If you own a business, chances are you’ve heard of SEO. But what is local SEO? Simply put, it’s a way to optimize your website for users in your local area. Local SEO is important for businesses that want to be visible in their city’s or region’s search engine results. What’s more, it can help you attract more customers and grow your business.

Not sure how to get started with local SEO? In this blog post, we will explain what local SEO is and how it works. We’ll also talk about how it’s evolved over the years and how it differs from traditional SEO. Finally, we’ll show you how to get one of the best local SEO companies to work on your local SEO.

 

What Is Local SEO?

 

Local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of optimizing a website for local search. It helps businesses and brands to rank higher in Google search results for locally relevant keywords.

Ranking high on local searches is achieved by performing tasks such as managing your Google My Business profile, developing your reputation, optimizing your website, building citations, monitoring your competitive search landscape, monitoring and exploiting Google changes, and building local links.

It’s important to note that local SEO has evolved over the years as Google has changed its algorithm to give more weight to locally-relevant searches. In 2014, Google updated its algorithm to give more prominence to local results in what is known as the”Pigeon” update.

In the next section, we will discuss how Google operates and optimizes content to understand SEO concepts better.

How Does Google Optimize Content?

 

 

When you type a search phrase into Google, it examines the pattern of several website signals, or ranking variables, such as the relevance of your site, to provide a list of pages that match your query. Google performs a process known as “Google Indexing.”

Here, when someone writes something into the search field, Google does not conduct a live search of the entire internet. It’s essentially looking through a backup of all of the sites that Google has found.

Google crawls the web with bots called spiders to create the index. Each spider follows the same pattern: it begins on a single page, then follows the links on that page, then moves on to the next page’s content, and so on.

The index is produced as web information is crawled and stored on Google’s servers. The spiders operate on a massive scale, constantly crawling trillions of pages quickly. This keeps the index as current as possible and allows new sites and links to be detected promptly.

Google’s algorithm is constantly evolving. But at its core, its algorithm ranks websites based on two key factors:

• Relevance: How well does the content on your website match the user’s search query? Google determines the relevance of your site by looking at the content on your pages. It looks for keywords that match the user’s search query and other factors such as the freshness of your content, whether you have images or videos on your page, etc.
• Authority: How trusted and popular is your website? Google’s algorithm scans the index and returns a list of websites that match your search. Those results are chosen and ranked based on inbound links’ relevance, significance, and popularity. The algorithm considers various on-site and off-site factors to identify whether websites have something connected to your search. All relevant websites are added to the list, ordered according to their importance. The algorithm evaluates which sites the best answer your search query based on different on-site and off-site characteristics, and those sites are presented at the top of the search results.

To improve your website’s local rankings on Google, you need to ensure that your website is relevant to the user’s search query and that your website is seen as an authority on the topic.

 

How Google Functions With Local SEO

 

 

Now that you understand how Google ranks and optimizes web content let’s discuss how local SEO works on Google. Since local SEO involves internet search based on proximity and locality, you may be wondering how Google determines your local presence.

When Google discovered that people seeking certain types of businesses need results from their immediate area, it decided to include a local search algorithm that uses a proximity element.

The proximity element is a cool way of saying that when users search for a local keyword, Google considers their location (a query with local intent). The results are then displayed on Google Maps with directions, business hours, and contact information. It’s as simple as that!

 

What Local SEO Tactics Should You Use?

 

 

Several local SEO strategies can be used to improve your online presence on search engines, such as:

• Optimizing Your Google My Business Listing
• Creating Local Landing Pages
• Claiming and Optimizing Local Directory Listings
• Getting Listed in the Google Maps Results
• Creating Schema Markup for Local Businesses
• Using Google Posts
• Generating Positive Online Reviews
• Building Citations

 

The Importance Of Local SEO For Businesses

 

 

Local SEO is crucial for any business. Here are some reasons why brands, entrepreneurs, and small businesses need the best local SEO tools:

1.  Helps Local Customers Find Local Businesses: If you’re not using local SEO, potential customers might not even know your business exists. If you’re a local business, it’s essential to make sure that your website is optimized for local SEO so that when people in your area are searching for products or services that you offer, your business comes up in the search results.
2. Increases Online Visibility, Brand Awareness, and Recognition: The more people see your brand name, the more likely they will remember it when they need your products or services. Local SEO helps increase your brand’s online visibility and recognition.
3. Builds Trust and Credibility: When potential customers see that you have a well-optimized website, it builds trust and credibility. If your website is easy to use and provides accurate information, people will be more likely to do business with you.
4. Boosts Conversions: Once customers find your website, it’s important to make sure that they stay on your site and become actual customers. A well-optimized website with relevant and targeted content will help boost conversions and turn leads into customers.

Implementing a local SEO strategy will help increase your online visibility, build trust and credibility, and boost conversions. Trust us when we say you’re missing out on valuable potential customers if you’re not using local SEO.

 

Who Needs Local SEO Services?

 

Local SEO services are beneficial for any business that wants to increase its online presence and draw in more local customers. Suppose you have a business online or a brick-and-mortar store or provide local services to customers in a specific geographic area.

In that case, you need local SEO to boost your local search rankings and generate website traffic on local searches for your business page.

Several different business types can benefit from implementing a local SEO ideas, such as:

1. Local Businesses:  All businesses with a physical location want to increase their online visibility and attract more local customers. If your business isn’t showing up in the local search engine, you’re missing out on a huge chunk of potential custom.
2. Service-Based Businesses: A local SEO service provider that renders services to customers in a specific business location, such as plumbers, electricians, landscapers, etc., needs local search optimization.
3. Multi-Location Businesses: Brands with multiple business locations can also benefit from local SEO. If you have more than one location, each location needs to be optimized for the local search engine.
4. E-Commerce Businesses: Online stores that want to increase their visibility in the local search results can use local SEO. Just because you’re an online store doesn’t mean you don’t need to be visible in the local search results.

Need A Local SEO Company To Help With Your Local SEO? Contact Us!

 

Priceless Consulting LLC is an award winning local SEO agency. Our local SEO approach involves claiming and optimizing your Google My Business profile, which is a Google listing that includes your company or organization name, address, phone number, hours, website, and so on.

Then, once we have a verified, optimized listing, we use it to create additional listings with correct N-A-P information about your company, organization, or other entity on verified aggregator and additional known sites. These listings will be live in roughly 4-6 weeks after they are submitted.

Local SEO services are crucial for your company’s success, yet it may still be somewhat daunting. That is why we put such care into developing local SEO services that are tailored to the needs of businesses and all sizes of budgets.

Please, take a look at our website to learn more about our local SEO services, as well as other methods you may do to further improve your site on your end!

 

Conclusion

If you’re a local business, SEO services are crucial to your success. It’s important to make sure your website is optimized for Local SEO. This means using the right keywords and metadata, building citations, and optimizing your Google My Business listing. All of these factors will help improve your online visibility and draw in more local customers.

If you need help with your Local SEO, our team at Priceless Consulting LLC can assist you. Our local SEO marketing company specializes in helping businesses improve their online visibility and draw in more customers through effective Local SEO tactics. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you!