What is Local SEO and How Does It Work?

We often search for various services or businesses close to us. You may search “Salon near me” or “Coffeeshop near me” on Google. It is a convenient process that reduces the hassle of walking through every street looking for what you need. It’s way easier to search on Google, isn’t it?

Have you ever wondered how Google shows you all the businesses around you with their name, ratings, and even locations on Google Maps? Well, this is the magic of proper Local SEO. The target of local SEO is to show your local business or service on the result page when anyone searches for something relevant. Let’s explore what local SEO is and how it impacts your business in 2024.

The first question is, “What is Local SEO?” As the name suggests, local SEO focuses on a specific location of your business. This process enhances the visibility of a website or business profile for customers in a specific area. This type of SEO is highly beneficial for local businesses and service providers.

Suppose you have an ISP business where you provide internet service in a specific area. Now, while optimizing your website for SEO, your focus should be on the area of your service. It won’t bring any results if someone discovers your business outside your area of service. This is where local SEO comes into the game. It will rank your website in your specific business area so that your target audience can find you first on the search engine.

Local and Organic SEO are two different aspects of SEO with different functionality and focus. Often, people have many questions regarding these different methods and their functionalities. So, what is the difference between local and organic SEO? To provide a clear idea, we have prepared a table of differences between local and organic SEO.

This table contains more or less all the key differences between Local and Organic SEO. This should be enough to make the concept of both approaches clear for you.

As we already said earlier, the main focus of local SEO is building your service area-based business visibility. This objective is achieved by optimizing your business profile for local search results or queries. The target is to present your business in front of your target audience to boost your business. This is as simple as it gets. The next question you may ask is “How to do local SEO?”

Now, local SEO works on several key factors to improve the online visibility of a business. We have prepared a local SEO checklist with 8 major factors. It will help you understand how local SEO works easily.

Google My Business (GMB) Optimization

• Creating, claiming, and optimizing Google My Business
• Providing accurate and updated business info and photos

Local Citations

• Adding business NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) in various directories
• Ensuring NAP consistency in all platforms to improve local search rankings

Localized Content and Keywords

• Researching keywords based on local search queries
• Focusing on local keyword-based content that is relevant to the target local audience

Online Reviews and Ratings

• Adding positive customer reviews on Google, Yelp, and other platforms to build trust
• Encouraging satisfied customers to leave feedback or ratings for local search optimization

Local Backlinks

• Local backlinks signal search engines that the site is reliable
• Earning backlinks from other local businesses, news portals, or websites

Proximity to the Searcher

• Providing a clear and valid physical proximity is crucial in gaining priority from the search engine

​​​​​​​Structured Data Markup (Schema)

• Using Local Business Schema markup on a website provides search engines with more specific information about the business

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Local SEO Signals

• Monitor and act according to local signals like Google Map Pack presence, CTR, Local social signal, and behavioral signals

Google Business Profile (GBP), formerly known as Google My Business (GMB), is a must for local SEO. It shows your business in local search results, Google Maps, and the “Local Pack” for relevant queries. A properly optimized GBP can boost your visibility and traffic to your site and shop significantly.

Now, how do you claim your GBP? And how do you optimize it? Here is a brief & step-by-step guide you can easily follow:

• Claim your Google Business Profile from the Google website
• Verify your business through a postcard by mail, phone, email, or instant verification (if eligible)
• Complete your business information, including NAP, URL, and operation hours
• Select the right business categories that represent your business
• Add high-quality photos and videos, including storefront, interiors, and others
• Write a compelling business description that highlights why your business is the best
• Add attributes and business details that are relevant to your business
• Manage and respond to both good and bad customer reviews
• Enable messaging and set up FAQs so that visitors can contact you directly
• Post updates and offers regularly to keep your profile active & engaging and attract more clicks
• Monitor insights and performance to refine your strategies to optimize your profile

It covers almost every key point you should focus on about your GMB profile and its optimization.

The second most important thing is localizing your site content. You need to upload content that appeals to the local target audience and is relevant to the audience. So, you need to focus on local query keywords. It will help your website perform better locally and bring you targeted traffic.

Here are 6 best tips for localizing your website and content:

• Use local keywords: Research and implement location-specific keywords that your target customer may use to search for your product or service.
• Create location-specific landing pages: If your business has multiple offices, create specific pages for every location. The pages should have unique descriptions and contents.
• Use local business information on key pages: Include business NAP consistently across your website, especially on the “Contact Us” page, footer, and location-specific landing pages.
• Use local schema markup: Integrate Local Business Schema Markup on your website. It will help search engines better understand your location, business, and contact details.
• Leverage customer reviews and feedback: Showcase the local customer reviews, ratings, feedback, and case studies on your website. It will allow you to build trust and authority.
• Promote local partnerships and backlinks: Collaborate with other local businesses, content creators, and influencers to create or share content. It will help you generate local backlinks, signaling the search engines that you are relevant in the area.

