What is Local SEO and How Does it Help Your Business?

Local SEO is a search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy that helps businesses become more visible in local search results on Google. Any business with a physical location or serving a geographic area can benefit from local SEO. It is a branch of SEO that focuses on optimising a website to appear in local search results.

Local SEO

is the practice of optimising a website to increase traffic, leads, and brand awareness from local search. Common tasks associated with local SEO include local keyword research, optimising a company's Google My Business profile, and creating 'NAP citations'.

Local SEO is a type of search engine optimisation (SEO) tactic that helps businesses become more visible in local search results. It is a category of SEO that targets a specific location so that a business can rank in that area. An effective local SEO strategy allows a website to appear at the top of local search results or when a user expects results only from that area. Local SEO is the process of optimising a business, product, or service for a search query that is location-specific. Google (and other search engines) uses a user's location based on IP address (for desktop) and geolocation (for mobile) to determine which results to show the user.

So when someone performs a local search for a dentist, car wash, or locksmith, the search engine will display local businesses relevant to their location. Local SEO for accountants will allow potential customers to find you, and provide them with relevant content that answers any questions they have and leads to a conversation with you. Note that you don't have to type in the exact location if you search for a place nearby, as Google will automatically provide you with results based on your location if the establishment's website has implemented the right local SEO strategy. Inbound links are incredibly powerful opportunities to boost your local SEO: every inbound link tells Google that you are a legitimate business, and inbound links can also increase your domain authority. But with personalisation and localisation playing an increasingly important role in every SERP, local can no longer be viewed in its own silo - every search and social marketer must hone their understanding. When done well, local SEO allows people to find information about your business quickly and easily, putting them one step closer to a transaction.

If you have a shop or service area, local SEO will help your audience find you when they search online. These are the niches or sectors that can benefit most from local SEO and should make it an integral part of your business strategy. This beginner's guide should get your business headed in the right direction and provide you with more knowledge to improve and build your local SEO. It will show you how to put personality into your local search efforts so that local searchers want to know who you are. What local SEO does is isolate searches coming from your area (or whatever area you are targeting) and focus on those people so they see more of your pages and ultimately get to where you are.

In analysing the link profiles of the local sites I've worked with, I've found that 90 per cent of a local site's backlinks tend to point to its homepage.

Claudette Lorenzo
Claudette Lorenzo

General social media junkie. Devoted pop culture scholar. Wannabe bacon enthusiast. Subtly charming tea fanatic. Freelance foodaholic. Lifelong twitter enthusiast.