When someone wants to purchase a service or a product, they normally ask Google to find local supplier.

This is why it’s crucial to partner with a marketing agency that really knows its stuff- as you will want to appear as high as you can in Google’s organic and local results.

If your business isn’t appearing high in organic SERP’s or within the Google Business results, well, that’s a massive opportunity that’s being missed. This is where we can help: by offering a service that covers on-page, off-page, and NAP citations, we can help your business gain more sales locally.

How does Google work out which businesses should appear for the local business results?

Relevance

This holds true for both organic results and Google Business results as well.

Google will analyse what the pages are relevant to that query.

For example, if you sell, let’s say, “wood-burning stoves”- you have to ask have the pages been made relevant for different brands and different makes and models? This is where good content marketing and on-page SEO are needed. When you supplement this with top quality links, this is a winning solution.

 

Where is the business located?

Is the Google Business Profile listing an address that has been reinforced by NAP citations?

Is the business’s location clearly stated on the company website, perhaps marked up with Schema? Therefore, the businesses address should be listed in the footer and on the main contact page. Make sure that the company address, and NAP details are listed using text that Googlebot can read.

 

Prominence

How authoritative is that business?

Does it have a huge range of high-quality backlinks? Is the business mentioned a lot? For example, if you run a solicitor practice, are you mentioned on award websites, on say local newspaper websites for perhaps charitable work that the law practice has completed?

Does my business really need SEO?

A lot of businesses like to think that their good reputation and word of mouth will be enough to grow the business.

However, sometimes recommendations are not enough.

Businesses, therefore, need a well-designed website which offers a good user experience (U.X for short).

Then they often need to partner with SEO companies such as ours, so that each month we can offer an instalment of high-quality work.

Perhaps this is concentrating on backlinks; perhaps another month is spent sorting out a technical SEO issue such as pages that are not being indexed. Perhaps in another month we could be working on writing evergreen content marketing to help grow the amount of organic visitors.

The work needed is often varied, and this is why its best left to a marketing company to complete.

Tell me, how does local SEO differ from other types of search engine optimisation?

It could be that your company has an e-commerce business, and you’re therefore not focused on serving one small area of the country.

Therefore many e-commerce businesses need national SEO, which is a totally different kettle of fish from local SEO.

Regarding local SEO, our team would work on the following:

 

Optimising your Google Business Profile

 

Regarding your Google Business Profile, a lot of details need to be added, such as NAP, opening hours, a URL to the companies website, and pictures of your business. For example, if you retail used cars, why not add pictures of the sales room?

How can our business appear in map pack results?

To appear in map results, you often need a lot of positive business reviews built up over a very long time frame. As well as the optimisation work we mentioned above.

You also need quality links, and to make sure that all of that NAP information is accurate and kept up to date.

If you do change address, even if it’s a stone’s throw from your current business, say to a different unit on the same industrial estate, you will still need to update the NAP information.

The NAP information needs to be kept up to date on your company website, the various business citations as well as the Google Business listing.

 

Using location-specific keywords

Regarding your local SEO, when writing content marketing and optimising on-page SEO, you will need to add keywords to the page. This makes the website relevant for different keywords.

This means that a top agency should come up with a content calendar, a way of planning for the months ahead, and what topics they are going to be writing about.

 

Why do some businesses deem investing in Local SEO so important to their businesses success?

Some businesses can’t simply survive without investing in this form of marketing.

Therefore, they must appear on the first page of Google’s search results as matter of business survival.

The reason is that when someone wants say a new conservatory, they may not know which companies build these locally and therefore offer this service.

Therefore, if your business appears, say, in the Google AI Overview answer, in the Google Business results, or in the organic results, these businesses will be the ones contacted.

By ranking high on Google not only does it make it easier for the customer to contact the business as the website is there Infront of the customer, but also it serves as a way of the company being seen as recommend.

 

For example, a business with 60+ positive reviews, offers a compelling enough reason to contact the business.

We think that local SEO is expensive- is it worth the expense?

This all boils down to how good the company you hire is. The main mistake that so many businesses make is that they believe that this service is the same regardless of which company you choose. However, nothing could be further from the truth: some companies are brilliant at what they deliver, and some can actually bring about a Google penalty.

