Top Local SEO Companies

What Is Local SEO?

The practice of optimizing a website for a specific local region is termed Local SEO. If you or your clients have local businesses and want your website to rank for particular search queries by local users, local SEO is the way to go. For example, if you have a spa service located in Times Square, New York, USA, you would want people to find your business when they Google "Spa in Times Square.” Local SEO helps optimize your website for local searches and helps your business get found by your potential customers in that area.

Typically, websites allow you to target the entire world and reach out to global audiences. Local SEO, on the other hand, enables you to rank higher in your local area. You may have a shop, business, or agency in a particular place that you want people to find online and eventually connect to offline. Local SEO services help your web pages rank higher for users of a particular area, boosting your revenues and gaining the attention of locals. 

How to do Local SEO?

To start doing local SEO, you need to let Google know (through various indicators) that your business is located in a particular area and wants to be discovered by potential customers within a specific area. To do so, you first need to create local landing pages on your website and assist people in finding your shop or business with a digital store locator on your website. 

One of the first things that need to be implemented on your website is the proper Local Business schema markup. This markup informs Google that:

1. You possess a local business

2. The business offers products and services of a certain kind

3. The business caters to customers of a particular area

After specifying the above details, you can also use a local SEO plugin to correctly output the schema markup information. Apart from optimizing your website for local searches, you may also want to write specifically for your local audiences on your website for better engagement and credibility.

Besides optimizing your website for local searches, you also need to create a Google My Business Account and fill out all relevant details. Additionally, you must also try to get a few local and industry-relevant links. Just like local social media strategies, print brochures, word-of-mouth and citations also contribute to local SEO.

What are Local SEO ranking factors?

Ranking your website higher for local searches will require you to focus on various local SEO ranking factors. Google's local algorithm relies on several signals, which is why you need to know where to spend your time to improve your chances of ranking successfully.

There are several types of signals that Google looks for when ranking local SEO pages, which include:

On-page Optimization:

This refers to on-page factors like business name, address, phone numbers, domain authority, and keywords in titles. To make a real difference to your local rankings, you must have the right keywords in your landing page titles and relevant keywords across your entire website.

While planning your keyword strategies, you have to think of all the possible queries your potential customers might have about your business or your products or services. It is, therefore, crucial to answer them in simple words that your consumers would be familiar with. Also, try and use your city's name a couple of times in your web pages, along with relevant keywords in your website's Title and Description tags/metadata.

To rank higher in local search rankings, add some content related to your area on your web pages. You should also try and correlate your local business with the location for maximum effect.

Link Signals: 

Link-related signals are crucial for local organic rankings. Thus local SEO solutions strive to optimize their on-page anchor text, linking domain quantity and linking domain authority. Though getting backlinks on your site can be a challenging task, they can significantly improve your website’s authority from the perspective of search engines. The quality of links provided on your web pages is much more important than the overall quantity of links.

Google My Business (GMB) page:

This includes the primary category of your GMB, additional categories, and keywords given in the business title. The importance of Google My Business has greatly increased in the past few years. Hence choosing the right business category, having the right set of keywords in your GMB business title, and eradicating GMB spam is crucial to your local SEO rankings.

Review Signals:

The keywords present in Google reviews, high Google ratings, the quality of Google reviews, and the text given. When looking for local products or services, people tend to look for reviews, which makes them one of the most valuable dramatically, rankings. Many local SEO consultants also argue that the quantity and freshness of reviews also help businesses stay ahead of their competitors. Thus most experts would advise you to strictly monitor, display and increase the number of reviews to save buyers' time and ensure that they view your business in the best possible light.

Behavioral Signals:

Factors like the click-through rate, check-ins, and mobile click-to-calls also have an impact on your local rankings. Google takes note of how visitors view your web pages and how much time they spend there. This depends mainly on the content, links, and citations given on your website. Hence most local SEO companies advise businesses to optimize page titles, meta descriptions and make their GMB details as exciting as possible for visitors.

Citation Signals:

Your business and directory listing also has a profound impact on the rankings of your web pages. Today there are many online directories where companies can list themselves and get backlinks easily. Since these citation websites are considered trustworthy by Google,  they offer valuable sources of links to local businesses for getting started and putting them on a level playing field with their competition. Hence, it is wise to have your business listed on websites like Nextdoor, Facebook, Yelp, etc., and invest in local or industry-specific websites that your potential customers might be using.

Personalization Signals:

Personalization of search results includes factors like location, language, device, and users' browsing history. This is especially important if you are serving multilingual areas or creating content in different languages. 

What are the Benefits of Local SEO Services?

Local SEO services offer a range of benefits to businesses which include:

• Improved Visibility Online
• Relevant Traffic
• Building an online community to boost the local economy
• Building trust & authority
• Reduced Advertising Costs
• Increased Sales Figures

Why Google My Business Is a Big Part of Local SEO?

Your company's GMB page helps you set up the most relevant and updated business category and subcategory, helping Google understand what your business provides and who are your potential customers. The only way you can optimize your business for local SEO is to ensure that all information requested by Google is completed. Google has been continuously upgrading its My Business pages to get more and more information about businesses to help its users. Keeping your GMB account updated frequently can do you a world of good.

Who Uses Local SEO Services?

Any business, shop, or service provider who wants to improve their sales from local sources can avail of local SEO services. People rarely go for companies far away and prefer local firms for quick and reliable services. They are constantly looking for local businesses online for instant availability of services/products that they need. This may include legal and medical firms, restaurants and bars, real estate firms, and plumbing or pet services. 

Challenges with Local SEO Services

Businesses often have a hard time setting up their local SEO services for the following reasons:

1. Genuine online reviews are hard to generate
2. Google's My Business Page needs to be updated frequently
3. Web pages often need to be redesigned for local audiences
4. Web pages have to be updated with localized content
5. Local landing pages need to be optimized with links and citations
6. Localized keywords need to be used on your website organically
7. Lack of affordable local SEO services
8. Lack of presence on social media and listing sites

Why Is Local SEO Vital for Your Business?

These days, every business wants to spread out locally before catering to a broader audience base. It allows them to test the waters when providing satisfactory products or services before expanding its wings. Though serving local clients or customers, businesses understand their strengths and limitations, which helps them prepare for the future. Local SEO also enables companies to set up a regional base of operations, which is essential given the present COVID-19 situation. With a solid local base of operations, firms can rest assured of continuous local earnings through improved online visibility. Additionally, when your customers are local, there are much higher chances of repeat business. It also saves you advertisement and promotional costs while increasing sales and boosting business longevity.