How To Get Your Business Optimized For Local Search

Are you looking to attract more customers to your store (whether online or in person), but need some help with your marketing? Optimizing your business for local SEO is a quick and incredibly effective way. Consider these statistics from Hubspot:

• 46% of all searches on Google are for local information
  
• 88% of searches for a business on a mobile device lead to a call or visit to the business within 24 hours
  
• 78% of local-based internet searches lead to an offline purchase
• 97% of people learn more about a local business online than anywhere else
  

Below are the most important considerations to support your local online business marketing efforts and instructions on creating a local SEO landing page.

When consumers search with local intent, Google displays three local business listings beneath a map, showing their relative locations. This is called the 3-pack. According to Semrush, 44% of local searchers click on a business in the 3-pack, so this is where every business wants to be if they are competing within a geographic area for customers.

The first step to getting into the 3-pack is to claim your Google Business profile if you haven't already done so. Once you have control of that profile, you must ensure everything is up to date. Especially if someone else created it, things like the phone number or hours might be wrong.

On a related note, you will also need to ensure your website is current. Google will check things like address and phone number between your Google My Business profile and website, so it's a good idea to ensure they're consistent. More on your website later.

Once you have your profile up to date, the fun doesn't stop there. Like any other online presence, you need to optimize it. Below are the top four ways to optimize your profile.

1. Add business hours
2. Set up a chat where users can contact you
3. Create a description of your business
4. Add photos and videos

Photos of your business are crucial. According to Google, businesses with photos are more likely to get requests for directions and click-throughs on their websites. The internet is visual, so the more high-quality photos and videos, the better. If hiring a photographer is out of your budget, consider running a contest for customers to take the best picture of your business or products.

While getting your customers involved, reviews are also a great way to build trust online and show what makes your business special. There are many ways to encourage your customers to leave reviews, from running contests, offering discounts on future visits or purchases with a review, or simply asking.

Google rankings aren't only based on the information you put on Google. It will also look at your website. One of the best sources for this information is a local SEO page. For a business with multiple locations, you may choose to make a separate page for each location. This information is usually covered on the "About Us" page for businesses with one location. Whichever route your business goes, make sure you have these key elements in the right places:

Above-the-fold

At the top of the page, the customer should see the following:

• A clear, keyword-friendly heading and sub-heading
• High-quality photography or imagery
• A three-sentence paragraph describing your products and services
• An engaging and concise call-to-action button

Below-the-fold

This is everything the user sees once they scroll down the webpage. A good local SEO page should also contain the following elements:

• Call to Action (CTA): Decide what your customers will most likely want to do next and give them an easy way. Sometimes, this is a way for users to get in touch with you (via a form on your page, a link to your "Contact Us" page, a button to call you, etc.). If you have a way for customers to shop online, you may have a link to that store.
  
• Social proof: Where relevant, include reviews and testimonials from your customers within that area. The more detailed reviews, the better. And if those reviews include pictures, that would be even better! If you have many to choose from, pick reviews that talk about a particular strength of your business.
  
• Your team: Even if your main office is not in that location, you can add local representatives and their contact information to the page. A group picture of your staff or individual headshots is another great way to build trust and make users feel like they're seeing a real business.
  
• Photos: If you worked on a project in that area, show it off. A picture tells a thousand words, proving more true online as the years pass. Ensure you don't overwhelm your pages with pictures, choosing instead the ones that show what makes your business unique.
  
• Videos: Upload videos for each location and add them to your YouTube channel. If you can get video testimonials from your local customers, that would be even better. You can embed these videos in your website as well. (Filling out the descriptions and relevant hashtags on YouTube, along with a link to your site, will also help your rankings.)
  

If you need to create pages for multiple locations, you must produce unique content for each page. Simply swapping out county and town names can result in a duplicate content penalty from Google, hurting your search rankings. Google rewards businesses that go out of their way to give users the information they need.

The elements above will help you understand why local search is important and what should be included in a local SEO page. Incorporating these methods can make your content easier for the end user to understand, leading to better positioning on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on Feb. 9, 2018, and has been revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.