What Is Local SEO?

Currently, local SEO is one of the most essential components of every brand and business that is seeking long-term business success. The increase of smartphone usage gave significant rise to local SEO in the last couple of years. Irrespective of the fact that it shares certain similarities with organic SEO, they are completely different.

Basically, local SEO focuses primarily on getting results that are relevant to the exact location of the searcher. To explain better, if you were to search for; “the best restaurants” on Google, the search engine would provide you with results that are close to you. If you reside in California, it will show you restaurants in California for you to choose from. It has been revealed that local SEO is effective. In a study that was carried out in 2011, it was discovered that about 40% of the search queries each have local contents. In 2013, it was revealed that four (4) people out of (5) use their smartphones to search for local information. This clearly shows that local SEO is effective.

For a search engine like Google to be able to serve its millions of users, local based results would definitely be on the rise. Also, Google has revealed that over 95% of smartphone users search for local information on their phones and often times it involves either visiting or calling a business.

What Businesses Can Do To Increase Their Local Search Engine Optimization

There are certain things businesses can do to increase their local friendliness. They include;

1. Get started on Google Place For Business; this is actually one of the first things you have to do to ensure that your website is friendly to locals. You have to add your personal information, your opening business hours, your address, as well as contact details. As an added incentive, you could decide to provide category information about your brand. This will, in turn, give Google a far better topic and understanding of your business or brand
2. Add the Google+ Local; after you must have created a Google Place account, you’ll have to add to the Google+ Local. This actually focuses more on social interaction and it is able to review the information about the images, videos, and comments of users. The results of all Google Local pages are dominating and users will have to scroll down to see other web pages.
3. Optimize web page information; ensure that your page title has in it your brand name, the relevant industry keywords, and the location of your business. Endeavor to reference your keywords in the title of your web content. To explain better, if you run an e-commerce store that sells phone accessories, you could decide to add it to your website page.
4. Your business address should be in the same format wherever they are mentioned on your website. The format should be Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP). Having your contact information in this format will show that your business is related to the location.