Do you search “restaurants near me,” “hotels near me,” and “tourist spots near me” on Google? These are called local search engine optimization or SEO. Location-based searches are really helpful especially if you are in an unfamiliar place or country. With these searches, you increase your business’s visibility in your area. This is a strategy most businesses use to promote their brands. Any business with a physical location will surely benefit from this, and even content creators can use this strategy. You can discover location-based OnlyFans accounts to find creators near your area.
But what is local SEO? What are the benefits of location-based searches?
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of making local businesses, mostly those with physical places, more visible in search engines. Businesses can get more pure traffic from searches done by people in the area if they follow the best practices for local SEO.
With local SEO, businesses can utilize this tool to promote their products and services to local potential customers.
Importance of Local SEO
Local SEO marketing is the best way to get people in your area to see your site.
People in the US, France, Germany, and the UK use Google more than 75% of the time to find information about businesses.
It is now the most popular local search engine in those countries, among many more, by a long shot. Over the past year, searches on Google Maps for “shopping near me” have grown by more than 100% around the world.
In the last two years, mobile searches for “store open near me” have also grown by more than 250%. And terms like “where to buy” and “near me” by more than 200%. Every day, that’s a hundred million searches.
How Local SEO Works
When you look for something in your area, Google gives you two different kinds of search results. What you see here are “map pack” results and natural “blue link” results. You can get points on both.
Map Pack Results
It’s part of Google’s SERPs and shows the best local business results along with a map. For area searches, it often shows up right at the top of Google’s list of results.
Organic Search Results
These “10 blue links” are the “regular” organic search results we know. Most of the time, they show up below the “map pack” findings.
Step-By-Step Guide To Do Local SEO
Now it’s time to build and strategize your local SEO to improve your local rankings and boost traffic. Here is a step-by-step guide to help you get started:
- Local Keyword Research: Looking into local keywords and finding the terms people use to look for local businesses and services is what SEO is all about. To begin, you need a short list of terms that people can use to find your business.
- Research your competitors: You can refer to your competitors to get an idea of what they are doing.
- Check local keyword metrics: Additionally, you should determine how challenging it is for your content to rank locally for the keywords you have selected. To find relevant keywords you should target in your content, use the Keyword Overview tool’s local volume metrics function.
- Utilize Google keyword planner: You can find keywords for sponsored search campaigns with the use of Google’s Keyword Planner. However, it’s also quite beneficial for finding fresh keywords associated with your company.
- Promote online reviews: Reviews are very helpful in building customer’s trust. People who see them will believe in your business because they show that you are an expert in your field.
Start Your SEO Strategy
There’s more to marketing than local SEO, but location-based searches are definitely one of the most helpful tools you need to utilize and take advantage of. This will help you attract potential customers that are in your area. Make sure to brainstorm about this properly.