Local SEO: A Beginner’s Guide

Local search is a powerful technique for small businesses. If you aren’t optimised for local search, you could miss out on potential customers looking for your type of business in your area.

To help you optimise your business for local SEO, we have put together this beginner’s guide to local SEO which will cover what it is, why it is important and how you can optimise for local search.

Local SEO Basics

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO is a strategy that helps improve search engine visibility for local businesses. Any business with a physical location or serves a geographical area can benefit from local SEO best practices.

Common local SEO practices include: 

• Finding local keywords
• Optimising your Google My Business profile 
• Creating locally relevant content

Why is Local SEO Important?

Optimising for local search is important for businesses who serve specific towns, cities, or regions. It allows users to find information about your local business quickly and easily.

How does Local SEO Work?

On top of the usual ranking factors, Google’s local search algorithm uses three factors which determine local ranking: 

• Relevance = How well your business matches with a user’s search query. 
• Distance = How far your business is from the location term used in the search query. 
• Prominence = How well-known your business is compared to competitors.

Google can show two types of search results for local searches, which are ‘map pack’ results and organic ‘blue link’ results. You can rank on both of them.

Local SEO in the SERPs

Map Results

The map results (often referred to as the ‘local pack’) are at the very top of the local search results and display a SERP feature highlighting the top local businesses against the map. This section is highly sought after, as it fills much of the screen for both mobile and desktop while also providing valuable business information like star rating, address and opening hours. This section is mainly driven by Google Business Profile optimisations, as well as the volume of your reviews.

Organic Search Results

The organic search results are the blue links which appear underneath the map results when a local search has been made. Ranking in these spots relies on your site’s content, technical health and authority, and is where a local SEO strategy is crucial. With local keyword research, location-specific pages, and local backlinks are all solid ways to increase rankings in organic search results.

AI Overviews (AIOs) and Local SEO

AI Overviews (AIOs) are now a key factor of local SEO listings. When people ask more complex local questions, for example, ‘family-friendly doctor surgery near me taking new patients’, AIOs often provide a quick, easily scannable answer at the top of search results and will link to relevant sources and websites. You can increase your chances of being featured in AI Overviews by improving your backlink profile through ensuring your business is regularly featured in ‘best of’ lists and local directories.

Who Benefits from Local SEO and Why?

All businesses which interact with and service customers in a specific location can benefit from local SEO. 

Here are a few examples:

Law Firms

A great benefit of local SEO is businesses can include a call button directly on their Google My Business profile. Therefore, when a potential client has been in an accident, they can search for a law firm near them and be able to call them within a matter of minutes.

Doctors & Medical Practices

Most people don’t want to travel outside their location to go to the doctors. Therefore, when a user searches for a medical practice near them, you would want your business to benefit from local SEO.

Local Keyword Research

Conducting local keyword research is an essential step to take and will help you map out your content for your business. Begin by researching what you already rank well for, what your competitors rank well for vs what you don’t, and any further opportunities you can gather for your local business. 

If your research has a lot of keywords without a location, you can add the location on to them. They may have a lower search volume than the generic keyword, however, potential users in that area are more likely to search for these local queries. You can also have a look at the Google Autocomplete feature, which involves users searching for a specific query and Google predicting what else they may type afterwards. These predictions depend upon where a user is based, however, it could help you to discover valuable keywords for local SEO.

Although, be mindful of the local intent behind what you would like to rank for. Local intent means that searchers are looking for something nearby, and therefore the map results will show up. If this isn’t the case for your services, it isn’t a local SEO opportunity.

Local SEO Ranking Factors

Optimise Your Google My Business Profile

Having a well-optimised Google My Business profile is an excellent way to show off your business in local search. It will appear at the sidebar space of a local search, or through the map results.

There are a number of ways you can optimise a Google My Business profile, we recommend: 

• Creating and verifying your Google My Business account.
• Adding relevant NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) information and ensuring consistency throughout your listing, website & social media pages. 
• Including a business description. 
• Utilising the photos and posts features. 
• Encouraging your customers to share reviews – generally, the more positive reviews you have, the more authentic and authoritative your business appears to Google.

Having a Google My Business profile is beneficial for local SEO, but also the overall user experience for potential customers to find you. They want to know your contact information, operating hours, and star reviews.

Download our free guide to optimising Google My Business:

On-Site SEO

Localised Content

Once you have established your local-based keywords, you can now map them to the relevant pages. When writing your content, remember to include the key term and the location in the metadata and the header 1 tag. 

