SEO STRATEGY FOR LOCAL BUSINESS

Quite often, we use the services of local companies: cafes, restaurants, translation bureaus, cosmetology salons, and repair of appliances and electronics. I want to note that not only you, but also the majority of Internet users do this.

In this state of affairs, local promotion is very important for attracting potential customers from Google, Bing, and other search engines popular in this region.

Let’s find out: what is local SEO? What is the difference between local and global SEO? What are local SEO strategies?

WHAT IS LOCAL SEO?

Local SEO is a good way for local organizations to market themselves to a target audience within a city or region.

Search engines are very good at distinguishing between local and global user searches. For example, “order sushi delivery” is a geo-independent query, and “order a plane ticket” is a geo-independent query. In the first case, the search output will be different in each city, and in the second, regardless of your place of residence, the output will be approximately the same.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LOCAL AND GLOBAL (ORGANIC) SEO?

Like any SEO work, local SEO starts with search queries. The difference will be that search queries for local SEO contain the name of a specific city, district, street, and metro station. And for global SEO, search queries are selected that are less dependent on settlements or geographical objects.

Promotion of the company in a certain region, city, or district of the city is more interesting for small and medium-sized businesses. And organic is more for global business. And of course, the price matters – local promotion will cost much cheaper than global promotion.

WHAT ARE SEO STRATEGIES?

Conditionally, you can highlight 5 SEO strategies for local businesses (according to information from the best seo companies).

1. NAP – DATA

For all local sites, the following data is simply required:

• Name;
• Address;
• Phone.

All this information should be specified as accurately as possible on your website, on Google maps, in catalogs of organizations, etc. There should be no confusion, if the address, name, or phone number has changed, you should take care and indicate the current information on all sources of information. If you have several addresses or phone numbers, you must publish all addresses and all phone numbers.

It is also worth taking care citing your NAPs: the more often your name or the contact information is mentioned, the higher the probability of appearing at the TOP of a local search.

2. GOOGLE MY BUSINESS DIRECTORY

The search engines themselves gave a powerful, and most importantly, a free tool for local promotion. Data on local organizations are displayed in search results in special blocks.

What’s important to Google My Business:

• Fill out the organization card as accurately as possible;
• Use key requests when filling out the card;
• Specify your NAP;
• Specify the organization’s work schedule;
• Publish a photo of your office;
• Specify the cost of your services;
• Specify the address of your site;
• Publish the latest news about your company.

Also, do not forget about the ratings and reviews in the directories of organizations – this information is available to users. And search engines show local organizations with a high rating in the TOP.

3. PLACEMENT ON ALL KINDS OF MAPS

Users often search for an organization that is nearby or how to get there. Do not be lazy to place yourself on all kinds of online maps.

4. CREATION OF PAGES BY DIRECTORIES

For the local promotion of the organization, it is necessary to collect a list of key requests related to the geography of your business. Keywords must contain names of geographical objects:

• Cities and settlements;
• Districts of the city;
• Streets;
• Public transport stops.

It is necessary to create relevant landing pages for all collected search queries.

5. PROMOTION BY LINKS IN LOCAL SEO

At this point, everything is standard – we select high-quality donor sites that are similar in topic, and we build a normal ratio of anchor links to non-anchor links. Exception – donor sites should be mostly local.

Such as:

• Local catalogs of organizations;
• Local forums;
• Local mass media;
• Local blogs.

You can also work with PBN networks of sites in local promotion.

CONCLUSION

For the successful promotion of the site in local search, the following must be taken into account:

• We collect local semantics;
• We develop catalogs of organizations;
• We post links on local donor sites.

Importantly!

Before starting work on local SEO optimization, you must:

1. Analyze the niche and competitors;
2. Consider the strengths and weaknesses of competitors;
3. Show your resources;
4. Make a work strategy;
5. Carefully follow the chosen strategy.

Take into account that when your site does not appear at the TOP of the local edition – it means that the target lead went to a competitor in the office behind the wall.