Last Updated on October 24, 2024
Local SEO is a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy that helps businesses to be more visible in local search results on Google. Some businesses only want to get a good amount of traffic from the cities they serve. To help these types of businesses, we received help from a local SEO.
“Near me” searches are location-based queries, where users look for the businesses, services, or locations near their current geographical area.
For example, a person might search for something like: “a good coffee shop near me”, “gym near me”, “restaurants near me”, etc.
Future of SEO
The SEO technology is evolving quickly. It is expected that the global market for SEO services will be worth $200 billion by 2025. The trend will even go higher in the future because almost every business is now investing in it and trying to be in the race to have more visibility online. Artificial intelligence and machine learning would be more advanced and help search engines understand what the user wants and his intent. Moreover, with the rise of voice assistants like Siri and Alexa, etc. people use more people use them instead of typing queries, and the language is more conversational. So, in the future, SEO will focus more on natural language processing (NLP) so that the user gets accurate results for their queries.
“Near me” search Trends:
“Near me” searches have evolved so much due to the rise of mobile usage and voice assistants like Siri and Google Assistant. The users expect quicker and more hyper-local results, depending on their location.
GPS has also played a great role in search engine optimization. Because of GPS, search engines now give the query result according to the user’s exact current location.
Now, search engines give results according to the user’s personal preferences and past behaviour. Google also tracks the user’s search history to know about their interests. For example, if we often search for “restaurant near me“ and tend to pick a local and small service or business, google might suggest more small restaurants in future searches, too, to provide results according to the user’s habits.
Till 2025 80% of mobile searches are expected to be location-based, and about 50% of local searches will be done through voice. Moreover, local businesses are now dependent on “Google My Business” listings to get more visibility online because people prefer quick results of their queries without navigating the websites.
Google My Business Optimization
Creating and verifying listing:
“Google My Business” is also a strategy that helps small or local businesses to grow in their geographical area.it is important to optimize our website and run Google ads if a business needs a targeted visibility of its website on Google. Apart from optimizing one’s business website, one must also optimize one’s Google business listing. The Google My Business account enables business owners to keep track of their business progress and monitor how people interact with their business on Google. With the help of Google My Business, the business owner can engage with the customers too. They can respond to the customers’ reviews, which they post about a certain product or service of their company. Getting a clear and accurate insight into the business lets the business owners know their position in the market. Consequently, they can follow more strategies to progress in their business. The process of optimizing a GMB profile is simple. All we need to do is visit the official Google My Business website and create an account. After that, we have to add our business type. After filling in all the essential information regarding our business, Google will prompt us to verify the listing. After that, we’ll just get a verification code, which we must enter into our GMB account to complete the process.
Keeping the information up to date:
It’s important to ensure that all of our business details, e.g. phone number, address, opening and closing hours, etc., are accurate, and in case of any change, it is necessary to update the details as soon as possible to avoid customer frustration. Consistency of information improves the local SEO because it indicates reliability. It also helps google in ensuring that our business is legitimate and where it is located, improving our visibility to potential customers.
Leveraging New GMB Features:
Google My Business offers some features too to engage with our customers and boost our visibility. To make our profile more presentable, we should focus on our post-resolution. The photos and videos should be of high quality. Moreover, responding to people’s reviews and queries is also important because the customer feels heard. This also helps in creating a relationship of trust and loyalty with customers. There is a high possibility that the customers will become repeat customers, and they might also recommend our business to others. Consequently, it will also increase the business’s local search engine optimization.
On-Page SEO for Local Businesses:
On-page SEO, also known as on-site SEO, refers to optimizing a website’s content that is in our control, like title tags, content, its front, URL, internal links, etc. Some key strategies can raise the rankings of a local business.
Optimizing title tags and Meta descriptions
Title tag:
A title tag is an HTML element that specifies the title of a webpage. A page’s title tag can be displayed as a part of a search snippet in a search engine results page (SERP). These are the clickable headlines that appear as a result of a search. So, choosing an appropriate title tag is also important so that more customers will be attracted to them. For example, instead of using a title like “best coffee”, using a more location-specified title like “best coffee in Italy” would be better. This would help people know where our business is located, and they would be more attracted.
Meta descriptions:
The meta description tag tells the user what a particular webpage is about.
They are basically a pitch that convinces the user that the page is exactly what they want. Meta descriptions should be clear and encouraging. We should also prefer to put the location of our business or company. E.g. Adding a sentence like” serving the best coffee in Italy” would let the people know exactly where your business exists.
Summarizing the whole discussion, we can say that adding location-based keywords in titles and meta descriptions can help us increase our local SEO and attract more local customers.
Mobile Optimization:
A mobile device has become a basic need of human beings. These have become as important as morning coffee in modern human life. Every business needs to optimize its websites or apps for mobile devices as well. In the present era, about 55% of website traffic comes from mobile devices. Moreover, 92.3% of internet users access the internet using mobile phones.
So, “orienting your digital content like websites or apps for mobile devices is known as mobile optimization.”
For example, it is a point to note that when we visit Amazon on our laptops, tablets, or mobile phones, it seems good on every device. This is because of the company’s mobile optimization, which allows their site seamless functionality and UX across platforms.
Mobile-first indexing:
Search engines like Google primarily use the mobile version of a website’s content to determine the ranking of our websites in search results, known as mobile-first indexing.
