What Is Local Search Marketing & Why it Matters

What Is Local Search Marketing & Why it Matters

Over 30% of mobile searches are linked to a location.

Local search is often overlooked by websites but is a powerful tool for finding new customers in your vicinity. If you have a physical location for your business, it is essential that you master your local web presence and make it easier for customers to find you.

If you want to learn more about local search marketing, keep reading. We have some top tips to get you started.

What is Local Search?

Local search is when a user searches for a product or service in their vicinity. That could be within a small radius near them or a geological location like a city or province. Most local searches are done on mobile devices, usually when people are in the area and want to find services near to them.

Often in local search marketing or local SEO, you will target users looking for search terms that start or end with phrases like “near me” or “where can I buy”. Google now responds to these phrases by providing local search results, often in the form of Google Maps. Research shows that 76% of people who make a local search then visit that location within 24hrs.

How To Target Local Search

You can apply several strategies to local searches to ensure you are targeting people in your area. By implementing these best local SEO practices, you will have a better chance of appearing in the Google Maps search results.

Firstly, target your keyword research for local key phrases. When you use a keyword research tool, you can find keyword phrases that people are using in that region. By looking at national or regional volumes of keywords, you can find some niche phrases to target in your area.

Start by looking at the keywords that contain location phrases or the name of your town or city. Look at local search volumes and use this data to extrapolate the local keywords it is worth pursuing.

Optimize Your Google Business Profile

If you have a brick-and-mortar location, you need to register it on Google Business. This is a free service that you use to make your business appear on Google Maps. You can control the added information and make sure that it is accurate, such as contact details and opening hours.

A Google business profile will also come with the ability for customers to leave reviews. You will need to monitor these closely and make sure that you reply to anyway who comments. Positive reviews are great, but you may occasionally receive a negative review that you can mitigate by replying and fixing any issues.

Get Local Citations

Citations are any website that holds your business information like your address or phone number. Often these are local listings such as Yelp and other business directories. Local search marketing in the past meant getting as many citations as possible for your website.

These days the impact of this strategy has diminished, but there is still value in getting citations for your website. They do affect search engine visibility, for now at least, and do count towards your backlink profile. So if you are managing a local web presence, they are still worth the effort.

Maximize Your Local Search Visibility

Using the strategies we have suggested above will significantly improve your presence in local search. You don’t have to do all at the start, but each will play a part in your positioning in the local search results. So the sooner you can implement them all, the better you will appear online.

If you want to learn more about SEO, please take a look at some other articles on our site.