A Complete Guide to Local SEO

Published by : Vicinus

Date : January 20, 2021

.A Complete Guide to Local SEO | Vicinus.ai

There is no doubting the power of local SEO when it comes to businesses with physical locations.  An incredible:
‘Four out of Five Consumers use search to find local information about businesses near them’ 
This means that, if your business hasn’t considered utilising the power of local SEO, you are possibly missing out on a whopping 80% of potential customers.  However, optimising your local SEO efforts might not be as simple as you think. This is why we have created this comprehensive guide to local SEO below. It will cover tips and tricks on how to optimise your local presence as well as guides on how to get the fullest potential out of your business listings too.  So, let’s start with some frequently asked questions. Hyperlocal marketing what is it and how does it work blog graphic. A store front has a geo tag above it. In front is a person's hand holding a phone.

What is Local SEO?

Simply put, Local SEO is how businesses within a certain geographical area promote their products and/or services to nearby customers and prospects.  This means that local SEO is dependent on various signals which search engines pick up on such as:
  • Local Content
  • Social profiles
  • Links
  • Citations/Business Listings
These signals aid a search engine in providing its users with the best results for their category searches. For example, a potential customer may search for something like ‘coffee shop near me’ or ‘mural artist near me’ and the results which appear in the map pack will be dependant on the signals above provided by the business.  Local Search Engine Marketing blog. Photo shows laptop with SEO on screen and post it notes on the wall surrounding with SEO terms.

How Can I Optimise My Local SEO?

There are quite a few ways in which you can optimise your local SEO for ‘near me’ searches. Check out our best tips below! Vicinus listing distribution network graphic. Shows cartoon people picking up social media and online platform icons and putting them on a phone screen.

Optimise Google My Business Listings

There is no doubting that Google My Business (also known as GMB) has a profound impact on local SEO efforts.  As Google is most likely to share content and websites which it can both support and verify, working with their tools is the best way to do this. GMB is a tool that allows Google to verify your business, working to allow the search engine to know that your business is authentic.  There are a few ways in which you can ensure that your Google My Business Listings are created correctly. For example, ensuring that you have chosen the correct category for your line of business as well as encouraging your customers to share reviews online are great ways to aid Google’s verification of your business.  Please click here for a more comprehensive guide on how to set up and claim your Google My Business Listings. However, for optimal local SEO support, Viincus can also aid you. Vicinus is an AI-powered hyperlocal marketing tool that will enhance your local presence online.  The Vicinus platform features real-time management and creation of business listings across multiple platforms, insights into performance, building and monitoring online reputation, and more. For full local optimization, Vicinus also assists in creating SEO-friendly location pages for each of your business locations. For more information, check out our website or contact us at contact@vicinus.ai google my business vicinus

Support Your Business with Internal Linking

We all know that external links to your website are ideal for getting your business found online, but internal links are also an important factor too.  This is because internally linking to your website works to support website navigation, assist with information architecture and website hierarchy, and work to distribute page authority and/or ranking power among pages. For more information, Kissmetrics’ The Seven Commandments of Internal Linking for Top-Notch SEO is a great blog post covering everything you need to know about optimising local SEO with internal links. marketing vicinus

Optimise Every Piece of Content to Get found in SERPs

Every piece of content created on your website is a new indexed page for your site. This means that you must ensure that you’re optimising the URL, title tags, headers, meta description, and the content itself too. 

Adding Location Pages for Every Physical location of Your Business to Increase Local SEO

For businesses with multiple locations, ensuring that you have a location page created for every physical location is essential to get found online.  This is because location pages provide users with NAP data (name, address & phone number) alongside store hours, descriptions, parking, and other necessary information.  Vicinus helps with the creation of individual location pages for businesses with multiple physical locations. Vicinus helps your business show up in ‘near me’ searches and direct your customers to SEO friendly location pages without any detour.  Your location pages will seamlessly integrate with your website via your own domain and include configurable add-ons such as location-specific reviews, offers, directions, contact forms, e-commerce modules, and more. Get in contact with us here. Vicinus contact us graphic. Email address: contact@vicinus.ai. Visit website: https://vicinus.ai

Create Local Content for Your Website

Again, much like ‘Support Your Business with Internal Linking’ above, creating content will help link to your business. Focusing your content on local SEO is a sure-fire way to gain local customers. For example, focus some of your blog posts on localised news and topics about your industry rather than casting a wide net that may not attract local customers.  By doing this, you can help your business become the local authority for your industry. This will work to position you at the top of the funnel when it comes to content. It will also position you at the top potentially for your products and services too. google maps citations vicinus

Making Sure Your Website if Mobile-Friendly

This is necessary in our ever-growing digital world. With a massive:
‘nine out of ten smartphone users conducting local searches on their devices’
Ensuring that your business is found and able to be navigated by mobile-users is crucial.  vicinus near me searches

Consistent NAP (name, address and phone number) Across Your Online Presence to Optimise Local SEO

This should be an essential part of your local SEO strategy. Ensuring that your NAP data is consistent across the web is essential in getting search engines to find you. As suggested in one of our previous Vicinus blog posts:
‘This is because search engines such as Google and Bing take this type of data into account when showing geo-targeted searches.  This means that utilising your business’s NAP data across various social networks as well as business directories will help you get found easier on searches.’
For more information about the importance of consistent and accurate NAP data, please check out our blog post here. business listings vicinus

List Your Business on Business Listings

Map data aggregators are great places to start listing your business. These are:
  • Yelp
  • Bing
  • Apple
  • GMB (as detailed above)
  • Trip Advisor
  • Industry-specific business listings
Again, as suggested above, when listing your business, ensure that your NAP data is consistent in all of these listings for the best SERP results. However, you must also ensure that all duplicate listings are also removed. This is so that search engines show your business in local search results.  Vicinus’s Duplicate Finder helps to suppress and remove duplicate business listings to avoid customer confusion. For more information, please contact us below. contact us vicinus
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