Local Search
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Drive traffic from local queries and answer local questions
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GETTING STARTED
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The Keys to Local SEOLocal SEO has become much more important in recent years. According to a report from Google, 76% of people who search for something local on their smartphone visit a business related to that search within one day. Of those searches, nearly 30% result in a purchase. Local SEO helps your website show up in these local search results. A local results pages look very different than normal search results. These are queries where Google has decided approximation to a local area is an important factor. So if you look for sandwiches, Google believes the best results to show you are businesses that offer sandwiches in the city you search from.
The amount of queries tagged as local is growing, along with the amount of special additions to those search result pages. 
Local search results have a lot of different pieces that make them stand out from non local results. These are designed to help searchers find relevant information and can be defined by location.
There are tons of ways for users to interact with your content in local search results so it’s not just about being number one. NAP (Name, Address, Phone)Your Name, Address, and Phone (NAP) is an important early signal for local search. It establishes your physical location (whether it's a just a home-based office or an actual storefront) Make sure your NAP is visible on your website, some of the best places to include NAP include your contact page and the footer on every page. You want to make sure you use the same NAP information when you list your business in external places, like listing sites.
Listing SitesListing sites are the driving force behind local SEO. Search engines know they are some of the first places customers look for local information, so the sites are used to match location and send relevance signals.
It's also important to check on listing sites that are specific to your business. Potential customers will certainly reference these places and so will search engines. Examples include TripAdvisor or Thumbtack. Do a quick search for your business vertical + "review sites" to double check so you don't miss anything. When submitting your profile to listing sites, pay close attention to duplicate listings, or multiple mentions of your business across the same listing service. Duplicate listings confuse customers and can be bad for business, especially because they might cause legitimate listings to get flagged for spam and removed. This happens more often than you might think, usually if you move business locations, change names or make updates to important business information. Always do a search on a listing site for a previous listing before creating a new profile or updating an old one. ReviewsReviews are important as both a ranking signal and a traffic driver. Super important. According to the Local SEO Ranking Factor Study, businesses with lots of reviews tend to rank higher in local search. A lot of this is probably because the more reviews you have the more likely someone is to click through and visit your site, and click through rates will help improve search rank. However, it is totally possible that reviews, both rating and volume, have an impact on position in search results and the local pack.
Try and work reviews into your normal business activities. Running a great business is the #1 way to get great reviews, but there are some other strategies you can use to accelerate your review counts. There are two different types of reviews you can gather, reviews on external listing sites like Yelp or Google My Business, and reviews you gather and place on your website. Both are important for SEO. For listing site reviews sites, you can email customers after they make a purchase or receive a product, thanking them for business and encouraging them to share feedback on Yelp or Google My Business and include a link to your profiles on both. You could also create a page or section on your contact page that encourages people to share their experience with your business You could take the best ones and post them on your site, or reach out to people with positive reviews and ask them to share it on a review site. More ideas for collecting and incorporating reviews on your website and listing sites along with Weebly apps that integrate directly with your site to help you collect and promote reviews.
Local LinksLinks boost maps visibility and boost local rankings. Google will place listings with more links higher in the local search pack. Boost domain authority, overall ranking ability outside of local search and also sends valuable relevant traffic.
Link building for local is important. To get quality local links you can sponsor an event, get listed on business directories or run a community event. For more local link building ideas, check out the Link Building page. |