LOCAL SEO SERVICES IN THE UK

Beginner's Guide to Understanding and Using Local SEO

Improve local visibility and grow your business with our step-by-step guide to local SEO! Learn how to use local search engine optimization from scratch in this comprehensive beginner's guide.

Local SEO is an essential part of any effective digital marketing strategy. It helps businesses achieve greater visibility in local searches and tell customers why they should choose them over the competition. With this guide, you'll learn how to develop a successful local SEO campaign from scratch to help your business reach new heights.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO is the process of optimizing an online presence for local customers.

This type of SEO targets potential local customers in search engine results by focusing on the location-specific keywords, products and services they are looking for.

It includes activities such as listing a business on directories, managing online reviews and improving content to target higher rankings in local searches.

Optimise Your Business Listing on Search Engines and Directories.

Optimising your business listing on search engines and directories is a key part of local SEO.

This includes making sure that your business information is complete, up-to-date and accurate across multiple platforms.

You should also look for opportunities to add your business to more localized directories sources relevant to your industry and location.

Additionally, make sure to include appropriate keywords in the listing descriptions wherever possible to maximise reach and attract potential customers searching for local services.

Use Targeted Keywords in Your Content.

When people search using local terms such as city, county or local town names, your content should include those keyword phrases to maximise visibility.

Additionally, you can use more targeted keywords related to the geographic area and industry that you are targeting.

For example, if you are a restaurant in Hertford, include "restaurants in Letchworth" or "leather repair in Hitchin" so that your content is more likely to show up in local searches.

Make Sure Your Website Is Mobile-Friendly.

If you want your website to be visible to local customers, it's important that it's mobile-friendly.

Search engine rankings are affected by website performance and user experience on different devices.

Nowadays, most people access content from their smartphones so make sure your site can be properly seen and interacted with on these smaller screens. Also, mobile-friendliness also affects how quickly pages load which can impact search engine ranking significantly.

Leverage Reviews & Testimonials on Your Site and Social Media Platforms.

Reviews and testimonials are key in local SEO—they help you gain credibility and encourage more people to visit your site or store.

Regularly ask customers for feedback on the products or services they received, then post reviews or ratings on social media platforms like Facebook or Google My Business.

Encourage users to leave reviews and reward them with a discount code or special offer.

These verified reviews often draw in potential customers and gives visibility to your business.

Using the term 'near me'.

The number of people searching for 'near me' has increased exponentially since 2015 - there was a 900% increase in 'near me' searching from 2013 to 2017.

The aim is to get on the map. And then make it really, REALLY easy for people to contact you.

Local SEO is important for businesses that have a physical street address, particularly because it helps local customers find the store or service they are looking for more easily.

If a business has multiple locations, local SEO helps make sure all of the addresses and phone numbers associated with their business appear in searches. Local SEO is also an effective way to increase website traffic from people who are likely to become loyal customers.

Hope this has helped you understand a little bit more about Local SEO and how you can position yourself to give yourself the best chance of being found locally.

Furthermore, make sure to include your address and business phone number in your website content.

This information should also be clear on all your directory listings and social media profiles. Additionally, if you have physical locations, add a Google Map with the store address to each page of your website.

People searching for local businesses may look for an interactive map and if they don’t find one, they may have trouble pinpointing exactly where you are located.

Taking additional steps such as adding photos of the location or product from the local area can also help enhance SEO performance and increase visibility in organic search results.

2 More Simple Ways to Improve Your Local SEO Presence

1. Claim Your Business Listings on Google My Business and Other Directories.

Claiming your business listings on Google My Business and other directories is an essential step for improving your local SEO presence.

Doing so not only puts you in front of customers that are searching for local businesses, but also gives potential customers more information about you, including location, address, hours of operation, contact information, reviews, and more.

Make sure to update this information regularly!

2. Add Structured Data to Your Site with Schema Markup.

Structured data, or schema markup, is a way to enhance your website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).

What is Schema Markup? It’s code that you add to the back-end of your website that gives search engines more information about what your page is about and helps them understand its content.

Schema Markup was designed by a collaboration between Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Yandex. It is a 'shared vocabulary' that they all understand. So if you have your page structured correctly so the search engines understand it then you stand a much better chance of having that page indexed by the search engines.

Sounds simple, however it can be quite tricky. Again, it's about making sure that the page has all the information that the search engines need to know what it's about, who wrote it etc. The information is all out there on how to do it and once you get the hang of it the tools will also really help.

Adding schema markup to your pages can help them stand out in local SERPs, increasing their visibility and rankings.