LOCAL SEO
Local SEO is a Search Engine Optimisation strategy that increases your visibility within your geographic area. It’s how you’ll stay relevant with audiences in the vicinity of your business operations.
Essentially, local SEO involves attracting leads in your neighbourhood to build awareness with local customers, increasing both foot traffic and web traffic — from walk-ins to online enquiries. In this way, you can outperform the wider competition for steady growth.
Now that people have mobile internet access and can use Google as they move in real time, local SEO is even more important.
-
Local SEO is the SEO strategy that involves increasing your website’s visibility for localised searches, generating more traffic from consumers in your target area.
Search engines like Google are evolving to give preference to companies operating in a user’s local region. They assume that someone searching for certain products or services needs results in their immediate location. And they’re not wrong.
Think about it. Search the word ‘café’ and you’re likely shown venues in close proximity. If you were to change location, the list of results will also change to reflect your new geography — whether it’s your home or a holiday destination halfway across the world.
-
Google’s algorithm predicts whether the user is likely seeking geographically relevant content. It does this by measuring something called local intent.
A keyword is assumed to have local intent when the majority of people searching it have engaged with location-specific results in the past.
If this is the case, only businesses with an effective local SEO strategy will rank on the first page (and better yet, in a map pack).
-
With local SEO, we’re literally putting you on the map. Using a combination of content and technical strategies, local SEO typically includes:
Local-oriented SEO website audits
Optimising your Google My Business listing
Localised content recommendations e.g. region-specific landing pages, meta descriptions, and link building
Keyword research focused on your local audience
Building citations in data directories
-
Any business that operates in a physical location can benefit from local SEO, whether it’s selling products or offering a service.
Because of the algorithm’s preference for localised websites, it’s a way for small and independent businesses to outperform larger global chains.
However, big brands shouldn’t ignore localised SEO strategies. It’s a powerful tool for promoting your business across multiple locations at once, and can make a big difference to customer service and admin if you’re managing several regional teams.