If you are the owner or a manager of a business which relies on foot traffic to your store or practice, you may have encountered the term local SEO in the past. But what is local SEO exactly, who is it for and is it right for your business? Continue reading to learn what is local SEO marketing and how it can help you get more customers to come through your front door.
If you would rather just cut to the chase and get professional help with improving the business that you get thanks to your local presence on Google and other search engines, get in touch with us now. Call Resurge Digital on 1300 659 035, e-mail [email protected] or enquire online and ask us about our SEO Brisbane services to get started today.
What is Local Search in Theory
To explain what is local SEO, we first need to cover what is local search. Wikipedia comprehensively defines local search as “… the use of specialized Internet search engines that allow users to submit geographically constrained searches against a structured database of local business listings.”. As a gross oversimplification, on the internet, local search means the use of search engines to search for words, terms and phrases, businesses, services or products with the intent of receiving results relevant to a specific physical location such as a country, a city or a suburb from the vicinity of which that search is being conducted. As a practical illustration, the idea is that anyone looking for a dentist (to give one example of a typical local search) is going to be interested in a dentist close to where they are when they search – if we search for a dentist while in Chermside, Brisbane, it is a pretty good assumption that we seek the services of a dentist in that area and showing a search result displaying a dental clinic in Melbourne would be of no use no anyone involved.
What is Local Search in Practice
On Search Results Pages
In practice, on Google, certain searches produce a result that includes a cropped map and three local results, before displaying the 10 blue links we are all used to seeing normally. The searcher can click on a button to see more businesses relevant to their query. We call this the local 3 pack, because of the 3 results shown. On Bing this works in a similar way, but the number of results shown below the map can be as high as 5. Some smaller search engines have their own equivalent of this as well.
On Maps
Both Google and Bing additionally have their map platforms at http://maps.google.com/ and https://www.bing.com/maps respectively when accessing via a web browser. Google naturally also has its Google Maps app for smartphones. The searches made using these tools are local searches by default.
What is Local SEO Marketing?
What is local SEO marketing then? Well, there are certain things a search engine optimisation expert can do to make sure that a given business appears in the local 3 pack or in the maps. Then there are further optimisations available to improve for what keywords that business appears. Steps are available to also improve how often a business appears compared to its competitors. While going into further detail is outside of the scope of this blog, local SEO marketing attempts to leverage specifically the 3 pack and maps to show a given business to people searching for services and products like the ones it offers. On Google, this is achieved primarily but not exclusively via the Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business), on Bing there is an equivalent platform called Bing Places for Business.
Local SEO marketing can be especially beneficial for businesses that rely on walk-in customers. It typically has the most benefits for businesses in B2C goods and services focused industries such as medical and allied health practitioners like dentists, denture clinics, physiotherapists, through gyms and fitness facilities to local retailers, cafes, restaurants and so forth. If you’re happy to see customers coming through the front door to make a purchase, order or to make an appointment, local SEO is for you.
You are likely to get more out of your local customer base if you get help professional help. Get in touch with us at Resurge Digital, the digital agency Brisbane locals know for quality of work and results. Call us on 1300 659 035, e-mail [email protected] or enquire online for our expert help.