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Reach the top of local search rankings

SEO: search button on keyboardGetting the most from your website isn’t just about topping the Google rankings nationally ― for many small firms it’s about thinking local. If you don’t localise your search engine optimisation (SEO), you risk missing out on customers on your doorstep. We ask the experts how to go local.

While some UK small firms on the web sell to customers all over the world, they are the exception. Most small businesses — especially those offering a service — don’t sell to customers beyond their own area, town or city. Clearly, many customers also prefer to buy from a local business because it’s convenient or they see it as less risky. So are you missing out on sales as you’re thinking too big with your SEO?

Search engine rankings - expert John Straw“Taking a more targeted approach, by localising your SEO, could give you the sales uplift you’ve been looking for,” stresses John Straw, founder and vice president of business development at SEO software provider Linkdex.

“Get it right and your website stands a better chance of being visited by the people most likely to buy from you ― those living nearby.”

Straw says more small businesses are cottoning on to the benefits of localising SEO and refining their approach to search engine marketing. “I was talking to my local chimney sweep recently and he was telling me how he got to the number one local search ranking on Google. As a result, he’s dropped all other forms of marketing.”

Separate national and local SEO

But how does local search engine optimisation differ from national? There’s a marked distinction, Straw emphasises. “National SEO is all about ensuring your site is technically optimised, contains content that is tailored to your audience and includes links from other websites, while local SEO centres on generating local leads using tools such as Google Places and encouraging user reviews on local sites. These can include local groups, blogs and news sites.”

So how can small, budget-conscious businesses get it right? “It’s about reviews, reviews and reviews,” stresses Straw. “Then get some more reviews, but make sure they’re good ones.

“I’d also recommend making sure your business address is clearly displayed on your ‘contact us’ page ― preferably with an embedded Google map. A smart trick is to list your premises’ latitude and longitude on the contact us page ― it helps Google clarify addresses. You can get the coordinates from Google Maps.

“I’d also advise getting links in local online business directories,” adds Straw. “The good news is localising your SEO can normally be done in-house at minimal cost.”

Five local SEO tips:

  • Encourage reviews and create links on highly relevant local sites ― such as local groups, blogs, news sites, complementary local firms and hyper-local directories.
  • Submit a free business profile directly to local listings via Google Places, Yahoo! Local and Bing Local, so when potential customers search maps and listings for local information, they will find your contact details.
  • Your ranking in local listings will depend on how close your firm is to the area specified and how close your business is to the person searching. To get a strong local listing you will need to build citations and get reviews.
  • Carry out onsite optimisation including adding your address on each page as well as your local phone number, rather than an 0800 number. Consider creating dedicated pages for specific regions.
  • Include a Google map of your location on your site.

SEO story

Fiona HumberstoneOne small-business owner who has realised the importance of localised SEO is Fiona Humberstone, managing director of Guildford-based Flourish Design & Marketing. “Although we sometimes work for companies located elsewhere in the UK and even overseas, the bulk of our business comes from Guildford and surrounding areas in Surrey,” she explains.

“Localising our SEO means we’ll hopefully stand a much better chance of getting sales and enquiries from search engine results pages used by businesses nearby. We’re still working on it, but we’ve made sure our Surrey address and local phone number is listed on every webpage.”

Flourish is still moving up the rankings for many of its search terms but, as Humberstone explains, it takes a few months before you can tell whether the changes you’ve made have been successful. “Our web developer has been keeping a close eye on our analytics, looking not just at SEO, but also why people exit certain pages. It’s an ongoing challenge.”

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Comments

Local searches are more buying oriented then broad terms, and convert way better. Thus anyone can do wonders even with a reletively low search volume.So small firms should give more importance to local seo.

Thu, 05/07/2012 - 15:45 — Zishnu

Local SEO is definitely the way forward for businesses selling to a local market. I've been doing this more and more for clients in the last year and seeing great results. I agree with James though, that the article makes some sweeping statements and oversimplifies, even though my focus for clients is reputation management through reviews. You can't ignore everything else though.

Fri, 27/05/2011 - 08:24 — stc_webdesigns

Great article, completely agree on small business focusing on localised keywords on Google, Bing, Yahoo! Success is achievable and realistic and in terms of ROI its far greater than trying to reach to a national audience v the marketing spend on a good SEO campaign.

Thu, 26/05/2011 - 13:36 — AlbertoArias

Some great tips there!

Thu, 26/05/2011 - 12:44 — Merton Chamber

Hello,

I think John Straw's statement that "National SEO is all about links from other websites, while local SEO centres on encouraging user reviews on local sites" is hugely misleading and misses out so much of SEO and optimisation. National and local SEO only differ in their geo-targeting and strategic execution, they still require the same basic structures and techniques.

If all you focus on is link building, you've got a partial picture of what is required for effective optimisation. What about technical optimisation, ensuring your website is fine-tuned to be easily accessible to search engines? What about page load speeds? What about on-page engagement for search traffic? What about social media content? What about content optimisation? You just can't pin SEO down to one component, that is hugely misleading.

Local SEO is also far more than just getting reviews. Yes reviews can play an important role but you also need to understand how search engines will associate your website and webpages with local search keywords and phrases. What about the role of RDF/microformats? What about dedicated webpages for specific geographic regions? I've seen that work quickly for some Clients.

There are some good tips in this post but be careful with blanket statements, they just aren't accurate and I say this from 10 years experience with SEO and having learned through oh so many mistakes.

thanks
james

Thu, 26/05/2011 - 11:41 — jamesgurd

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