Local SEO- The Definitive Guide

You’ve probably already heard of “online marketing” as it encompasses everything, from advertising your business on social media, through to writing content marketing and link buildings.  

Yet you might be less familiar with what “local seo” means- so you’ve come to the right place, as we will explain in this comprehensive guide how this type of marketing can help your business.

In terms of both organic and local seo, it used to be a fairly straightforward process, yet it has now become much more complex, with a variety of factors that will influence your ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).

So if you want to get your business seen by more local customers, then you might want to hire a marketing agency which can help you improve your seo.

This guide will show you everything you need to know about local SEO, from the basics, such as building citations, through to talking about how AI is changing search engine optimisation.  

 

 

So, we’ll cover topics like:

 

– The importance of having a lot of quality business citations, and why NAP consistency is really important

 

– how customer reviews left Google My Business can help your company to appear in the local search engine results pages

 

– why you need business citations

 

– how to optimise your Google My Business account

 

–  content marketing

 

– And much more!

 

 

By the end of this guide, you’ll have a solid understanding of how local SEO works and what you need to do to make it work for your business. Let’s get started!

 

 

The Basics of Local SEO

 

 

Before we start to dive into the much more advanced aspects of local SEO, such as optimising your  Google My Business profile, let’s start off with the basics first.

So, local SEO is, quite simply is the process of optimising your company website, through both onsite and offsite seo.

This is with the aim of getting a business on page one of Google, either in the organic results or on in the results that appear next to a map.

The results which appear next to a map, are called the “Google My Business” listings.

So, it’s the seo agencies job to work to get your company to higher up the search results when someone searches for a relevant keyword or phrase in your geographic area that’s related to your business.

 

For example, let’s say you own a Greek restaurant in Cardiff.

If someone searches for “local Greek restaurants,” you will want your website to come up as one of the top results both organically and in the Google My Business results.

This is where a quality seo company, like ours, can help.

 

 

 

So, how does local SEO work?

 

 

Local SEO works by optimising a companies website for relevant keywords and phrases, so for example a bike retailer may want to optimise for “e-bikes” for example.

 

 

 

So, to optimise your company website for local SEO, you need to make sure your NAP details, that’s name of the business, address, and phone number are all consistent across all of your citations.

You also need to claim and verify your Google My Business listing, and make sure your company information is accurate and up-to-date.

 

 

In addition to optimising your website through onsite seo, you can also use citation building and customer reviews to improve your ranking on SERPs. We’ll cover all of these topics in more detail later on.

 

 

So, why Is local SEO important?

 

 

SEO is important to many businesses simply because if done right it allows you to get your company onto the first page of Google.

 

 

 

What are the benefits of local SEO?

 

 

There are a number of benefits that come with improving your businesses local SEO.

Here are the most obvious

If done right seo can help:

–        To get your business to rank higher on Google  

–        Help you to get more customers

–        Obtain more sale leads for your business

The most obvious benefit is that seo, if done right, can help increase your businesses visibility in local search results, meaning most potential customers will see your company, and may purchase from you. 

 

 

 

How to improve your local SEO

 

 

Whenever your improving your companies seo, just make sure you use white hat methods.

There are a number of things you can do to improve your local SEO. The most important step is to make sure your NAP (name, address, and phone number) is all consistent across all of your business directory listings.

You should also claim and verify your Google My Business listing.

It’s really simple to verify your Google My Business listing, it often just means obtaining a postcard that’s sent via mail, a pin code is then enclosed

Here’s a local SEO checklist

 

 

Here’s a quick checklist of what we think are the most important things you need to do in order to optimise your website for local SEO:

 

 

– Make sure your NAP details, that’s name of your business, address and phone number are all consistent across all of your directory listings, such as on yell, Thomson local, and yelp.

 

– Claim and verify your Google My Business listing.

 

– add quality content marketing

 

–        Improve onsite seo

 

 

By following these steps, you can start to improve your companies local SEO.

 

 

What does NAP consistency mean?

 

 

So, NAP consistency refers to making sure that your businesses name, address, and phone number are the same across all of your online listings.

In order to make sure your NAP is consistent, you should claim and verify your Google My Business listing and make sure your business name, address and phone number are correct. You should then also check your other online listings (such as directory listings and social media profiles) to make sure that your NAP is correct and up-to-date.

Basically everywhere your businesses NAP details are mentioned, you should make sure the information is consistent.

 

 

So, what is Google My Business?

 

 

Google My Business (GMB) is a free service, it allows you to add your business, which can really help improve your local seo.

To claim and verify your GMB listing, you’ll need to provide some basic information about your business, such as your business name, address, and phone number.

You’ll also need to verify your listing by postcard or phone call.

Once your listing is verified, you can start managing your business information and adding content to your listing.

   

 

What is a directory listing?

 

 

A directory listing is a mention of your businesses nap information, that includes the business’s name, address, phone number, it could be on a website such as yell.

To help make sure your business is listed in directories, you could use a service like Moz Local or Yext.

You can also search for directories which are related to your industry, so for example, there are a lot of websites that you can add your company to, if you are a solicitor for example.

 Once you’ve found a few relevant directories, you can submit your business information and wait for your listing to be approved.