How Local SEO tactics Can Leverage More Sales for Your Local Business

Updated February 2022

An online business running completely online may never need local SEO as they are fully free to target customers worldwide but Local SEO tactics are crucial for offline businesses who want to grow their business online.

Local SEO is not only meant for local business owners who wanna get more leads from their city but also for businesses that are multi-located.

It is nothing new in 2022 but still, only a few of local and multi-location business owners pay attention to it due to not being aware of the fact that a whopping 50% of searches on Google are local searches and Local SEO can get any businesses serving in a specific city to get more leads from that city.

But many of you may have heard the word local SEO for the first time, so let’s start with knowing what exactly is local SEO.

What are Local SEO tactics?

Local SEO is a tactic that local businesses may use to attract more customers from online local searches. Put simply, this is about getting your business online and then optimizing its online presence for attracting more business from your city of operation.
When I say local searches, I mean searches made on Google, Bing and other search engines by people looking for nearby businesses. When People do local searches on Google, Google shows them the most relevant nearby businesses like below.

LOCAL SEO
Local SEO tactics are  important

 

And as said earlier, 46% of searches on Google are local searches. So definitely using Local SEO is worth an investment.
Local SEO is about optimizing your entire online presence for targeting local customers.
In this guide, I will tell you everything about Local SEO and how to use it including how to get started but before that lets more clearly understand local searches and local search results.

Local Search results

Local searches are searches made on search engines with the intention of finding businesses nearby. For example, when people search things like these on Google- “coffee shops near me”, “bars near me”, “hotels near me”, these are considered local searches thus Google shows local search results for these search terms.
This is a local search of one of my client when i search for:  best coffee rosters london

local seo tactics for coffee
local seo tactics for coffee

 

 

Local search results are optimized for a specific region as Google and other search engines can trace your location.
Now when a local search is made on Google, two types of results are shown by the Google search engine to users-

1. Snack pack results
2. General organic results

Understanding Snack Pack results and organic results

When local searches are made on Google, Google most times shows a boxed area at beginning of the search results page where it shows users the three most relevant businesses according to the search query.
For example again if I search for coffee shops near me, Google will show me a snack pack box containing three coffee shops and with a link to see more coffee shops.

After the snack pack results box, Google shows organic results which contain relevant websites according to the search query. The organic results for Coffee shops near me would be something like this at the time i write this article in Italy

local seo search
local seo tactics can improve search results for your businesses

If you have noticed that “coffee break” is doing well in both organic and snack pack results in Turin
And that’s exactly the aim of doing Local SEO. It would help you rank your business in local search results(snack pack, organic and others) and this, in turn, would get your more customers.
No matter what type of business you run, Local SEO will help you grow.

Here is why Local SEO tactics important for businesses

1. 46% of Google searches are local
This shows that getting more customers to your offline business from online is not a myth. Millions of peoples search for local businesses every day and a lot of them may be your citizens. Local SEO will get you more customers from your city and nearby area.

2. Local searches are most targeted
76% of local mobile searches result in an offline purchase. This means that local searchers are most targeted and always have ready to buy mindset. You will find your ideal customers with Local SEO.

3. Local SEO tactics are  better and cheaper than other marketing tactics
Business owners many a time uses newspaper ads and banner ads for marketing which are both expensive and have a lot of wasted exposure.
This is not the case with local SEO: your marketing efforts will not be wasted and Local SEO is less expensive.

4. Local SEO tactics are still profitable
It is profitable but not yet competitive. Yes, only 44% of businesses have claimed their Google my business listing. Acton opportunity promptly. Start using it before its too late and things become very competitive.

5. Local SEO opportunities are free and not much time consuming
Local SEO opportunities like claiming your Google my business listing is free. You can also SEO your website for free if you can do it by yourself. But I will recommend you to work with some Local SEO service provider if you don’t have much time. Local SEO does not take much time to give results, unlike general SEO.

Getting Started with Local SEO

For Local SEO, You would need to optimize your Google my business listing, your website, local search directories, bing business page, and a few other things.

While local SEO is not as hard as SEO still, working with a SEO service provider will guarantee results.

Let’s get started with GMB

Google my business listing is what will help you rank well in Google map results and snack pack results.
You would first need to get started with Google my business listing then optimize it for the best.
Here is how to do it-
First, check if your business is already listed in Google my business listing. If it’s already listed then claim your listing.
In case you don’t see your business being listed in GMB listing, Click sign up and submit your business. Please fill all the information required like Business name carefully while signing up for a GMB listing. Twice check every detail you fill and make sure it is accurate. Submit quality photographs.

After filling each and everything required, now Google will send you a postcode to your listed business address which will contain a verification code which you will need to verify your GMB listing.
Once you verify your GMB listing, its time you start optimizing it.

Here is what extra you can do with you GMB listing for the best-

⦁ Make sure all your information is accurate and updated- Wrong address, wrong name, and anything not correct can affect your ranking negatively. Make sure you have provided all the information to Google and not left anything.
⦁ Choose the correct categories for your business
⦁ Get more customer reviews, manage and respond to them
⦁ Submit phone number that is working and accurate
⦁ Add a long formatted description that includes links.
⦁ submit as many as photos you can.
⦁ Submit high-resolution profile and cover image.
⦁ Add opening and closing timings for your business.

 

Website localization

In order to rank well in local search organic results, you would need to optimize your website for local search results.
Down I list some ways to optimize your website for local search results-

⦁ Include NAP in the footer of the website or on every page of the website- You should include your correct business name, address and phone number on every page of your website. Use only one NAP on everywhere you submit your website details. Use schema.org markup as to make sure your NAP is easily accessible and read by search engines.

⦁ Include a Google map with your business marker on your landing pages
⦁ Focus on Local SEO – tactics to rank your site locally. Some of these tactics include-
⦁ Including city/region in the Title tag
⦁ Including city/region in your H1 tag
⦁ Including city/region in your URL
⦁ Include city/region in your content
⦁ Use Local Link building and Citation building- Local Links and citation building is the most important factors that will affect your local rankings significantly.

 

Working with SEOLiquido

SEOliquido is quality local SEO service provider helping local and multi-location business owners get more leads from online local search market.
Our services will take care of your local SEO and will help you rank in local search results with our citation and local link building and other Local SEO tactics.

Check here for more information on our local SEO tactics and services: Local SEO services