Author: Ryan Walsh
Date: 04/11/2024

 

Introduction

Today, we live in a world where shoppers turn to their smartphones to find businesses practically every day. Many businesses must therefore invest in SEO to obtain more customers and to stand out in this crowded marketplace.

Businesses that have adapted to this digital environment and hired the right digital marketing agencies can now thrive, while those that are not on first page of Google can get left behind by the competition.

For some businesses therefore they will want to get their company ranked on:

• Google Business
• Google’s Organic ranks
• Google’s AdWords
• We can help to get your business on page one of Google whethers its organically, Adwords or Google Business or all three!

If you are a small business owner, we think it’s crucial to understand and invest in local SEO.

 

What is Local SEO?

Local Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) makes it easier for potential customers to find your business online.

To do this, you must improve and strengthen your businesses ranking factors. These are what “Googlebot” crawls and indexes as regular as clock work. If you have made the right SEO improvements your business can move up Google’s ranks, if you don’t make the right changes your business can move down.

Here at Walsh & Partners we are experts at helping your business get placed on page one of Google.co.uk.

We can help your company to get on page one of Google in the following ways:

– Google Business- we can help to set up your company’s Google Business profile
– Organic SEO- we can help to get your company ranked on page one of Google
– Google Adwords- we can help your business set up a Google Adwords campaign.

 

Cities, towns and villages

Local businesses, whether they are based in a city, village, town or even a Hamlet, are all vying for a spot on the first page of Google.co.uk so you most know that you are in constant competiton with other businesses.

And getting onto page one of Google, well thats not simple- its hardwork.

 

What do SEO agencies do in order to improve a business’s local SEO?

Although some agencies might make you think that getting a business onto the first page is rocket science, well it is not.

 

 

However, perseverance, grit and determination are needed; getting a business onto the first page takes a long time and challenging work.

And this is with good reason, those businesses obtaining a steady stream of new customers via Google.co.uk organic rankings, are not going give up there spot on the first page easily.

For some businesses, it can be the difference between a business succeeding or failing, if they get on page one of Google.

 

Here’s just some of the work that an SEO consultant is likely to do to in order to improve a company’s SEO:

 

– Find local keywords
– Optimise the business Google My Business profile
– Write quality content marketing
– Improve the authority of the website, by building quality backlinks

 

How exactly does this local SEO work exactly?

Things get a bit complicated here, so you might want to take a break, grab an espresso and come back when you have some caffeine in your system.

There are over 200 different ranking factors, these differ in importance, with many SEO consultants still widely regarding backlinks as one of the most important ranking signals.

These ranking factors are built into Google’s algorithm. They are used to work out where businesses should rank Google, so for example, when a business website first gets indexed by Googlebot its then the algorithms job to work out whether the business should be ranked on page one or page 10 of Google.co.uk

How does Google work out which businesses should be displayed in Google Business results?

 

Relevance

Google’s algorithm will want to determine whether a business is relevant to that particular query.

After all, somebody looking for a stainless-steel pasta maker will not want to be shown websites that give a comprehensive tour of Naples by a bus tour- as this does not what they wanted to buy!

So the answers to the query must be relevant. Google has got extremely good at providing very precise answers to a query and this is due to Google Hummingbird.

 

Google Hummingbird

Google rolled out a large Google update called the “Google Hummingbird update” which means that shoppers now get a very precise answer to their question.

 

Distance

Google needs to work out how far you are away from the local businesses you are looking for; so for example somebody is looking for say a local locksmith in Cardiff will not want a list of businesses mentioned that are over 100 miles away.

It is all about proximity and distance, and if you are scratching your head, thinking, well, how does Google know where I am at any given time?

Its because of location data, that the app or browser is communicating to Google exactly where you are at that given time.

 

 

 

Prominence

How well-known and authoritative is your business compared to the other businesses in that area?

To achieve prominence, you need many good-quality reviews left on Google Business. We also can and need many backlinks and also have quality business citations as well.

To improve authority and prominence of your business, you should read more about Google E-EAT.

Yet, in general, its about making your business stand out from the competition, by having more quality backlinks, plus more positive business reviews will help improve your businesses local SEO.

 

What are the different ways that my business could be displayed on Google.co.uk for local business results?

Google Map results

In summary, there is Google Map Pack, or just the “map results” some agencies call them, then there are the organic business listings, there are normally 10 businesses ranked within the organic listings.

And then of course, you have the Google AdWords advertisements shown right at the top.

To get your business in the Google Map Results, you must do the following:

• Set up a Google Business account
• Optimise your Google Business account
• Build business citations
• Make sure your companies NAP information is consistent
• Gain reviews from customers

Also, to optimise your Google My Business account, we recommend doing the following:

 

Enter your company’s NAP information onto Google Business account

NAP information stands for name, address, and phone. It is essential to improve your business’s local SEO, and it should be written in plain text on your company website. This should match exactly with your businesses Google Business account.

Write a unique business description.

Take the time to craft a business description, not just one copy and paste from somewhere else. It would be best to briefly advertise why customers should pick your business.

 

Business reviews

You should gain real customer reviews on your company’s Google Business account and if you gain a lot of positive business reviews, this help improve your local SEO.

Do add structured language such as Schema to your website

To take the time to use structured language to mark up the NAP information on your company website.

This can give Googlebot, Googles algorithm, an excellent understanding of your business’s NAP information, such as the name, address, and phone number.

 

Local SEO competitive businesses

For over ten years working for many Welsh businesses to help them to get onto page one of Google.co.uk.

 

Call us today for a no-obligation quotation.