When someone asks me what local SEO is, It can be utterly alien to them if they have read or heard about it before. In this article, as someone who provides this service to small businesses in various industries, I will try to unpack the need to know to give you a better idea.

Table of Contents

Quick Answer

Local SEO refers to optimising your online presence to rank higher in location-based searches. It involves optimising your website, online listings, and citations to improve visibility for local prospects searching for businesses like yours nearby.

To read more in-depth on the basics of local SEO, please read on.

 

So you’ve got a new website for your hair salon business but wondering what next? What are you now supposed to do? You’ve got options.

Option 1 – Local SEO

Option 2 – PPC

Option 3 – Both

If you’re just starting out with a limited budget, then Local SEO could be your best move, especially if Competition for your primary keywords is low.

In an ideal situation, you want to optimise your website locally so that when a person in a nearby area searches for your services, for example, hair salon Nottingham, you want to show up ideally on page 1.

This article will give you an idea of what is involved with Local SEO from Google My Business, link building, customer reviews, On-page optimisation, ranking factors, etc.

Why Local SEO Important

Put it like this people who don’t regard Local SEO with any importance wont have much business coming through their door.

Not unless you can bank on referrals from people, which is not always the case and is not a sustainable way to continue going forward.

If you want to seriously grow your business in 2024, you need to be doing some online marketing.

Having a website and being found online via SEO will also help you build trust and credibility in the eyes of your local community, allowing you to compete with regional rivals for services that are relevant to you.

Increases Visibility in Local Searches

How many times per week do you search for something on your laptop or mobile?

The average person searches online 3-4x per day, so it’s crucial for you to make sure your business stands out from as many different searches as possible related to your website. Searches like “near me” are classic local searches that get thousands of searches per month.

More visibility, especially on page 1, should equate to more sales or leads online for you.

Builds Trust and Credibility Online

A solid local SEO strategy greatly enhances a business’s trust and credibility with potential local customers.

In the current tech era, consumers use online research to vet local businesses before making decisions.

When people visit your website after finding you online, the content you provide can all but win them the sale. When your case studies and positive testimonials are available, you further reinforce this trust with them, presenting your business as reliable and worth a call.

Keys to building trust and credibility through local SEO include:

• positive customer testimonials
• good website performance
• visual images of work and/or case studies
• blog section 

 

Local SEO Helps Target High Search-Intent Audience

Targeting website visitors who are using keywords that have a high purchase intention could be done by calling or filling in an online contact form.

These people know what they want and are now looking to give somebody the sale. Make that person getting a lead, you.

Consider these benefits:

1. Immediate sales opportunities: Local customers searching with high purchase intent are ready to buy today.
2. Higher conversion rates: More people buying from you helps your business grow quicker.
3. Strong customer engagement: Addressing the needs of people locally helps build a stronger connection between you and the whole community.

Competitive Edge Over Local Rivals

Is your local niche competitive?

The number of times I’ve researched various services on Google to see if it is worth building a website and found next to no competition is expected.

Many businesses overlook the benefits of local SEO, even in some lucrative niches, where a little local optimisation with SEO could pay huge returns for them.

If you’re lucky enough to have little to no competition or if you, by doing a few months of local SEO, could see you outperform others and capture a larger share of local search traffic.

Keys benefits include:

• More eyeballs on your website
• Increased foot traffic through your door
• High ROI within 3 months.

Doing your own SEO or hiring a local SEO expert can be the 1% difference between you standing out in a crowded market.

How Google Determines Local Rankings

There is a lot of ranking signals, knowing them or at least having an understanding helps because you then know where to spend your time.

We won’t go over every signal detail but below I would consider these local signals the most important for local SEO.

These include:

• Proximity to the searcher
• Google Business profile signals
• On-page optimisation
• Reviews
• Link signals

Proximity to the Searcher

If you have a business address in Liverpool but want to rank in Warrington you will have a difficult time in competing. It will be an uphill battle to rank on the top of page 1.

Google’s algorithm looks at how close a business is to the actual searcher when looking for a service area business or a local shop.

This ensures that local results (organically & google maps) are relevant in a specific area. In a nutshell it means that, closer businesses will automatically rank higher most of the time.

Here are some key points to keep in mind:

1. Proximity: Businesses near the searcher’s location are prioritised.
2. Geographic area: Search results are tailored to the searcher’s immediate area within a radius.

 

Google Business Profile Signals

Another critical factor is optimising a business’s Google Business Profile (GBP).

