What is local SEO?

Local SEO is a search engine optimization that spotlights your visibility on local search results of google or any other search engine. Local SEO is for local businesses, brick-and-mortar stores, services, online business with physical presence and multi-location stores or businesses. When you search for any service or product with the keywords “near me” or “near any location”, it shows relevant and geo-specific results as per your search. For instance, if you search on google for “Italian food near me”, it will show map and three local restaurant listings (map pack) before organic blue link search results (local organic).

Why is Local SEO important?

Around 8.5 billion searches are conducted on google every day which makes around 78% of all online searches. 76% of people look for online presence before visiting the enterprise at the location and almost half of the people (48%) end up visiting store/business after seeing a prominent presence on local search results. As local SEO improves visibility of your business, it results in more engagement and profits for your business. Therefore it is necessary that your business ranks among the top results on the first page.

Ranking Factors

Well there isn’t any known specific algorithm on which google ranks its local search results. This is because google has never revealed their ranking metrics but since we have years of handon experience in SEO thats why we know things that others don’t. Moreover, researches and analysis throughout the decades shows that there are certain factors that affect your ranking in google search results. These factors are: Google Business Profile, On-pae SEO, Review, Links, Behaviour, NAP Citations, Personalization.

What is Map Pack?

Map pack or local pack or Google 3-pack shows the top 3 most prominent and relevant results for specific keywords. Down below are those factors which directly influence your chances of being shown in the map pack as per google:

• Google Bussiness Profile (32%)
• On-page (19%)
• Reviews (16%)
• Links (11%)
• Behaviour (8%)
• NAP citations (7%)
• Personalization (6%)

What is Local Organic?

Local organic results are the top blue hyperlinks that google shows as per your search query. Following are the factors that impact google local organic rankings:

• On-page (36%)
• Links (26%)
• Behaviour (9%)
• Google Bussiness Profile (9%)
• Personalization (7%)
• Citations (7%)
• Reviews (6%)

Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile or Google My Profile (GMP) is a free tool for business and organizations to manage their online presence across local search results. It allows you to provide details of your business such as website, contact, address, hours and other details. Moreover it allows customer interactions as it gives them option to add a picture, write reviews or ask any query. Also, it improves your business and helps more people to find about your business.

On-Page

On-page SEO focuses on optimizing your webpages and its content to rank better in search results. It includes title tag, meta description, header ( H1, H2,..), site URL etc. The title should have the right keyword that has high keyword density. Meta description should be appropriate and attention-grabbing. Headings, title and tone of the content should be easy to understand.

Reviews

Before purchasing any product or dining at a new restaurant the first thing most of us do is check their reviews. It becomes a deciding factor, as if there are more positive reviews you are likely to visit that restaurant or buy that new product. It is necessary to have as much positive reviews to promote your enterprise. Google usually ranks business with false and negative reviews lower. Therefore it is important that all reviews for your business are real and each is acknowledged professionally.

Links

Links play an important role in ranking your business. Backlinks and internal links are anchor texts that are clickable links. Backlinks links two websites and when user clicks on it, it navigates user to your website. Internal links provide link between pages of your website. It is important to have quality back links as google determines credibility of your site based on it. Ranking of your website is directly related to the number and quality of back links you have.

Behaviour

Behaviour ranking depends on users interaction and experience on your website. It includes pages-per session, click through rate, page speed, bounce rate etc. Pages per session is the average number of pages a user visits on a website per session. Click through rate is the number of times a link is clicked, out of the number of times the link is showed on the page. As more people click on your website link or listing it is more likely to show up for the similar results.
Page speed refers to the time taken for the page and its content to load. Bounce rate is the rate of people who navigate away from your website after visiting. Google takes such rates to determine the relevance, reputance and usefulness of your website and its content.

NAP Citations

NAP Citations are online references to contact your business. It includes name, phone number and address of your business. It is important to ensure that information for your business’s name, address and phone number is right and consistent everywhere. According to a survey by BrightLocal, for 90% of the participants accurate NAP citations are necessary for local search rankings. Thus businesses should provide precise citations as it is the way for people to connect to your business.

What Local SEO Services EBS provides?

• Finding relevant keywords by checking Keyword’s search volume and intent. You should target those location-specific keywords that have higher search density. Higher search density means alot of people are searching for a query with that keyword. Hence, using high-density keywords can lead to more traffic.
• Your website layout should be in such a way that there are different pages for specific keywords. You should have a dedicated home page, contact page, about us page, blog page, products/services page and resources page on your website. It will be easier for the user to navigate and contact you if there’s a specific page on your website for contact details.
• For multi-location businesses and multiple stores of the same brand, their website should provide all the business addresses. It is necessary to make sure the information provided is accurate and updated timely. 30% of mobile searches are related to locations.
• Your website should have a mobile-friendly interface. The majority of searches are conducted by mobile phones rather than desktops. Mobile phones contribute around 64% of searches on Google only. It is important to make sure that your website is optimized for mobile devices.
• Google Business Profile (GBP) or Google My Profile (GMP) is a free tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across local search results. Google ranks your listing as per your business profile. All types of business from small to big including service-based, retail stores, restaurants, healthcare, entertainment spots, education centres and automotive services should have a GBP.

How to make a Google Business Profile?

