Five Fundamentals of Local Search
When it comes to dominating your local Google results page, there are five key factors, five absolute foundational elements, five fundamentals to master. Focus your efforts in these five areas for a force multiplier effect on your SEO efforts – especially on the local stage.
The Five Fundamentals of Local Search to Master
Reviews
Reviews are huge. Not only does having a wide range of 5-star reviews give your potential customers something to read to verify if your business is the one for them, but they also signal to the search engines “Hey! Google! This business is the lawn care business for Tallahassee!”To get your reviews flowing in, make sure you’re requesting reviews of your customers, following up with emails and texts or other touchpoints to thank them for their business, and asking if they’d be willing to leave a review for you on the platform of choice.You want to make the process as easy as possible, include the links to the platforms in your messages, or install integrations that allow reviews to be left easier. The goal is to decrease the number of steps in the process, not lose the customer on a convoluted journey, and to secure the review.
Optimization
On-site SEO is a huge piece of all SEO efforts, not just for the local searches. Do it right and it’ll pay off in your local market and then some! Optimizations include using the right Title Tags, URL Structure, Meta Tags, and Meta Descriptions.In each of these spots, you want to make sure you’re using accurate, relevant keywords (both in your services and the area you serve) to best position your business in the search engines. Here’s a handy list of how to optimize your site.
On-site Checklist
Each page should…
- Be relevant to a specific topic
- Include subject in title tag
- Include subject in URL
- Include subject in image alt text
- Specify subject several times throughout text content
- Be unique
- Link to other relevant pages on the site
Content
While keywords aren’t the be-all, end-all any longer, their legacy does live on. After all, keywords are just a hyper-specific way for Google and other search engines to measure and index content. A page with the keyword “skateboard” all over it is probably about skateboarding. Nowadays it doesn’t have to be like that, Google and other search engines are advanced and understand the thing that links an ollie, a nollie, a kickflip, grinds, and Rodney Mullen is “skateboarding” and can confidently send searches to that page, even if it never says the word skateboard – how you’d be able to write a page on that without using skateboard once I don’t know but you get the idea. So, your site’s content needs to be focused on an idea. It also needs to be unique, in-depth, authoritative, and user-friendly.Now, have all of that but make sure it’s speaking to your local audience. Use local keywords in addition to the other industry-specific ones you’re using. If you’re a shoe store in Tempe, AZ that specializes in hiking shoes don’t hesitate to talk about
Site Quality
Site quality covers a lot of things. For our purposes here though, the quality we’re talking about is the actual technological foundation of the site. Does it load fast? How slow does the site react to clicks? If you’ve been following our blog for a bit now then you know we’re talking about those Core Web Vitals Google cares so much about right now. These Core Web Vitals are new metrics that Google has started to measure and prioritize. The better your site performs on these metrics; the higher Google will prioritize your site in search results.
Local Links
We have talked at length about the power of backlinks before and when it comes to local businesses having local links is hugely important. These localized links show the search engines that your business is not just in the area, but clearly well regarded in the area. If you’re kicking off a link-building campaign, focus your efforts first in netting connections in local directories.Now, remember, this doesn’t cover everything when it comes to your website's performance and placement in local searches, but they are the key fundamentals. If your business is missing any one of these you won’t perform like you need to show in local searches and net new customers.Is your business struggling to capture local impressions? It’s a nut we’ve cracked plenty of times here at Helix House, helping local window covering franchises dominate their zip codes, restaurants get more appetizers on the table, and we can help your business hit the top of Google and flourish too!
