Local SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the process of optimising a business’s online presence, including their website and Google Business Profile (GBP) to attract more customers.
Unlike other forms of marketing, Local SEO can put you in the driver’s seat! Using Local SEO correctly and effectively can directly alter the destiny of your business (for the better). You can learn how to do it yourself, or pay a professional to do Local SEO for you, and/or help you.
Local SEO and Nationwide SEO are two different things. Local SEO is far less involved. Nationwide SEO is for businesses, companies, eCommerce online shops and other entities that need to market nationwide, while Local SEO is for businesses, companies (and other entity types) who only need to market locally within a geographic target area (group of suburbs) and/or an entire city.
Local SEO allows potential customers to learn your business exists (so they discover your business) when they use Search Engines like Google to look for specific products and/or services that your business offers.
People use many types of Search Engines, including, but not limited to:
- Google Mobile
- Google AI Overview
- Google AI Mode
- Bing
- DuckDuckGo
- AI search tools like ChatGPT & Google Gemini
- Voice-search tools like Alexa, Google Voice-search, etc
The more times your business, products and services appear in Search Engines for relevant search words (keyword phrases) people use, the more potential new customers your business can gain!
Local SEO gives your business a BIG advantage!
Excellent Local SEO gives businesses (including small businesses) a BIG competitive marketing advantage over their direct local competitors (and/or any other local geographic market areas they serve).
Here’s a quick exercise:
- Think of your business.
- Now think of what the products and/or services you offer are.
- Now consider the amount of additional business your business (or company) could be receiving if your website is mentioned in search engines for keyword phrases (search phrases) that potential customers use.
Some of these keyword phrase types include:
- [service type] near me
- [service type] in my area
- [service type] [suburb name]
- [service type] [regional city name]
- [product type] [suburb name]
When quality Local SEO work is done correctly, your business can also target more than one suburb and/or more than one regional city.
The Google Maps 3 Pack
Local SEO also involves doing everything you can to get your business listed in the highly coveted ‘Google Maps 3 Pack’ (also called ‘the Local Pack (Map Pack)’.
Businesses who can prove to Google they have a great reputation can get into the ‘Map 3 Pack’. Doing so often requires expert assistance from a Local SEO professional who can help you prove to Google that you deserve to be in the ‘3 Pack’. There are specific SEO methods and strategies that need to be utilised.
Local SEO is not about manipulation,… it is instead about being truthful and knowing how to shed your business in the best light, using Local SEO.
How does Local SEO work?
To make Local SEO work, you first need a really good website that will convert. If you are not sure if your website is designed to convert very well, request a free website review audit from us.
Unlike other forms of marketing or advertising, Local SEO connects you with potential new customers when they are ready to buy, because they are ‘searching’ (hunting) for a solution to a problem they have, that they often need solved immediately. For example:
- Their toilet has stopped working
- Their grass needs mowing
- A window has broken and needs replacing
- A tree limb needs to be lopped off
- Their gutters need cleaning
- They need a deep-tissue massage
- They need a podiatrist
- etc
For Local SEO to work, your website also needs to be ‘SEO-ready’. This involves ‘Technical SEO work’ and a quality conversions-focused website that is correctly coded and adheres to the Google Best Practice Guidelines (which Google now calls the Google Search Essentials).
There are a variety of activities involved when doing Local SEO correctly. Some include:
- Website SEO Audit
- Keyword phrase research
- Excellent website
- Technical SEO
- On-website SEO
- E.E.A.T.
- Off-website SEO
- Building citations and backlinks
- AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation)
Google’s local algorithm determines which businesses appear in search results based on three main factors (which are called ‘the 3 Core Pillars of Local SEO’):
- Relevance: How well your business category, services (and/or products) and website match what each specific person is searching for
- Distance (Proximity): How close your physical business or service area is to the location of the person doing the search
- Prominence: How well-known or trusted your business is in the real world. This relies heavily on customer reviews, online articles, and the authority of your website
There is more to it, but this is just a short blog post, written to provide a quick overview of what Local SEO is.
Some of the SEO Tools used to do Local SEO correctly can include SEMRush, SurferSEO, MOZ and ahrefs.
If you want to have a go at doing Local SEO yourself, we have written a fully free Guide to Local SEO. Or if you would like to utilise our expertise and ask us to do Local SEO for you correctly, so you get results fast, let us know.