Local SEO is search marketing aimed at local businesses. Unlike global SEO, it focuses on optimizing a company’s online presence so its website appears on the first page of results when users input searches tied to a specific location, such as “online shopping in Stockton Hills California.” Because most consumers will not travel beyond a set distance from home, showing up in those nearby searches is often the deciding factor for a small business.
What local SEO actually does
Local SEO lets a business be visible to its target audience even when the buyer is in a different region from the seller. A local search engine optimization company can optimize a site for the local audience, which typically drives more traffic than an unoptimized site would receive.
Core on-site practices
Local search engine optimization companies handle several straightforward tasks to support their clients. These include optimizing site content, creating local SEO tags, and making sure keywords are relevant to the business with the appropriate keyword density. Other businesses also use local SEO to gain a stronger foothold in their local areas.
For local businesses that do not want to expand globally but still want a broader reach, local SEO can serve both goals at once. A website optimized for the local audience makes it easier for an owner to put products and services in front of customers who live within a certain distance. If those products or services are not available in the customer’s hometown, the business can sell online or through other local web portals.
Why small businesses need it most
Small business owners don’t have the resources that big companies do for reaching a global market. Local SEO firms have a variety of tools and applications to make a site more accessible to a global audience, but they need to use local SEO in the right way. Many of these businesses use social media outlets that include the local audience in their targeting demographic, but social media alone is not enough to build a larger customer base.
A business that does not make use of local search engines like Google Places will have a difficult time competing with a business that makes good use of local SEO techniques. To optimize a local website, an SEO firm creates a site specific to the town or cities where the business operates, including the local language when necessary and location-specific content. These firms also help clients improve rankings in search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
How link building fits in
Link building is another important part of local SEO best practices. It involves finding websites related to the services the business offers. Those sites should contain links back to the business’s website. Links must come from different places, each link must be clicked on, and the number of clicks on the links pointing back to the site determines the amount of traffic directed to it.
One of the biggest mistakes smaller organizations make is not paying enough attention to inbound linking. Link building is vital, but SEO is worthless if the website does not rank high on search engine results pages (SERPs), because of the role of backlinks, which are links from other websites directed at a given site.
FAQ
What is local SEO?
Local SEO is a form of search marketing focused on local businesses. It optimizes a company’s online presence so the website appears on the first page of results when users input location-based searches for its goods or services.
Why is local SEO important for small businesses?
Consumers typically will not travel beyond a certain distance from where they live, so small businesses depend on being found in nearby searches. Small business owners also don’t have the resources that big companies have for reaching a global market, making local SEO a practical way to compete.
What are the main local SEO best practices?
Core practices include optimizing site content, creating local SEO tags, using location-specific content and language, improving rankings on Google, Bing, and Yahoo, and building backlinks from related websites. Social media is useful but on its own is not enough to build a larger customer base.
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