If you don’t know what a Google Business Profile is, here is the TL; DR.

A business listed is a free marketing strategy that allows you to be found on the top of Google. As you can imagine, these are lucrative areas in which to be seen. To be found, you must ensure that your listing has accurate details and is 100% complete.

• Correct business category
• Primary keyword in the business title
• More than 10 local reviews (even more if in a competitive area)
• Information matches website
• Top local business directories link to your website

On-Page Optimisation

On-page optimisation needs no introduction. It allows Google to add you to the correct local search algorithm correctly. If you’re a plumber, you don’t want to be showing up for a pet shop!

To be effective with you on-page optimisation you just have to really zone in on a few areas of each web page.

These include:

1. Local Keywords: Incorporate relevant local keywords naturally into your title tag, H tags, and body content.
2. Location Pages: Create dedicated pages for each geographic area you serve. This could be regional, city, town, or London borough.
3. Internal Linking: Establish a solid internal linking strategy to help search engines understand the importance of your local content to your website.

Review Signals

Reviews in 2024 are essential. My own testing confirmed that they are non-negotiable when discussing working with a new client.

If you’re not interested in ranking high on “Google My Business”, then you can focus on other 3rd party review platforms such as Trust Pilot or Yelp.

Reviews help with;

• High 3-pack rankings
• Social proof to people searching 
• EEAT signals

All this combined improves the credibility and relevance of a business in both Google’s eyes and your next client.

Any local business that does not bother seeking out reviews consistently is at a significant disadvantage if others are.

ASPECT	IMPORTANCE
Quantity of Reviews	Essential
Quality of Reviews	High
Google Listing Reviews	Essential
Other Review Sites	Significant
Customer Engagement	Essential for acquiring reviews

Link Signals

Similar to reviewing link signals, they are crucial for local SEO.

Receiving an authoritative inbound link from a trusted website can affect Google’s organic local rankings.

I would say that the quality of the link matters more than how many links you have altogether. Until you have carried out an actual backlink analysis of both your own site and your competitors, you won’t know what you need.

Here are four key aspects to take into account:

1. Backlink quality: Links from trusted websites (directories, local blogs, guest posts)
2. Link quantity: It all depends. 1 great link is better than 3 ok links. (DA 60+ vs DA 30+)
3. Relevance: The more relevant the link to your website, the better

Focusing on these factors can boost your local SEO. It ensures better visibility in local search.

If you are interested in understanding more about the myths of SEO, read more here.

Behavioural/Engagement Signals

User engagement plays a pivotal role in how Google determines local rankings.

It makes sense.

How many times have you come across a website and within 5 sec left?

Something put you off that made you jump and go elsewhere.

In 2022, Google introduced “Helpful Content Update”, aimed to remove low-quality websites. Owners of these websites saw their own rankings drop overnight and, in some cases, completely out of the top 100.

If your website has any of the following, you could fall foul of this.

• Thin content
• Low word count
• Poor spelling & grammar 
• Page loads

User behaviour provides Google with valuable insights about your website.

High click-through rates suggest that users find your website appealing, and extended dwell time implies that the content on your pages meets their needs.

By optimising these on-page signals, businesses can improve their local SEO performance.

Citation Signals

For a business focused only on “Google My Business”, having your business’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) must be consistent.

As you can imagine, a business with multiple addresses will only confuse Google. This leads to trust issues. Fixing this issue will not directly impact leads or calls to business, but it will help build a solid business foundation.

If you have this problem, fix all your online citations and local business directories when you can. It can cost very little to hire somebody to do this for you as it can be a mundane task.

Critical factors for optimising citation signals include:

1. Accuracy: Make sure that the NAP information is identical across all citations.
2. Frequency: The number of citations a business has in reputable local business directories.
3. Quality: Obtain citations from well-known directories (Yelp, Yell, Foursquare, etc)
4. Relevance: Choose some directories that are highly relevant to your industry.

Conclusion

In summary, local SEO is vital for businesses aiming to attract nearby customers, as it improves visibility in local search results.

Google determines local rankings based on relevance, distance, and prominence, among other factors.

By optimising local search through practices such as claiming business listings, managing online reviews, and utilising local keywords, businesses can significantly improve their local search performance.

Remember, seizing the opportunity by implementing these strategies can yield immediate and impactful results.

Get In Touch

I can help get your small local business to the top of the search engines with my local SEO consultant services. Download my FREE PDF guide on the home page.