When looking for a local product or service, most of us now pick up our smartphone to search online for what we need.
These stats show how effective search is for driving local customers to businesses:
This guide has been written for businesses (not SEO geeks), to cover the questions you may have when considering local search, and whether it is right for your business.
SEO Agency Tip: there can be the temptation to speak to local SEO agencies to get their view on the SEO work you need to do. The problem with this approach is that they may recommend work that requires their services and shy away from suggesting work you can do yourselves.
By reading this guide and the recommended articles, you will empower yourself with better knowledge of the work your business needs, and the work you could do yourselves.
So if you do decide to speak to a local SEO agency, you will now have the knowledge to decide the services where they could add the most value.
Local SEO is the process of optimising your business location(s) and service areas within the search engines.
So when someone searches for [Your Product or Service] in [Your Area], your business is shown in the search engines:
Key Stat: for 93% of local searches the Maps listings appear in positions 1 to 3 in the search results. Source: searchenginejournal.com
Any business that has potential customers searching for their products, or services, where the customers are looking for a local location.
A business with:
Types of business may include
Top Tip: do an online search for your own products and services to see if relevant local competitors show in the results; if yes this indicates that local SEO could be beneficial for you.
Potentially yes 👍
More people than ever are looking online for the local products and services they need, some stats to back this up:
28% of all local searches will result in a local purchase Source: seotribunal.com
70% of people visit a local business following information found online Source: seotribunal.com
46% of all Google searches are now local Source: seotribunal.com
Checklist
People are searching for your products and services in your area?
You optimise your website and business locally.
See an increase in enquiries
Top Tip: using a keyword research tool find the number of monthly searches for your primary products or services in your area, such as the free tool: www.wordtracker.com
Local search optimisation is a type of SEO that focuses on location in the maps and natural rankings:
For good local search performance - you need to optimise for (1) maps and (2) organic listings.
It is impossible to answer without knowing your business, website, budget, or competition.
Though not to dodge the question.
Local SEO does not typically provide instant results in the way paid search advertising can do.
You should start to see results after 3 to 6 months - a good agency/freelancer should target ‘quick wins’, such as setting up and optimising your Google My Business listing.
Typically quicker results for older established websites - if you have a well-established website with good page content, and relevant existing links, it may be possible to start seeing quicker results.
This will depend on your market, website, competition, and who you get to do the work.
Tips on keeping your costs to a minimum
There are many factors the search engines consider when deciding which businesses should be at the top of their results:
To be shown above your competitors you need
Further Reading from Bright Local: Local SEO: The Complete Guide
Make it easy for the search engines to know your address and the service areas by including:
Not located close to your customers?
When someone makes their local search, for example, ‘plumber london’, you need to make sure the search engine clearly knows that you provide ‘plumbing services’, and in the area of London.
Examples of how to do this:
How much optimisation will make my business most relevant?
This will depend on how much has been done by your competitors. Look at their web pages and for example, their Google My Business listing, see how much they have done, then aim to do a little more.
There are many ways to build trust online:
How much trust do I need to build (number of reviews etc)?
Again, this will depend on what has been done by your competitors. For example, look at how many online reviews they have, then aim to get more.
To find this out you will need to do a little research
1. Are There Searches
If there are people searching for your services online, then that is a good indication there is an opportunity.
Tools are available to tell you how many people are searching for keywords relevant to you, such as WordStream Free Keyword Tool.
Before starting any work, you should do keyword research to determine the extent of the business opportunity available.
2. How Competitive Is Your Market?
Once you have found your target keywords, do some search engine searches to see your competitors. If the results:
Top Tip: Research all your products and services, even if some keywords are too competitive, there may be others that are more achievable. For example "plumber oxted" versus "plumber surrey".
Take massive action - all the planning in the world will not improve your search engine results, you need to take action to be better than your competitors in your chosen keyword markets.