Local SEO (search engine optimization) is designed to ensure business prospects can be raised on the local area. Once upon a time, people would use the Yellow Pages to find their nearest plumber, but most people don’t even receive that booklet anymore. Instead, they simply type in a search term on Google and hope for the best. Of course, they don’t then want to be bombarded with results for plumbers that operate in different states or even countries. They want to find the one that operates in their local area. That is what local search engine optimization concerns itself with, and it shows just how vital it can be to the success of an organization.
What Is Local SEO?
Essentially, it is an SEO strategy that focuses solely on the local market. It uses a range of tactics that ensure a page will receive a higher ranking for localized searches. As such, the goal is to increase a page’s visibility, thereby gaining more traffic and, ultimately, more profits.
If a site is locally optimized, then potential customers will be able to find that business with ease. As such, the basic marketing process of having to approach customers is actually reversed. Now, customers come and ask business for their services instead.
The Plumber Example
Let’s say you are a plumber in Castle Rock, Maine. If someone in Castle Rock is looking for a plumber, they are likely to search for something like “toilet repair Castle Rock”. If your website is properly optimized, it will be the site that shows up on top, meaning customers are more likely to come to you to ask you for your services. This is without you ever having to have gone out of your way to make sure they know about you. That is the old way of marketing.
There are two things that Google now believes is important when it comes to ranking the various internet pages. The first is that it is localized and links, therefore, to a specific geographic location. This is because Google searches now automatically rank local businesses higher if someone is searching for a business.
The second element of important is that your website is mobile friendly. This is one of the latest Google rules and one that was dubbed “Mobilegeddon” when it first started to appear. Google doesn’t bring new rules in for the sake of it, but rather because they have identified a specific need amongst the users of the internet. And the fact is that around 60% of all internet access in this country is now through mobile. Localizing mobile is even more interesting, however, as a mobile is, by its very definition, mobile, meaning it moves from one location to another. As such, engaging in local SEO tactics on your mobile friendly website is even more important, because you want to make sure that someone from Texas who happens to be visiting Maine can still find you if they are using their mobile.