As an SEO agency, we often get asked questions like how long does SEO take?

What is SEO?

How can SEO help my small business?

Is SEO really important? And what is Local SEO?

We have covered many of these in our other blogs which you can read just here

Now is probably a good time to look at Local SEO and how it can help a small business get found locally in the search results which for most, primarily means on Google.

Local search engine optimisation (Local SEO) is a specialised aspect of search engine optimisation that focuses on optimising a website to be found in the local search results.

Local SEO aims to help businesses promote their product and services to local customers at exactly the time that they are looking for them online.

Local SEO by its very nature aims to target the immediate local geographic area where the business is based.

It involves tactics designed to improve a website’s visibility across search engines particularly for queries with real local intent.

There are many different aspects to localised SEO.

These include claiming and verifying your Google My Business listing. (GMB). This is a free-to-set-up Google service.

You should take time to set up a Google My Business listing and then make sure that the business name address and telephone number are accurate and consistent across various platforms.

You should add relevant business categories including a compelling and detailed business description along with high-quality photographs of your business.

This will help to get your business found locally and help local people recognise your business, for example including photographs of the exterior of the business and some of your team or shots taken inside the business.

We also recommend encouraging and responding to customer reviews.

Customer reviews are more and more important nowadays and it is one of the ranking signals that Google uses when determining where to show you in the Google My Business results.

You should also look at building citations, these are listings of your business name address and telephone number on various online directories and websites. Taking care to ensure that these are consistent across the Internet will definitely help to improve your local search rankings. We include link building in our intensive SEO plans too.

You should then identify and start targeting specific keywords that include local terms, for example, “best Italian restaurant in Braintree” incorporating these local keywords into your website content, Meta descriptions and other on-page SEO elements is likely to help you rank for these keywords.

Then there is on-page SEO to consider this includes optimising your website title tags, headers and meta descriptions with the local keywords. Including for example the best Italian restaurant in Braintree example that we included above.

You should consider creating location-specific landing pages if your business serves multiple areas, so for example, if you had an Italian restaurant in Braintree, Hertford and Brentwood you should have specific landing pages for each of these locations.

Local content, local maps, local pictures, local images, local reviews, local addresses and local telephone numbers on each respective location page will all help your local search results, stands to reason really doesn’t it!

You should also set up a Google My Business profile (GMB) for each of these locations.

Collecting positive reviews on your Google business profile and other reviews websites for example trustpilot and other such review sites as this will also help to improve your brand recognition and credibility locally.

When you do receive customer reviews be sure to respond to them this will show engagement and help to build trust with potential customers.

You should also consider encouraging satisfied customers to leave reviews through follow-up emails, thank-you notes or in-store reminders.

Content marketing with a local focus is something else that will help you rank locally.

For example, creating blog post articles and other content that is relevant to your local audience.

You should consider highlighting local events, news and other relevant localised content.

For example, let’s imagine you are the Italian restaurant in Braintree that we have talked about above, if you launch a new menu, you should be sure to create a blog article about this, include the new menu on your My Google My Business page and build out content creating excitement around the launch of your new menu.

You can also include social media engagement, actively engaging with your local audience on social media platforms is another great way to generate local business. And in this example, it would be sensible to share your new menu socially.

Then it comes to monitoring and Analytics, we have already published a blog about Google search console and Google analytics which you can read just here

These are great tools to help monitor your local SCO performance.

Why is Local SEO important?

Local SEO helps your business to appear in local search results, Google Maps and helps to improve your brand locally online.

Local SEO can help to attract local customers who are specifically searching for your products and services in your local area. This is very likely to lead to a higher conversion rate.

For example, someone searching for an Italian restaurant in Braintree has a huge level of intent behind the term as we know they are searching for a local Italian restaurant in Braintree but they do not know the name of your restaurant or they would have gone directly to your website.

All of the above tactics will help to give you a competitive advantage, and optimising your website for Local. It is very likely that small and medium-sized businesses can out-compete with large corporations that may not be able to target local keywords as effectively.

For example, if you were a national chain of Italian restaurants with a location in Braintree, it would be much more difficult to compete in local SEO with a small Italian restaurant in Braintree. For example, a national chain may have 100+ locations on their site, and they are unlikely, in our experience, to properly SEO each location page – larger national chains tend to work on their home page and brand positioning but pay less attention to their local location pages.

With the Rise of Mobile searches local SEO will help to ensure your business is visible to users searching for nearby services on their mobile device. Most of us tend to rely completely on our mobile devices when we’re out and about and searching on mobiles, (iPhones and the like) is only likely to increase in the future too as devices become ever more popular and with larger screens, more convenient too.

Credibility is likely to be increased by appearing in local results and having positive reviews can only help to build your trust and credibility with local customers.

By focusing on local SEO, businesses can effectively reach their target audience locally, drive more traffic to the physical locations and ultimately increase sales and revenue.

As an established search engine optimisation agency, we are lucky to be working with dozens of local businesses across the UK and have deep experience of improving rankings for local SEO keywords.

If you run a business and are looking to improve your exposure locally this could be a great way to go.

Click here to schedule a call with our team

We can run through how we can help you more in a 30-minute call and see if we are a good fit for each other.

If we feel that we can help your business with Local SEO strategy we can run through the various plans and get the ball rolling. Local SEO really is a great way to get found in your local area and is a valuable way to generate more leads, traffic and enquiries locally, no matter what industry or business sector you’re in. We help all shapes and sizes of local businesses get found with localised SEO, including, Builders, Electricians, Plumbers, Car Dealers, Restaurants, Solar Companies, Law Firms, Solicitors and almost every business you can imagine. Altitude Internet has also been shortlisted in many of the industry-leading SEO awards including The European Search Awards 2021, 2022 and 2023, the UK Search Awards 2022 and the UK Digital Growth Awards.

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If you’re looking for an SEO agency that has in-depth knowledge, experience and know-how to help you get found online just get in touch today.