 

How exactly does local SEO work?

Here’s what a lot of businesses do not grasp, and even some marketing companies don’t understand this!

The algorithms that select which businesses appear in the Google Business results are different and separate algorithms that select which businesses appear in the organic results. Therefore, we refer to how Google determines which businesses to show as the organic results as “ranking factors”.

Regarding organic results in Google’s search engine results pages, there are now over 200 ranking factors that determine how strong a business is across a wide range of factors.

Therefore, for example, an important ranking factor would be the business’s backlinks.

 

Regarding the Google Business results- how can we get our business displayed here?

Okay, so how Google decides which businesses to place in the Google Business results is different from the organic results.

It’s instead calculated on different ranking factors. Some of the most important factors for Google Business optimisation are business reviews, how well optimised the listing is, and how important the business is deemed to be. Now in marketing, how important the business is, we refer to this as how authoritative that business is?

 

This is calculated primarily based on links.

Still, in the context of the semantic web, it can also be measured by how many times the company or brand is mentioned on important business websites. For example, if the brand is mentioned in a major newspaper such as The Guardian.

Now, marketing agencies, for simplicity, group these factors into much broader categories, which are as follows. Therefore when optimising your company for the Google Business results, you need to consider the following:

 

Relevance

If somebody is looking for a top employment lawyer, they won’t want to see results for a local fish market. Therefore, the results must be relevant; therefore, unsurprisingly, a lot of work is done by Google’s algorithm to determine which keywords your business would be deemed relevant for.

 

Distance

If you’re looking for a Greek restaurant and want to make a table reservation for that evening, well, Google understands that unless you specify otherwise, you’re probably looking for a restaurant near where you’re based right now. Therefore, Google uses location data from your phone to calculate the nearest Greek restaurants. And if there is an abundance of businesses, these results are often sorted in Google

Business results by star rating and how well the Google Business page is optimised.

 

Prominence

Now is where some marketing companies differ in their views on how this metric is calculated.
For example, some believe that the map results are selected mostly down to just Google Business review star rating alone. However, we take a different approach and would say it’s a combination of business reviews, backlinks, and mentions in the semantic web.
Basically, how important is your business deemed in that local area?

 

Are you one of the best businesses in that area?

Are you a well-known company?

If so, there’s likely to be a lot of company mentions online exist, backlinks and positive business reviews; therefore, your business is likely to be deemed authoritative.

If we invest in local SEO, how can you help our business?

A good consultant, or indeed an agency, won’t just concentrate on one area; they will know that the whole website and off-page ranking factors needs to be optimised. Therefore, they will need to undertake the following work:

 

Technical SEO

Are there perhaps technical SEO issues that need fixing? Is there an up-to-date robots.txt? Is there an up-to-date site map in place?

 

Content marketing

Does the content marketing help the shopper? Has the business covered a wide range of frequently asked questions from shoppers?

Does the author understand Google EEAT?

Will the work be helpful to the reader?

Has the business fixed duplication issues? These are the sort of questions that a good agency will ask.

Backlinks, local business citations
An agency should not just focus on on-page SEO; a really important aspect of our work is making sure that we build white-hat backlinks as well.

When it comes to local search engine optimisation, we also need to focus on building business citations and keeping them up to date.

Often, marketing companies refer to these as NAP listings; they can be found on websites such as Yell.com.

If you move business premises, and therefore change your company address, as mentioned a bit earlier, it’s important to keep your NAP details up to date.

 

How can you help our business generate more sales locally?

Local Map Packs

We can help your business create a Google Business profile.

This means that when someone searches for, say, a local solicitor, your solicitors’ practice could then appear in the top 3 Map pack results.
Google Business Profile

We can help your business to optimise the Google Business listing.

We can help add business descriptions and manage the listing, for example, by responding to customer feedback.

We can ensure that the NAP information regarding what is written on your Google Business profile is kept up to date.

For example, if the main phone number changes, it’s important to keep your Google Business listing up to date.

 

Local Organic Listings

Some would say that, regarding local SEO, the hardest part, that is organic optimisation. This is because in some highly competitive business niches, such as cosmetic dentistry, competition is fierce.

 

What steps should we take to start improving our local SEO?

Let’s presume that you want to appear in Google Business results and higher in organic business results as well.

