We all know that SEO helps push your business’s visibility on SERPs, and thus we do our best to do right by it. But have you been facing difficulties ranking your website pages even when you’ve complied with the best SEO practices? It could be the time to shift your focus from SEO to local SEO.
You can’t see your website ranking because you’ve been trying to rank on a difficult keyword on a national or worldwide scale. And the most probable reason for your low website ranking is that better websites are outranking you.
So what’s your way out of this situation? As we told you, the need here is to shift focus from SEO to local SEO.
In a nutshell, SEO is centered on ranking websites globally or nationally, whereas local SEO helps improve ranking on local search results. For specific search queries like “coffee shops near me” or “coffee shops in GK1”, google refines its results and shortlists the one that matches the geographical preferences of the inquirer. Which makes it so much easier for your website to appear on the first page, provided you optimize your website for local listings.
To understand this better, see the results below; in the first snippet, you can see the search results for the keyword “coffee shops.” The bland list shows the inquirer random websites that might have optimized their domain for this particular keyword.
Now, look at the snippet below; the results in this one are more refined as these websites are ranking on the keyword “coffee shops near me.” This is what optimizing your website with proven local seo strategies does; it brings you more worthwhile results and pushes your visibility on SERPs.
Benefits of optimizing your website for local SEO for multiple locations-
1. Better visibility on SERPs
Google SERPs consider many factors when showing search results to the user. Everything from your domain authority to the keywords you have optimized your website for matters, and only those who pass all checkpoints are ranked top on SERPs. All this makes it extremely difficult to outrank established competitors for those who have just entered the market or have been exploring.
By optimizing your website for local SEO, you can quickly improve your visibility on local searches organically, further increasing your chances of being found by potential customers.
2. More qualified traffic
Even if you manage to rank on a global or national scale, it might not bring monetary benefits if you only offer services in limited geographical areas. When you rank on a generic but difficult keyword, it does help improve brand awareness for you. Still, the probability of those visitors converting is not as much due to geographical restraints.
Creating multiple-location-based landing pages for your website will ensure you receive relevant leads that are highly potential.
3. Improved conversion rates
More relevant traffic implies more sales- when users do specific searches, it means they are looking for a product or service they already need, which makes them hot leads. Ranking on these queries brings you qualified leads, and it becomes easier to convert a visitor who is already interested in the product or service you offer.
4. Outrank competition
You can easily outrank a competitor who focuses on traditional SEO by leveraging local SEO strategies. It is relatively easy to rank for local search queries given the reduced competition. Thus, if your competitors are still sticking to traditional SEO, try to leverage their weaknesses by optimizing for local SEO.
5. Enlist in Google My Business
One of the biggest perks of optimizing your website for local SEO is that your probability of showing up in Google’s snack pack increases. Whenever a user inquires about a service or a product with Google, a page somewhat similar to the one shown below opens.
The top three listings are what make the Google snack pack. Think of it this way, if you searched for “laptop repair shops near me,” would you have scrolled the entire first page to the bottom to shortlist the one you wanted to try?
You might have done that if the first few searches didn’t provide the specific service you were looking for, but without inquiring about the ones ranking at the top, you would never go for the ones at the bottom.
This is how it works, and you can’t change anything. What you can do instead is try making it to the snack pack.
6. Reduced marketing costs
Businesses today focus too much on their marketing, and it has become essential too, considering the number of alternatives available in the market. But doing the same increases their expenses considerably too. For businesses that do not have that much to spend, marketing efficiently becomes necessary.
Local SEO is one cheap way of reaching your target audience that you can indeed leverage. Another way you can do the same is through content marketing, but SEO is something you can not save on. So while marketing your brand, make sure you spend where it brings you the most benefit.
Proven Local SEO Strategy for multiple location businesses
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Create location-specific landing pages
We’re sure you have a website for your business, but location-based pages are entirely different.
The best in the SEO industry think that having a single landing page with all the necessary information doesn’t work well from an SEO perspective. Having multiple-location landing pages is advised as it allows you to customize information available there for local search queries.
Here’s what you need to incorporate into location-specific landing pages:
- Name, address, and location.
- Precise location on Google maps.
- Location-optimized URL
- Meta-description and tags specific to the location
- Leverage local business schema
- Don’t forget the XML sitemap for crawling
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Create a GMB listing for each location
Next, enlist each page on Google My Business and link each location-specific URL to those listings. This process can take time as each listed location will have to be verified.
Here’s what you need to take care of while listing for GMB
- Make sure to incorporate opening hours in listings
- Add a specific picture.
- Keep information like business category uniform for each location.
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Prioritize uniform citations (NAP)
While people don’t pay this enough attention, it is crucial to understand how inconsistencies in your information across different listings can impact you in the SEO department.
Google pays extra attention to your business’s NAP; make sure you put the exact same citation everywhere, and in case of any changes, you correct that across platforms in time.
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Try to showcase multiple reviews.
Customer reviews indicate an authentic business still in operation; thus, they help bring in more leads. These reviews on your individual location pages also give the customers the reassurance they need to trust a new brand in their locality.
You can gather these reviews by sending your past customers a post-service email conveying the importance of their feedback for you. However, it will require you to put some extra effort into separating these reviews location-wise, but this strategy can bring actual results for your business once executed.
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Create location-specific local listings
Apart from Google My Business, you can also list your location-specific pages on other sites like Yelp and Bing to push your SERPs rankings even more.
You need to put important information about your business there, just like your location-based GMBs. While doing this, be very cautious and make sure the citations are consistent throughout.
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Build quality backlinks for each page
Backlinking is one tool you can leverage significantly to push your SERPs listings. If done correctly, it can also help your listings appear in Google’s snack pack, and it is as essential as building backlinks for your primary domain.
One way to do that is with the help of bloggers in your community who can review your products and services. You can also try getting featured on different websites and attracting quality links.
Remember- quality backlinks can advance your ranking on local search queries; hence this is something you must not ignore.
Local SEO mistakes you must avoid-
- Targeting generic keywords
- Inconsistent NAP
- Double listings
- Low-quality backlinks
- Negative reviews
Bottom Line
Local SEO strategies can bring you accurate results in the form of increased conversion rates and reduced marketing costs. And for a business that survives on local audiences, it becomes highly crucial to focus on the same. Following what we’ve described in this post will help you get started, and soon you will be able to see local traffic and an audience reaching out to you.
This is a sure-shot local SEO strategy, and we hope it helps you achieve your goals.