If you have more than one location to target, creating multiple location pages for users in different regions is a great way to gain attraction further afield.

FAQs

Once you have created your localised content, don’t forget about the basics too! Frequently asked questions are an excellent way to gain a featured snippet for your local based keywords.

Local Business Structured Data

Using Schema Markup Generator, you can add structured data to your local business. When users search for a type of business, they may see a carousel of businesses related to that query, show up. By using local business structured data, you can tell Google all about your business, opening hours, different services, and reviews.

Local Link Building

Gain Local Listing Links

Local listings are mentions of your business’ NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number). They help users find your business on other search engines such as Bing, Yahoo, and Apple Maps. These types of links are deemed less important, however they may still help your business to rank locally.

Get Featured on Local List Posts

‘Best of’ lists are available for almost every product or service, no matter how obscure. Therefore, getting your local business featured on these relevant lists are a great idea to get more users onto your website, as chances are if they see you have been featured they are likely to visit, especially if they have searched for a term like ‘best _ in _’. It also gets you a backlink, which help improve your domain authority score.

Creating a Successful Local SEO Strategy

A strong local SEO strategy goes beyond simply setting up a Google Business Profile, it calls for an in-depth strategy that successfully connects your website content, citations from third-party sources and customer reviews into a structured approach.

Audit Your Local Search Presence

Every successful SEO strategy begins with an audit, so before you start making changes to your site, you need to know where you currently stand in terms of local SEO. As well as checking current keyword rankings, you should also review your Google Business Profile and check all the information is correct, as well as search for your business name to see what directories and lists you appear in. Identify any incorrect or inconsistent information on your company name, address and phone number to prevent issues for search engines and users.

Conduct Local Competitor Analysis

In order to rank at the top of search results, you need to know who your top competitors are. Using your chosen SEO software or through a manual check, see who is ranking for your target local keywords and note key ranking factors like how many reviews they have, the type of local content they have on their site and what they do well. This gives you a clear idea of what it takes to rank for the top spots and can help influence your local SEO strategy.

Create a Plan for Location-Specific Content

If you service multiple locations, towns, cities or boroughs, your local SEO strategy should include dedicated, well-optimised location pages for each area. When you create these pages, make sure you are writing original, relevant content for each one, rather than just swapping out the location name to provide users with as much value as possible.

Plan for Link Building

Local SEO is a long-term strategy that needs to include consistent link building. Look for opportunities to get featured in local news outlets and directories to boost your local backlinks. This will provide more signals to Google and AI search tools that your business is authoritative and relevant to local users.

Tracking a Local SEO Campaign

People divided by a few miles might get different results for the same query and with proximity being an important factor, it is hugely beneficial to be able to manage the keyword performance in the exact location.

This can be done in SEO Monitor:

1. Navigate to your SEOMonitor campaign and click on the ‘UK’ dropdown. 
2. Click on ‘Add a New Tracking Location’.
3. Search for a specific Region, County, or City. 
4. Add location and then copy across your local-based keywords into this folder.

Start Harnessing Local SEO

Now that you have a better understanding of Local SEO and how Google ranks local search results, you can begin to put together a Local SEO strategy. It is an important factor for your local business to help users find you when they search online.

You can find out more about our SEO services here, or some of our SEO successes here.

Local SEO FAQs

What is a local SEO?

Local SEO is the practice of optimising your website and online presence to appear in search results for locally targeted terms, such as ‘plumber sheffield’ or ‘dentist near me’. Local SEO includes a range of elements, such as:

• Optimising or creating a Google Business Profile
• Creating locally-specific content, e.g. location pages
• Gaining citations and links from local directories

What is the difference between local SEO and regular SEO?

While both local and general SEO have the same fundamental goal, there are different ranking factors and requirements for local SEO. For example, as the target audience for local SEO is more localised, things like proximity to the searcher, Google Business Profile information, local citations and volume of reviews all influence chances of being ranked higher or featured in a map pack.

How long does local SEO take to work?

As with any SEO strategy, it’s a long-term plan that is designed to create lasting success rather than quick wins. While there isn’t any guaranteed timeline, when you implement a successful local SEO campaign, you can expect to see results between 3-6 months.

Do I need a physical address to do local SEO?

While you don’t need a physical shopfront or office building, you will need a valid address to be able to verify your Google Business Profile. If you provide a mobile service, like a handyman or a mobile hairdresser, you can hide your personal address from your Google Business Profile and have a radius of the areas you service be featured instead.