What is local SEO? Basic strategies and tips for promotion

Local SEO is a universal tool for website promotion. WEDEX will tell you more about Local SEO, who needs it, and how you can promote your website.

What is local SEO?

When it comes to SEO optimization of a website, it is impossible to ignore the topic of local SEO promotion. Local SEO is a set of measures aimed at improving the ranking of a website page in the local or local search results of Google.

Local promotion of a business website in a specific region with specified audience parameters is much easier to implement than general SEO optimization tools.

Who needs a local CEO and why?

Any business that has a physical office or an offline sales outlet can take advantage of local SEO. Here are some business areas where local promotion will be most effective:

• Medical services in various areas – dentistry, private clinics, etc. Often people do not have time to wait until the queue at a public clinic is over, so it is quicker to get an appointment with a private doctor.
• Legal and notarial services – in these turbulent times, it is important to have a trusted lawyer or attorney on hand. Local promotion of your legal services will help you find clients quickly.
• Veterinary clinics are one of the most popular areas for local SEO. Our smaller brothers, like humans, need specialized medical care.
• Catering establishments – from restaurants to shawarma outlets. Any type of such establishment will benefit from local promotion in the form of customers.
• Cosmetic services – dermatologists, cosmetologists, and makeup artists often have personal offices. Local SEO is the best choice for promoting such services.
• Service stations and car maintenance – car repair shops, tire fitting, car washes, and other vehicle repair and maintenance services are in high demand. Local SEO will help you quickly attract the attention of car owners looking for reliable service nearby.

This list is not complete. Please note that literally any business can take advantage of a local SEO, so the list is not limited to the above areas.

What factors influence local SEO website promotion?

Local website rankings are affected not only by general SEO optimization and actions to improve it, but also by specific factors, such as

• Availability of a physical address – in order for Google and other search engines to understand that you are not just providing services, but are physically located in a specific place, you should directly indicate the address on the website. The best option is to place the address somewhere visible to the user, namely on the main page. The address is often placed in the footer of the website.
• Use of external services – services such as Google My Business or Google Maps greatly simplify local SEO promotion. We will tell you more about this below. The presence of your business in these services will help you to get better rankings for your target audience.
• External links – online presence helps to increase the visibility and recognition of a website or brand in the region. Unlike classic link building, local SEO focuses on increasing presence on regional websites and platforms.
• User activity – the presence of real user reviews and ratings has a strong impact on local promotion. In the case of local SEO, you should refrain from fake comments from «left-wing» accounts, especially on Google Maps. It is better to focus on encouraging customers to leave genuine positive comments and reviews – for example, by improving the level of service, constant communication with users, offering discounts, etc.
• Classical SEO and semantic core – for local business promotion, it is extremely important to form a semantic core that meets the needs of customers in the region. Overloaded and overoptimized text will not work properly in local SEO.
• Domain – a domain is critically important in local website promotion. The domain zone should correspond to the country in which the business is located. The ideal option is when the domain also contains the city. For example: dostavka.odesa.ua or epiphone-guitars.kyiv.ua. But if you plan to scale your business, it is better to limit yourself to the national domain and its variations: .com.ua, .org.ua, etc.

The main strategies for local website promotion

In general, there are two types of local SEO promotion strategies: internal and external. Let’s talk about each of these strategies in more detail.

Internal website optimization

Internal website optimization tools for local SEO include classical SEO optimization, which is aimed at long-term impact on website performance, and link building.

Classic SEO optimization

Title and description

The first thing you should pay attention to is the title and description tags. These are the main tags that help Google understand the topic of the page and who it will be more relevant to. You should use keywords in these tags appropriately for better ranking.

Another practical solution is to use place names in the title of the page: «Computer repair in Odesa», «Car sale in Kyiv».

The importance of micro-markup for local SEO

With the help of micro-markup, you can fill a page with additional data that will improve the visibility and indexing of your site. Microdata is a set of special tags that are implemented in the page code. These tags can contain information about the physical address of the site, phone number, business hours, and user reviews.

Content optimization

For high-quality local SEO, it is necessary that the content of your website meets not only Google’s requirements, but also is filled with relevant keywords and is of high quality.

To achieve this goal, you should analyze search results for similar queries, research competitors’ solutions, and look for the optimal type and frequency of posts: long-form once a week, small posts every day, etc. Use place names and phrases like «near me» and «nearby».

Landing pages for local SEO

A local landing page is a page that is designed specifically for a particular type of user. The content of such pages may differ and contain information that better meets the needs of a specific part of the audience.

For example, a Kyiv-based computer repair company has several branches across the country. To better promote its website locally, the company created the following landing pages:

kyivtechno.com.ua/remont_computeriv-kyiv

kyivtechno.com.ua/remont_computeriv-odesa

kyivtechno.com.ua/remont_computeriv-izmail

Each of these pages will contain information about specific branches and departments, with their opening hours, prices, etc.

Website link building and its impact on local SEO

The goal of link building is to increase the number of resources that link to your website. Links (or «citations» in Ukrainian) have a great impact on page promotion, especially when it comes to local SEO.

The most valuable link donors are large and authoritative resources in your region. Such «donors» will help not only to increase brand awareness but also to increase trust in among users. The main thing is that the place where your links will be promoted should have a good reputation.

Such reputable «donors» can include local news sites, business directories, blogs, social networks, and communities within them.

Local SEO with the help of external tools

The second type of local SEO strategy is promotion with the help of external tools. Today, the most effective tools are Google My Business and Google Maps.

Local SEO and Google My Business

Google allows businesses to create their own electronic business card using the My Business service. This tool allows business owners to add and manage their company information in the search engine.

Using Google My Business and optimizing your profile there will help you increase visibility and attract more local users to your business.

Here is the information that should be provided in the Google My Business service:

• Physical address – includes the street, city, province or region, and postal code.
• Business hours – specify the exact hours of operation of the company. You can also select the «Always open» option.
• Contact details – phone numbers of contact persons, links to email or business chat contacts in WhatsApp, Viber.
• Business logos and photos (if necessary).
• A brief description of the business, including the main services.

All this data will be displayed in the Google search engine, in particular, in the Google Maps subsection.

Website promotion in Google Maps

After creating and filling in the data in Google My Business, you should start creating a business card in Google Maps.

One of the main criteria for effective local SEO for website promotion is the use of a real business address, even if the business is online. The fact is that Google Maps supports the so-called “service area”, which displays the area where the business operates.

Regular updating and relevance of Google Maps data is an important factor for successful SEO promotion. «Live» Google Maps profiles are better promoted and ranked, so constant activity has a positive impact on the promotion of a business map.

Working with reviews

Pay special attention to the presence of reviews on your website, social media, and Google Maps. Encourage your customers to leave detailed reviews and respond even to negative comments. This will help to show the activity of the business online, as well as provide the user with an opportunity to learn more about how the service cooperates with its customers.

Website promotion through social networks

Expanding your brand’s online presence through social media activity will also help with local SEO promotion.

Pay extra attention to the company’s description and the presence of place names and keywords in it, and engage users in activities on the company’s pages. Link your website and social media to make it easier for customers to contact you.

Promotion on YouTube is also possible, but usually the amount of money spent on advertising is much higher than on other services. Moreover, an advertising budget alone is not enough – you need to spend time and money on creating video content.

Conclusions

Local SEO website promotion is the type of task that is not always easy, but its result can exceed all expectations. On the other hand, local SEO aims to have a long-term impact on the rankings and search results of your website, so you should pay special attention to it. Use Google Maps and Google My Business tools to better promote your business.

Oleksandr Romanenko

Team Lead/Senior SEO specialist

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