local SEO- complete guide

This is the complete Local SEO guide for 2021

In this blog we are going to learn many things about local SEO like:

  • What does Local SEO mean?
  • How does Local SEO work and which are the factors that are going to impact it?
  • What are the benefits of using Local SEO strategies?
  • What do GMB, MAP Pack, and NAP refer to?
    Which businesses can use this strategy?
  • Is there any other element that we have to consider for Local SEO?


Most of the marketing experts especially those who are working online are of the opinion that you must keep some resources for the SEO thing as its purpose is to improve the visibility of your website with the relevant searches.

SEO is a broad concept and includes many techniques like OnPage-SEO, Off-Page SEO, Local SEO, etc.

In all these, Local SEO is one of the best strategies to target the niche audience as it has the capacity to generate lots of revenue


What is Local SEO and what does it mean?

Local Seo is a set of optimization tools and techniques that will help your business and you to promote your products and services to local prospects and customers.
To provide the closest and most relevant results to a user, search engines are heavily dependent on the indexes of local content, social media pages, links, etc.

How does Local SEO work and which are the factors that are going to impact it?


Local SEO works similar to the other Google search, Google crawls your website, social media pages, etc. to provide the best and closest results to its users. 

What makes local SEO different from normal search is the way and the factors on which Google decides the ranking of a particular website/blogs/articles. This set includes:

The place or location where the search is performed: If the search user is based out of Delhi then Google will try to show the results and businesses for the Delhi location.

NAP citation or the information: NAP means Name, Location, and Phone Number and these are the important factors in Local SEO.

Presence of the company on Google MyBusiness listings: If your business is listed with GMB then you have a good chance to appear on top of Google Local Search.

Keywords that you have used on your GMB profile: While writing about your business, products, or services, if you have used correct keywords then it is going to impact search results in your favor.

The feeling for Online reviews: like upvotes on the reviews will make them more relevant and useful for the search engine.

Number of shares on Social media: if your post is shared by multiple users and has received lots of likes then Google considers it more relevant as compared to other search results.


What are the benefits of using Local SEO strategies?

benefits of local SEO

 Some of the studies show that:

46% of Google searches have local intent;

Searches that contain the “near me” phrase have increased 200% than traditional searches – Location-based searches;

50% of the users who performed a local search on their smartphone, also visited the local store;


The main benefits of using this strategy are:

Local search is targeted quickly and very well: the purpose for which customers can search for something locally is to find a specific brand, product, or service that solves their needs and desires. If S/He is looking for a specific business, then they will probably look for your business address or any other information that S/He might need. Local SEO help companies bring this information to the eyes of their customers directly with very ease.

Inferior competition: Because the list of competitors is limited only in terms of geographical proximity, you will quickly get a ranking.

Improving organic visibility: You don’t have to fight for the first place – the first three local results will always increase above the other results, for local queries.

Peripheral ranking options: if you want your business to rank, you don’t have to constantly deal with content and backlinks (although these are also important). You can use other tactics, such as optimizing reviews and managing citations.

Superior relevance for visitors: Anyone who sees the local ranking will be a person who is in the place where the search is performed, which means that the relevance of traffic will eventually increase.

The community will fall in love with your business: Most strategies are community-dependent. You will build relationships with individual community members and other local companies. All these things will increase the rank, but more importantly, they will help the community to fall in love with your business.
It is a sophisticated style of word-of-mouth marketing.

What is Google My Business?

Google My Business Image


Google My Business or GMB is a free tool that will allow you to manage your business over Google especially on Google maps.

Your company will become important in local search when Google will found it more relevant to the user queries.

If your business is verified by Google(they have a mechanism for it) then you will enjoy extra benefits like replying to the reviews of your customers, doing messages directly(new feature of GMB).

If you are lucky then Google might reward you by displaying your companies info on the sidebar of Google Search so it will have the greatest impact on your users.

Google Sidebar Search


What is the Map Pack?

Map pack means the three results that are shown on the top of Google maps.

Google MAP PACK

Generally, the map pack appears on top of organic results and has its own algorithm to show the results. But yes, the traditional link building method also helps google to decide the most relevant results in Local SEO. Still, the most important factors are the NAPs.

Google does not only show the local results for the keywords that contain a city or the country. If Google finds that the user’s query needs a set of local results and your business listing is relevant then it will show it as well.


Always follow the local organic ranking.

If you have a local business then it must appear on the map pack else you won’t be able to reap the maximum benefits of your business via online mode.

Therefore, it is always recommended to use the keywords and user-friendly content in the titles, descriptions, and content, etc.

In fact, the only thing about local organic rankings is how you are monitoring them.

If you want to get a better idea of where your business ranks around the city, you can follow the rankings for the same keyword in different places.

What does NAP mean?

NAP full form is Name, Address, and Phone number and they are key elements for local SEO. These generally show the places where your business is listed.

Google verifies this with multiple sources as well as the users might send recommendations to them which Google uses to make sure that it is up to date and is genuine.

The more often your NAP appears on multiple sites, the more confident Google becomes about your business and its genuineness. NAP is like backlinks which are difficult to build but has great importance.


How are NAPs built?


Perform a NAP audit: For NAP data to be 100% consistent, you must perform an audit and make sure that your data is consistent:

  1. for the business sites and webpages
  2. on the Google MyBusiness profile
  3. On the local listing sites like local classifieds and bookmarking sites.

Which businesses can use this strategy?

Local SEO complete guide

A local search is a powerful tool for small businesses: 4 out of 5 consumers use search engines to find local information, which means that if businesses are not optimized for this, they could lose about 80% of potential customers.

In short, local SEO is critical for a business to remain relevant.
Some of the businesses which can get benefits are:

Lawyers and Law firms

Doctors and hospitals

Plumbers and Other craftsmen like repairment, electrician

Restaurant and Other food units like Coffee shops

Banks and ATMs


Some of the professions like an author who wants to sell his book online and doesn’t want to share his local business information might not use this tool as it will be less relevant to him/her.


Is there any other element that we have to consider for Local SEO?


There are few other elements you must consider before creating your GMB listings:

Keyword research for local SEO

Write unique content tailored to each local community and according to the languages of that place.

Build local links on listing sites like in India, Justdial, Sulekha, India trade, etc.

Sponsorship of Local events: Most local events need sponsors. Events usually have a site or event page. With the sponsorship of these events, the organizers will post on a special page the companies that contributed to their realization, creating a link to your site.

Local PR: PR refers to generating and managing your business awareness through media opportunities, partnerships, and other public relations practices.
Google takes these as signals and several times ranks you better than your competitors.

Site Indexing: Kindly make sure that your website is indexed by Google and other search engines so that it is visible to your users.


Conclusions:

If you are here then it means you know what elements you need to take into account to optimize your companies website so that it appears among the first local results.

Undoubtedly, the Local SEO strategy should not be ignored, especially if you have a local business.
The implementation of the Local SEO plan offers you the possibility to be one step ahead of your competitors and to benefit from the increase of revenues, by attracting clients or prospects at a local level.

If you want to write a guest post then please contact us at hello@apptians.com or visit our website.

By Swastik Saraf

Swastik Saraf is a growth hacker, negotiator, & strategist with a sharp mind & having 5+ yrs of experience. He mainly worked with the CxO's and learned from them.

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