How to Improve your Local Search Immediately | Vicinus.ai
Now more than ever, optimising local search is essential for businesses with physical locations. This is because local SEO focuses primarily on appearing on SERPs in specific geographic locations. In order to get your business found in ‘near me’ searches, focusing on a wide variety of factors is crucial.
In this article, we will discuss the top ways to improve your local search efforts immediately as well as some of the benefits of local SEO too.
What are the Benefits of Improving Local Search?
Your local search efforts can result in increased website traffic, leads and conversions too. This is because optimising your local SEO can help your business get advantages over competitors by finding potential leads nearby.
According to ReviewTrackers, a total of:
This means that by ignoring your local search, your business is potentially losing out on a significant amount of traffic and potentially conversions too.
How can I Improve my Local Search?
There are a wide variety of ways you can improve your local search efforts. Below is our Top 10 list of the best ways to optimise your business for local search.
Create a Google My Business Account & Optimise for Local Search
Your Google My Business account is one of the most effective ways for your business to rank on Google Maps and the local map pack too (for more information about the local map pack and its benefits, please check out our blog post here).
Make sure that all information on your Google My Business page is fully updated as this information can show up in Google Search local results, the Google Search Knowledge Panel, and Google Maps.
There are a few ways you can optimise your Google My Business profile for local search such as:
Verifying ownership of your GMB account
Keeping all information accurate and updated
Make sure that all information is added. This includes logo, hours of operation, acceptable payment methods, the product or service you sell, and more.
Make sure you have frequently updated reviews from customers
Respond to reviews
Publish posts. This includes announcing products, events, and special offers.
Vicinus can help optimise your GMB profile for local search with it’s real-time management and creation of business listings across multiple platforms, insights into performance, building and monitoring online reputation and more.
For more information, get in contact with us here.
Get Positive Reviews from Customers to Improve Local Search
Not only do reviews help to optimise your Google My Business presence, reviews also work to build trust for your business and encourage conversions too.
For example, Inc.com suggests that:
‘84 Percent of People Trust Online Reviews As Much As Friends’
Some of the best ways to get customers to leave positive reviews for your business are:
Asking for a review in-person at the point of sale
Ask via email, text or other forms of communication
Respond to existing reviews and address negative reviews professionally
For more information on getting reviews for your business, check out our blog post: ‘How to Ask for Reviews for Your Business | Vicinus’
Optimise for Voice Local Searches
Voice search has become increasingly popular in recent years so incorporating it as part of your local search strategy is a must.
In order to do so, utilising long-tail keywords is beneficial. This is because when customers conduct voice searches, they are more likely to be using long-tail keywords than in regular typed searches.
What are long-tail keywords? Long–tail keywords are longer and more specific keyword phrases that visitors are more likely to use when they’re closer to a point-of-purchase or when they’re using voice search.
This suits a more conversational-style tone. However, it is also important to remember to account for traditional questions too such as who, what, why, when etc.
Use SEO-friendly Location Pages
Location pages are useful in more than one way. Especially if your business has multiple locations, location pages provide a place for your customers to find all the relevant information they need about your business in its specific location.
Your location pages should feature:
Store hours
Name, address, and phone number
Individualized descriptions
Testimonials
Promotions
Parking availability
Google Maps attached to each location page
With Vicinus, you can show up in ‘near me’ searches and direct your customers to SEO-friendly location pages without any detour. Pages seamlessly integrate with your website via your own domain and include configurable add-ons such as location-specific reviews, offers, directions, contact form, e-commerce module, and more…
Utilise Online Business Directories for Local Search Queries
Online business directories such as Yelp, Foursquare, MapQuest, YellowPages and much more help get your business found. Bu inputting your NAP or NAP+W data (name, address, phone number, and website) boosts your local SEO as well as helping your visibility on these directories too.
At a minimum, business directories should feature your:
NAP/NAP+W data (make sure these are consistent across all business directories)
Backlink to your website
A rich and thorough description of your business focusing on local keywords.
Final Thoughts: Why you Should Improve your Local Search Immediately
Google constantly introduces new features on its SERPs, which means that you need to continuously keep updated with these changes. By using the items in this article, you will create a solid foundation for your local SEO efforts, working to keep your business updated for local search.
