What is the difference with traditional SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?
The aim of SEO is to increase your visibility on all searches related to your business. Local SEO, on the other hand, aims to increase visibility for local searches (within a perimeter close to the location of your business/store).
Key figures
First of all, it should be noted that one in four requests made via Google contains one or more geolocation elements (name of a town, a country, etc.).
What’s more, 85% of Internet users have already searched for businesses near their home via the Google search engine.
The conversion rate is also positively impacted: 88% of local telephone enquiries are followed by a telephone call or visit within 24 hours. It is also worth noting that 18% of geolocated queries lead to a purchase.
What are the benefits and why do local SEO?
Competition for search results is fierce. As a result, your company needs to be present in the first results of the SERP. What’s more, users are generally content with the first results and very rarely go on to the following pages because they don’t see the point. They want to find the information they are looking for in the blink of an eye.
Local SEO makes it possible to promote advanced targeting and to better manage and make the most of your investments. Although the target audience may be limited, you are targeting a quality audience, since these are consumers who are not far from your physical location, and therefore potential customers.
The most important thing is to provide relevant search results for the people who are most likely to convert.
How do you do local seo? Our guide to getting started
A responsive site adapted to mobile phones
This is one of the most important points, as 60% of local searches are carried out directly from a mobile phone. So it’s vital that your site offers an optimal experience for mobile users if you want to increase your conversions.
Voice search is also widely used on smartphones, so it’s a very important element to take into account in your strategy. For example, think about writing the content of your website in conversational mode.
If your website is to be adapted and optimised for mobile devices, it needs to load quickly, be easy to click on, be intuitive, etc. Generally speaking, for the user, navigation needs to be pleasant and fluid; there can be no room for frustration.
Google My Business and its comments
GMB (Google My Business) listings enable local businesses to showcase their establishment(s) in local search results by providing Internet users with all the important information about the business.
It is important, and in your best interests, to include your company name, address, telephone number (NAP) and opening hours. What’s more, this information must be updated if there are any changes. Use quality photos on your GMB listing to make it more attractive. You should also encourage users to leave reviews or comments. You can then highlight the positive reviews. We also recommend that you respond to these reviews (whether positive or negative).
Responding to both positive and negative reviews with reassurance is all the more important. You should never leave a dissatisfied customer without a response so that other users don’t get the wrong impression of your company.
Title, meta description, url, header, content
First of all, you should bear in mind that it is the “title” tag and the meta-description that are displayed in Google search results. These 2 elements therefore play a considerable role: they will influence the interaction of web users with your ad. It is advisable to indicate your location in order to reach a more relevant target and increase the click-through rate.
As far as the content is concerned, bear in mind that it must be “local” in order to be as relevant as possible and meet the needs of qualified users.
Keywords and geolocalised pages
To be well referenced, you need to use relevant keywords on your various web pages, both in the title tags (h1, h2, etc.) and in the body of the text. As we said earlier, the competition is fierce, and adding the name of your town after your keyword, for example, will make it easier for you to stand out from the crowd.
If you have several locations, you can create a page for each infrastructure. That way, you’ll have keywords related to the location on each of them and you’ll get the most out of your local ranking.
Local directories
In addition to GMB listings, online directories such as TripAdvisor or the Yellow Pages are often consulted by users. They help to boost your local referencing. But be careful: they are only useful if the information they contain is consistent. The elements must also match the content of your “contact” section on the website. If this is not the case, Google may not be able to determine what the right information is and may decide not to display anything, which would be very problematic.
Microformats
Microformats are enriched tags that communicate information to search engines so that they can better position you in search results. Using microformats, you can provide search engines with various elements relating to your location in order to reach Internet users in your vicinity. You therefore need to indicate your address and contact details in these tags, and then integrate them into the source code of your website.
Customer reviews
It’s important to encourage users to leave reviews. If you are well rated, this will not only help you to appear higher in the SERP but will also improve your credibility in the eyes of Internet users. If you’re worried about bad reviews, make sure you provide a quality service and don’t leave anything to chance. Unhappy customers are inevitable, but if you respond to them in the right way, they will appear less negative to other consumers.
NAP (name, address, telephone number)
Configure your NAP correctly and update it if necessary. It should be included as searchable HTML text on your website (usually in the header or footer). This company information must be consistent in all the places where it appears (directories, social networks, website, etc.).
Why do you want to do this? Because, to be better referenced, your information has to be relevant. So having different information from one site to another leads to misunderstandings. What’s more, the user experience is also affected, as consumers want to find the right information about your company first time.
Links
Another technique is to improve your internal links so that you are better positioned. These links are essential because they support site navigation and help with the architecture and ranking of the information and the different pages.
Inbound links boost your local SEO and domain awareness. Each incoming link proves to Google’s bots that your company is legitimate.
Monitoring results and regular audits
Once you’ve put in place the various elements of local SEO and you’re getting concrete results on Google, it’s time to set up monitoring and detailed analysis of these results. Carry out regular SEO audits and adapt your SEO strategy on an ongoing basis.
There are various tools you can use to do this, such as the Google My Business statistics, which give you a better understanding of your audience. There are also “filtered search results” reports for the area you are targeting in the Google Search Console, which enable you to see where your company ranks in relation to local queries. Of course, it’s always best to be accompanied by SEO experts and specialists.
In conclusion, if you depend on a local clientele, we strongly recommend that you develop your local referencing in order to considerably increase your performance in terms of visibility on Google as well as your conversion rate.
Passionate about marketing, Théo is currently doing a bachelor’s degree in e-business and follows all the news of the digital world very closely. As an intern at DJM, he specialises in the fields of Search Engine Advertising (SEA) and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
