.com
Writing Better Content
It’s important to ensure that the content on each page of your website is well written, rich in key phrases and easy to understand. Aim to get your information across to viewers that only have time to skim-read your pages using subheadings and concise writing.
Blog posts can provide a great opportunity to improve your SEO performance whilst educating and informing your audience. We recommend basing your blog posts around answering a question that your potential customers may be searching for in google. This allows your blog post to appear on search results for that specific query and helps your content to be rich in keywords.
Online content should always include a call to action, encouraging readers/viewers to engage with your business by finding directions, signing up to a newsletter, booking a table or following you on social media. Regularly creating content that is relevant to your business services and suits your audiences’ needs will instill confidence in your business and provide another means to improve your search engine optimisation. Finally, this content can be posted to your social media accounts and GMB listing or by external parties to increase your backlinks.
Final Thoughts
We hope this blog can provide you and your business some insight into how you can start to improve your local SEO performance.
At Alliance, we often provide our clients with a local SEO audit. This gives them a tailored plan of action specific to their business to improve their existing GMB listing and SEO performance, and gives insights into both their competitors and customers’ behaviour. Please feel free to get in touch regarding a local SEO audit for your business, or to learn about the other services we provide.
Finally, for a more detailed, technical discussion for optimising the back-end of your website for organic search results, please take a look at our dedicated blog post here -> Optimising Your Website the Right Way