• Log in: Log in to your Google account on Google Business profile or sign in if you don't have an account already. Do not use your personal account for business profile
• Business information: After logging/signing in add all the information of your business. Ensure that details such as business name and address are correct.
• Business Category: Choose your business category among: Online retail, Local store or Service business.
• Contact information: Next, add your contact information, including phone number or website URL if you have a website.
• Verification: Lastly, you will have to complete authentication by the verification code sent to your provided email.
• Managing and optimizing: You can monitor your performance by looking at the insights and tracking the number of people who visit your profile. You should also optimize your business profile to rank in the top results. For that, you should add other details, such as business hours and photos of your business/restaurant/products. There is an option for question-answers where you can interact with your customers. You should reply to all the queries professionally and on time. It is mandatory to keep your GBP up-to-date.
• NAP Citations are online references for contacting your business. It includes the name, phone number and address of your business. It is necessary to make sure citations are accurate and consistent everywhere. You can build citations by submitting your business information to directories such as Yelp, Yellow Pages, Bing places, TripAdvisor, Citysearch and more. If you want to monitor your citations you can use any of the tools like Moz Local, Brightlocal and whitespark etc.
• Reviews can improve your rankings in search results. You should promote asking your customers for review. Having positive and detailed reviews is valuable for business. Also you should acknowledge and respond to every feedback whether its positive or negative.
• You should upload fresh content time to time for more customer engagement. You can also upload pictures or information for an upcoming event.
• If your business has a website as well, you should have high-quality backlinks. Backlinks navigate users to your website and increase website traffic. Also, google uses these backlinks to determine the credibility and authority of your website. Therefore, having high-quality backlinks can improve your brand visibility.
• GoogleAds or GoogleAdWords is an online advertisement platform by Google. It promotes your business advertisement on Google search results, websites, youtube or other Google apps. It works on the Pay-per-click model. As per pay-per-click, advertisers have to pay an amount for every user that clicks on their brand advertisement. Promoting your business via GoogleAds can lead to ranking in top results and increased website traffic. Moreover, you can also get insights such as click-through rates.
• 27% of Google searches are conducted by voice search. Thus, you should optimize your online presence for voice search. You should use long tail keywords because while using virtual voice assistants, people tend to speak complete sentences or commands.
• You should add your business socials on google business profile. Adding socials increases visibility and engagement. Social media widens your audience as well as promotes your business. You can also update your audience for upcoming events and occasions.
• It is important to include relevant keywords and geo-specific information while optimizing the title and meta description. Title and description should be within the word limit, unique and captivating that compels users to click on it. You should refrain from copying titles or meta descriptions to maintain originality.

Why should you choose EBS?

Creativity and Innovation

We focus on innovating, creating and keeping up to the trends with understanding of the marketing and audience. With expertise in different segments of digital marketing, we make strategies and suggestions for your business to achieve desired goals.

Knowledge and Expertise

Our experts have an understanding of how the market works, what your business needs to boost engagement, how to outperform competitors, and be at the top of the market. We realize that every client and every business in unique, so instead of providing generic solutions we provide strategies that show significant results.

Quality Of Work

It is our topmost priority to provide quality service by paying attention to details and making strategies that aligns with the goals and needs of your company. Our team commits to work with full potential and seek performance driven solutions. We analyze and optimize growth rate of your business to keep a track.

Fairly Priced

As per the stats 42% of people use search engines to get information about local businesses. We provide best services at affordable prices. Pricing depends on certain aspects such as your company’s target, revenue and needs. EBS provides top-notch service at a budget friendly cost.

Reports

Tracking growth of your business can help you get better insights. We use Google analytics which is a free tool that tracks and reports website traffic and user engagement. It provides important data such as users, new users, average engagement time, net revenue and events. It allows you to customize the parameters as per your website. Moreover, it also gives geographical data as well.

Experience and Track Record

We have in-depth knowledge and experience in photography, videography the beauty services industry. Other than this we also provide expertise in Food and beverage, restaurant industry, travel and tourism, hospitality and medical industry. These were just a few to name and we cater to all the sort of businesses.

FAQs

Question: How to measure local SEO?

Answer: You can use different metrics to measure local SEO. Some of the metrics are Google Business Profile, Google Analytics, keyword ranking, semrush or any othe analyzer.

Question: What is local SEO optimization?

Answer: Local SEO is process for ranking businesses or products on local search results. It is important to be among the to results for better performance.

Question: What is local citations in seo?

Answer: Citations refer to references to the contact details of your business. It includes name, phone number and address of your business.

Question: Can I do local SEO without a website?

Answer: Yes, your website can make it to the google’s top results even if you don’t have a website. Though having a website provides opportunity for more content and optimization.

Question: Can I do local SEO without an address?

Answer: Yes, you can do local seo without address. If you have service or product based business you can work on your online presence to boost your engagement.

Question: What is the difference between Local SEO and Technical SEO?

Answer: Local seo focuses on ranking in local search results that are geo-specific. On the other hand technical seo works on technical aspects of a website to improve overall performance.

Question: Why is local SEO for multi-location business?

Answer: Local seo provides multi-location businesses visibility on the google 3 pack. It is crucial for multi-location business to provide right address and contact details for their stores at various locations.

Question: What are seo backlinks?

Answer: Backlinks are anchor texts that links two websites. It is recommended to have as much high quality backlinks as google uses it to determine the credibility of your website.

Question: What is GBP?

Answer: GBP stands for Google Business Profile which is a free tool for business and organizations to manage their online presence across local search results.