Local Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a form of online marketing that allows businesses to promote their services to perspective customer based on their location to the business.
You may have noticed the section on the top of the Google search results page that displays a map and the top results for location to your search term on the map. This section is known as the “map pack.” Any results that appear in the map pack, relate to both your search term and your current location. So if you search for the term “software company” while in Burwood, Melbourne, the top result is Pronto. It’s pretty impressive, isn’t it? It gets better because you can even search for places near locations - using the same example but switching the search term to “software company near Burwood,” you’ll see a list of even more options in your map pack.
A number of different factors impact your local SEO ranking, with location being one of the biggest. Moz is a renowned SEO tool used by those in the know and they recently stated: “Proximity to a searcher is the new number 1 ranking factor in local search results today.”
Of course, there are other factors too, some of which include:
On-page signals: this refers to the relevance of the keywords on the different pages on your site. There is always room for improvement but if you include the following elements in your on-site landing pages, you will be well ahead of the game:
- Title tags
- Meta descriptions
- Header tags
- Page content
- Images
- A map
- Name, address and phone (NAP) on every page (ideally, with schema mark-up: feel free to get in touch if you don’t know what that means)
Credibility is huge in the online space so be sure to incorporate the following into your site wherever you can:
- Testimonials
- Accreditations
- External reviews
Link signals: when it comes to building authority, link signals are a must. The tricky thing is that link signals will differ from business-to-business but here are some examples:
- No local links: you’ll need to create a Google My Business profile and include citations and on-page optimisation
- Location specific links: this is just a link from a credible source relevant to your current location
- Links from authority sites: think big with this one. The more authority a website has, the better it is to get a link from
Google My Business: once you’ve created your profile, you’ll need to optimise your listing by verifying the page, adding relevant images and assigning the correct categories etc.
External location signals: this is another important SEO step and just relates to the consistency of your name, address and phone number right across the internet. This also includes citations from other external local directories.
Behavioural signals: this is where we pay particular attention to the SEO basics such as page titles, meta descriptions and schema review mark-ups.
Personalisation: there seems to be no clear way of optimising the personalisation for each individual around their search term. However, we do known that this is influenced by paid for advertisements like Google Ad Words or Google Display Network.
Review signals: it may come as a surprise but positive reviews from sources such as Google reviews, Trip Advisor, Facebook and so on, all contribute positively to your local search efforts.
When optimising your website keeping in mind all of the above factors can influence your business’ appearance online and especially, in Google’s map pack. Additionally, the more you optimise, the more likely you are to increase your local online marketing reach right across search engine result pages.
Looking to improve you local SEO map pack results? Contact Woven to discuss how we can make boosting your local SEO efforts as easy as possible for you!
