SEO: What Is Local SEO & the Major Facts We Should Know

Google Local Listings can be defined as the business listings in the map that you usually see at the top or at the middle of Google’s first page results. These listings tend to show up when you search for a keyword accompanied by a specific city, e.g. “Shopping Stores California” or “used cars for sale UK”. As a result, these local search results are different from the organic results and sponsored pay per click listings. So if your business has a physical location, you’ve undoubtedly been told that you need local SEO. But for many business owners, local SEO remains covered in mystery, they don’t even know what is meant by “Local SEO”.

So here we will get a detailed idea on Local SEO, for whom it is most necessary and how we should implement that in order to get best result. Let’s have look over that.

#1.What Kind of Business Need Local SEO:

Any Business owners who get some or all of its customers or clients locally should go for local SEO. That could be a local restaurant, retail outlet, doctor, dentist or lawyer, but it could just as easily be a local ad agency. If you have a physical address in a city and expect people to go there, you should be doing local Search Engine Optimization for that location.

#2. How Local SEO is Different from Normal SEO:

Though all of the elements that apply to Normal SEO also impact Local SEO (i.e. on-page factors, links, social, indexing, etc.), local comes with a few unique elements.

The first and probably most important is that for local SEO you need to create and claim a local profile on major Search Engines like Google Places, Bing Local and Yahoo Local especially where major peoples go for search in order to fulfil their needs.

Second most important thing is called a citation. A citation is any place online that uses your company NAP (name, address, phone number) all on the same page, in the same format as your local listing. 

Third one is reviews, Lots and lots of reviews (preferably really good ones. Quantity and quality of reviews left for your business on your Google Places page is one of the most important local ranking factors.

#3. Most Important Facts That Boost Local SEO Ranking:

The three most considerable factors in local listings that influence your Local Listing are the number of citations, the number of reviews (primarily on your Google Places listing, though other places do count), and how positive the reviews are overall. From what I’ve seen, positive reviews will trump citations, so persuading your customers and clients to leave great reviews on your Google local page is the single most important thing you can do.

#4. How Onsite Optimization is Different for Local SEO vs. Nation SEO:

All of the same elements apply, but there are four things you should strongly consider mixing in. One, make sure your name, address and phone number are used on every page of your site, in the same format as your Google local listing (in the footer is an ideal location). Two, use your City and State names in your Title tags, Meta descriptions, and the content on your site (as it fits, don’t just force it in there). Three, include a KML file on your site. Four, make use of Schema local markup to better help search engines identify and show your location.

#5. How to make Local Listing Better:

Here let’s know how to do Local listing.

Ø  Claim Your Profile: Follow as mentioned in #2.

Ø  Upload Pictures: The local sites listing services like to provide their users with pictures of your business. To help ensure that they see some good pictures, upload your own. They don’t have to be professional photos, but they will represent your business so make sure they are decent.

Ø  Control Information across the Internet: A big part of local search optimization and marketing involves obtaining information from other sites. Local listing aggregation services search the internet far and wide to find pictures, reviews and any information they can on your company.

Ø  Ask For Reviews: Let your customers or clients know that they can rate their experience with you on your Google Places profile. Have logos up in your windows or in your office showing the places where people can leave reviews. Include your profile links in your email communications (particularly in follow-up emails after a purchase or visit), direct mail, and anywhere else you can think of to get it in front of customers. Of course, if you want positive reviews, you need to provide a product and/or service that warrant them.

Ø  Multiple Locations Need Multiple Landing Pages: Local sites don’t like a business having more than one local listing, but if the business has two locations, than that’s OK. However, you should ensure that each location links back to a page on your website that is all about that location and what it has to offer. Sending both local listings back to the same page, or homepage, isn’t ideal.