Choosing the right keywords is very important to increase your visibility in local search results. Local SEO keywords have to be specific to your business and area of service. It will help you rank higher in the local SERP when a customer searches for relevant products or services.

Then, how to choose the right keywords for local SEO? You can follow the 7 best steps below to find the right local keywords.

• Understand business and the target audience.
• You can use Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, SEMrush, or other tools
• Focus on specific and descriptive long-tail keywords
• Run analysis of local competitor’s keywords
• You can leverage  the “People Also Ask” section and Google Autocomplete
• Optimize “Near Me” searches if it is relevant to your business
• Monitor and adjust your keyword strategy regularly to keep growing

Managing reviews is the part people often ignore, which essentially damages their business reputation. It also has a high impact on visibility and customer trust. Managing reviews means encouraging satisfied customers to leave feedback or reviews, responding to both positive and negative reviews, and using them to enhance your local SEO strategy.

Let’s have a look at how you can manage your reviews for local SEO.

• Encourage customers to leave a review on GMB, Facebook, or any industry-relevant site
• Properly respond to every review on every platform, whether it is positive or negative
• Google considers the quality, quantity, and frequency of reviews to rank local businesses, so use them wisely
• Highlight keywords in the review response naturally
• Regularly check review platforms to respond as soon as possible
• Showcase good reviews on your website and promotions to attract new customers
• Negative reviews indicate the scopes of growth, so take them seriously
• Always avoid fake reviews and violating guidelines

Another key strategy for local SEO is optimizing for voice searches. Focus on clients who rely on voice applications like Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa. Voice searches are usually conversational and use tags like “Near Me” or “Open Now.” You need to focus on natural language while optimizing for voice search. You may wonder: How can I optimize my business for voice search? Well, according to experts, here are the actions you can take:

• First, understand search intent and conversational queries
• Optimize your content for question-based keywords
• Create a detailed and structured FAQ section optimizing for voice search queries
• Focus on local keywords and “Near me” phrase, as most of the voice searches include it
• Optimize your GBP with up-to-date data, NAP, and offers
• Make your website mobile-friendly and improve the loading speed
• Use Schema Markups so that search engines understand the details of your business properly
• Optimize your content for featured snippets, as the answer of voice search drives from it
• Encourage positive customer reviews

Following these actions, you can increase the local presence of your business online and drive highly targeted traffic.

Finally, it is time to focus on your website to optimize it for local SEO. The target is to improve the visibility of your website in local search results. It will result in increased foot traffic to your business by attracting local customers. 

Now, have you gone through all the other steps mentioned above? If you have, then there is nothing much left to do. Because the previous steps combined optimize your website for local SEO. Now, we will briefly point out those key steps to clear any confusion.

• Ensure NAP Consistency
• Create a Dedicated “Contact Us” Page
• Optimize your GBP (Google Business Profile)
• Ensure Strategic Use of Local Keywords
• Create Localized Content
• Optimize Your Website for Mobile Usage
• Implement Business Schema Markup
• Build High-Quality Local Backlinks
• Encourage and Manage Customer Reviews
• Create Location Specific Landing Pages
• Optimize for Voice Search
• Leverage Social Media for Engagement
• Add Location-Based CTAs (Call To Action)

You might have already realized why local SEO is important and what are the benefits of local SEO by now. In this era, people tend to search everything they need online. If you can grab their attention with a strategic and well-optimized local SEO, you are already one step ahead of your competitors. It highly contributes to building a brand’s reputation and awareness. If your target local audience can’t find you online while looking for products or services, you are not even in the competitive game! This is why local SEO matters.

As you can see, there are lots of grounds to cover while optimizing for local SEO. You may even need a dedicated team to keep your business in the competitive game. Even if you assemble a team, if they are not skilled or experienced enough, the whole strategy will collapse. So, what can you do about the local SEO of your business? Or who provides affordable local SEO services for small businesses?

You can leverage the skills and expertise of the ultimate SEO agency, VISER X. With our expert team and more than 9 years' worth of experience, we will be the best option. We specialize in all aspects of SEO, including local SEO, content writing, website audit and many other services. So, what are you waiting for? Contact us now to take your local business to the next level.

How does Local SEO increase profit?

Local SEO increases your local business presence. In simple words, the more people find your products, the more potential customers you have. And, the more customers you have, the more profit you can make.

Between organic and local SEO, which one should I choose?

That depends on your business, actually. If your business is based in a small area and targets local people, local SEO is the best. But, if you provide services or products all across the country or the world, you must go for organic SEO.

Can I do local SEO without any business website?

Well, it is not absolutely necessary to have a website for local SEO; you can optimize your GBP. Therefore, you can do local SEO without any business website. But, it will remain incomplete.