5 Things You MUST Know About Local SEO Solutions

Local SEO Solutions

If you’re a local business that relies on local customers, like a dentist, for example, you need to focus on local SEO solutions.

Why?

Because think about this. What if that same local dentist failed to see the nuances of local seo, and then marched on a 6 month national seo campaign?

Yikes. You’ve probably guessed it. Wasted dollars, time, and effort trying to rank for keywords that won’t actually help their business.

Did you know that 46% of all searches have local intent? (1) Or, that 75% will more likely visit local stores after a search for local businesses that reveals one nearby? (2)

Exciting statistics for the savvy local business owner who knows a little local SEO, or knows the right local search experts.

But, before you can start, or choose the right team, there’s a lot you must know. First, how local SEO is distinct from traditional SEO.

1. Local SEO is Different from Traditional SEO
Local SEO and traditional SEO are distinct from one another and require different solutions. You can more easily understand the differences by considering the goals, methods, and outcomes of each one.

Traditional SEO

The goal of traditional SEO is to rank for keyword-related searches (for a 5 min. crash course go here)
This is done by optimizing website content, keywords, and user experiences
When successful, the business appears to anyone using those keywords nationally, or around the world

Local SEO

The goal of local SEO is to rank for location-based searches
This is done by developing listings, claiming profiles and climbing map results
When successful, the business appears in all relevant close-range searches (usually within 0-50 miles)
Local trageting seo

If your past efforts haven’t included measures like those above, the local SEO experts you hire are likely to recommend a comprehensive effort to build out the missing infrastructure.

As you can already tell, listings are an important—even foundational—part of that infrastructure. That’s why local search strategies are often focused on making sure listings are as accurate and consistent as possible.

2. Listings must be Accurate and Consistent
Local business listings (also commonly called citations) are one of the essential building blocks of local SEO.

Q: What is a local business listing?
A: A local business listing is any online instance of your business’ name, address or phone number (NAP). Listings can be pulled from your website, business directories, news stories, and even social media pages.
What makes listings so important is how they’re used by search engines. Listings are crawled from sources all over the internet. They can be pulled from your website, business directories, news stories, and even social media pages.

Each listing a search engine finds will be used as a signal to determine whether your business is really tied to a given local area.

That should make it clear why it is so important that they are as accurate and consistent as possible.

If any of the information is wrong or inconsistent, the following can happen:

Your business will not appear in local searches
Your locations may be reported as closed or out-of-business
Different businesses may appear whenever your name is searched
The results may show the wrong address, hours or inventory (this can make potential customers furious)
Solutions exist to address all the problems that are related to listings. If you don’t have enough listings, you may need to consider building out new ones—even dozens of them.

Despite the high impact, creating up-to-date listings is budget-friendly, and one of the most affordable local SEO services out there.

On the other hand, your business may be suffering because you’ve already built out listings that contain incorrect your outdated information. Don’t worry. These incorrect listings can be cleaned up by local search experts.

Building out listings and keeping them in prime condition is just one of the ways that affordable SEO companies drive diverse types of traffic to your business.

3. The Goal is to Drive Diverse Traffic to your Business (Physical, Online)
Local SEO may be focused on driving customers to a local business, but that doesn’t mean that the emphasis is only on foot traffic. Instead, the idea is to deliver a diverse range of local traffic with different types of intent.

Local searches can involve a lot of different motivations, after all. You need to reach customers who are looking for all of the following:

A business address so they can walk or drive to your location
A phone number so that they can contact you about inventory or reservations
Your website so that they can review information like prices
Reviews so that they can compare you to other services/products
Any of this traffic that is currently being missed or directed to sources that are not ideal will be the focus on your local SEO experts. Reviews, in particular, cannot be underestimated.

4. Why Online Ratings and Reviews Matter
Almost any Google search for a local business will also pull up reviews for that business. This is because map results are now a permanent fixture of a search for local businesses.

Each set of map results comes complete with a business name, image and the average of all reviews. To advertise this information, you either need to have your name searched directly, or make it into the snack pack (more on that in a bit).

Reviews are the most obvious indicator or your reputation to searchers, and that fact is fully backed up by research.
In one study they found …

97% of consumers consult product reviews before making a purchase.  Additionally, 86% of consumers will check reviews before making a purchase at a brick and mortar store.

However, reviews aren’t only considered by searchers, they are also considered by the search engines. Google uses your average score to determine whether you belong in the most covetable positions.

Bad reviews can function as a penalty. It will require more intensive solutions to improve your visibility if you’re trying to overcome bad reviews. However, growth is still possible.

While poor reviews must be addressed directly, there are some affordable local SEO solutions that can help you retake some ground. One of those practices is taking advantage of product and service lists.

5. Google Crawls Product/Service Lists, and Menus … Put Keywords Here!
Listings aren’t the only thing that Google crawls to find information about your business. Crawlers can also review information in any product or service lists that you’ve posted, and deliver that information directly to searchers.

These lists can take many forms including food menus, part lists, and service packages. By creating them, you create opportunities to feature all of your most important keywords.

By optimizing your lists with keywords, or phrases that your customers use, you can signal that your business is more relevant to certain searches. This can help you rank higher in the short term, but it has another important benefit.

Menus significantly increase your opportunities to appear for the most specific (and therefore, intentional) searches. If you have an Italian restaurant, you obviously want to rank for that term. Providing a menu improves your chances of appearing in searches for specific dishes.

It is always to your benefit to reach a higher rank in the SERPs, but there’s one tier that stands apart from the rest: the snack pack.