It can negatively impact its SEO ranking and local visibility in search results if the website or app of a business or company isn’t mobile-friendly.
Improving page speed for mobile devices:
A business website must have a good page load speed on mobile devices. So that the webpage loads faster and visitors don’t leave. If the webpage takes too much to load, the customer becomes frustrated and eventually leaves.
Some steps could be taken to improve the page speed. i.e.
- Use compressed images to reduce the file size
- By minifying CSS and JavaScript
- Using content delivery networks reduces the distance data travels and makes our websites load faster.
Voice search optimization:
The rise of voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant has brought voice search to the forefront of digital marketing. Voice searches have grown so much over some years. According to a study by ComScore, about 50% of the searches were voice searches in 2020.
Voice-based searches are different from text-based searches. Voice-based searches might be lengthy and more conversational. E.g. “Where can I get the best coffee in Italy?” instead of typing the text “best coffee in Italy.”
There are some key strategies to optimize the voice search.
Focus on natural language processing:
As we know, voice searches are usually more conversational instead of typical ones, so to optimize these queries, it is important to incorporate long keywords and natural language phrases into the content. Some tools like “keyword planner” or “AnswerThePublic” help determine the most common questions related to our business.
Optimize for local search:
Many voice searches are location-specific. So, a business owner should make sure that his business is listed on Google My Business. And add consistent details about the business.
Improve site speed and mobile-friendly:
A business experience should make its website responsive and user-friendly across all devices, including mobile phones, because voice searches are often conducted on mobile phones. Google tools like PageSpeed help assess and improve our website speed.
Local Link Building Strategies:
Sometimes, business owners face hardships in attracting local customers. Local link building helps business owners to raise their local SEO rankings. It shows Google that your business is relevant in local searches.
Partnering with local businesses and firms:
It is necessary to Collaborate with other local businesses and firms in our area to create mutual backlinks. For example, we can exchange guest blog posts or share each other’s services or products on our websites to attract customers and raise our SEO ranking on search engines.
Engaging with local media and press:
When local newspapers and magazines feature one’s business, it helps them become known among more people in their community, which is also very effective.
Participating in community events:
Participating in or sponsoring local community events is also a good strategy. These can be local charity drives, sports events, etc. Participating in these activities is important in local building because we can be mentioned on event websites, community vlogs, and local news outlets. Subsequently, these links boost our local search visibility.
Local citation:
Local citations mention our business’s name, address, and other details on various websites and social media platforms. Due to the consistent mention of the business details, the search engines verify that our business is real, and consequently, it helps our business appear in local search results.
Customer Reviews and Ratings:
Customer reviews are vital to the business’s reputation and search engine optimization (SEO). Proper review management can also help improve the business’s online presence and user engagement. It also builds a feeling of trust among other potential customers as well. Moreover, whenever the customer leaves a review, the website becomes updated since they generate fresh content on our website in this way. Search engines favour regularly updated content because it indicates that our site is active. So, each new review is fresh content, which tells the search engine that our website is constantly active and engaging with customers.
So, it is important to approach the potential customers.
Encouraging customers: Business owner should encourage their customers to leave positive reviews on social media platforms like Facebook and Google.
Sending emails: Sending a friendly email to the customer after a purchase is also effective. Moreover, try to write the email so the customer feels more engaged and thank them for their time. Also, offer them a small discount on their next purchase, encouraging them to leave a positive review about your company.
Incorporating customer reviews into the website
Integrating customer reviews into the website helps to improve our business’s SEO ranking. When users visit our website and see a positive review about a certain product from our company, they are encouraged to purchase the product.
Analysis and monitoring success in Local SEO:
Local search ranking: To determine the current status or position of our business in the marketplace, it is important to monitor the performance of our business regularly using different metrics and tools.
Website traffic: By monitoring where our website stands now, you can interpret which phrases are most effective in bringing the potential customers of a certain geographical area to our website.
Click-through Rate (CTR): Analyzing the percentage of people who click on our business listing when it appears in the search or query result can also help us determine the success level of our SEO strategies.
There are many tools to track “near me” search performance, such as Google My Business Insight, Google Search Console, and Google Analytics. If the analysis shows low traffic or rankings, we should consider optimizing our website with more location-based keywords and improving our title tags and Meta description.
Future Trends in Local SEO
Over time, the technology has become advanced. Local search engines are integrating many other technologies like AI to boost up even more.
Augmented reality:
Augmented reality is becoming very popular these days. It also plays a great role in local searches. For example, if a person wants to see a business interior without being physically present, he can see it on the device display that he is using. Local businesses can use augmented reality in many apps, such as Google Maps.
Internet of thing (IOT):
IoT devices like refrigerators and home assistants might also drive more voice searches and location-based searches in the future, which will create opportunities for small companies and organizations to connect with local customers through these devices.
Artificial intelligence:
Artificial intelligence will also help perceive customers’ wants based on their past behaviour, searches, and location.
Conclusion
From the study, we learned that every business owner must follow up with strategies like voice search, engaging with customers, and building solid backlinks with other organizations to progress in their local SEO. For this purpose, they need to monitor their business profile regularly to track customer traffic and business performance. Moreover, it is important to get updated about the latest trends in the market so that we can change our strategies accordingly. Moreover, since new technologies like augmented reality (AR), natural language processing (NLP), and artificial intelligence (AI) are advancing rapidly, businesses must stay adaptable to remain competitive in the market.