 

Here’s how you do that:

Good on-page SEO

Good on-page SEO is absolutely crucial if your company wants to appear in the organic SERP’s.

There are many ways to improve this, ranging from writing well-written alt text to good use of page titles.

However, we would encourage you to read the Google EEAT guidance carefully.

The reason is that this will give you a good idea of how to create content marketing for your business.

Then, to accompany that work, you should apply good on-page SEO.

 

Content marketing

Content marketing is perhaps the most important element of search engine optimisation.

It’s basically the advice you provide on your company website. For example, if your website is helpful and really bends over backwards to help the customer, these are the websites that tend to rank higher in organic and Google Business results.

 

Link building

Early in this article, we talked about how important it is to improve authority metrics, and part of this is building high-quality backlinks.

Good quality backlinks can pass link equity, and the businesses which normally appear right at the top, say within the top 2 results on

Google, these obtain the most clicks. Therefore, to appear there, you often need strong backlinks.

 

Securing positive business reviews

Positive business reviews most definitely help your business appear in Google Business results.

Naturally, Google will want to show businesses which offer good customer service.

Businesses often shown in Google Business results typically have many 5-star reviews.

 

Business citations

Business citations help to show where your business is located.

Often marketing experts refer to these as “NAP Signals”, which sounds complicated, but it’s not.

It’s simply the name, address, and phone number for your business.

However, a word of advice, a lot of businesses have weak local SEO simply because of something called “conflicting business citations”.

This is when one set of business citations or NAP details says one thing, and then another set says perhaps a different address, or the company’s new address. This can confuse Google; it may wonder, well, where is the business located?

Is it located at the first address?

Or is it located at the other address?

This confusion can mean that other companies, businesses which have kept their business citations consistent, often can rank higher.

Making your website as helpful as possible

When you’re writing content marketing, it could easily take in excess of 3 hours to write a blog post.

As a business, if you’re doing this work yourself, you may wonder, ” Is it worth all that time and effort?”

Is it worth spending so much time writing the work?

Well, a good digital marketing agency would say that you’re never going to rank on page one, in the organic business results, unless the content marketing is really good. It must be helpful; it helps the customer with a question they might have.

 

How do we better optimise our Google Business Profile

Here’s how our agency would approach optimising a business’s Google Business profile:

 

Website Link

It’s important to add a website link; we recommend linking to the homepage.

Accurate business details

Add accurate business details, including the company’s NAP information we discussed earlier.

• Name
• Address
• phone number
• Business category

Now, this may sound like super simple advice; however, it’s crucial to get it right. So many businesses make this mistake, and they end up attracting the wrong visitors.

For example, if you’re an electrician, then don’t choose the general builder tab or construction, as that’s too vague. You need to select the electrical engineer tab, as that most accurately describes the service that you offer.

 

Optimising the website is a continual process

Optimising the on-page SEO to improve your organic SEO is a continual process. Here’s why:

 

Content marketing

Leading businesses will spend a lot of time writing helpful content marketing. This means the website is addressing more of the questions customers typically ask, which means it gets better and better at attracting more relevant organic traffic.

 

Backlink building.

Backlinks can be deleted or lost; therefore, backlink building is another ongoing aspect of SEO.

 

Management

As this article illustrates, if you want your business to appear in Google Business listings and organic listings, your business details need to be kept up to date.

This means keeping the company’s NAP information up to date.

 

How should we go about selecting an agency?

This is one of the most important questions the business needs to ask itself: which agency should it hire?

The results can vary widely depending on which marketing company you hire.

Therefore, take the time to pick the best business. Choose an agency with ample experience that you want to work with, and that specialises in SEO.

We wouldn’t recommend choosing a web design business that offers digital marketing as a supplementary service. Instead, choose a specialist marketing agency- this means that all they do, week in and week out, to help improve their clients search engine optimisation. The reason is that their expertise is likely to be better.

 

Will SEO be needed in my business sector?

Does it look like your direct competitors are investing?

Have you seen the name of the SEO company they are using on the website’s footer?

If they are investing, they are improving their marketing; therefore, you have to decide as a business whether you want to invest as well.

 

Does local SEO come to a stop?

Not really, no, there will always be a bunch of businesses that want to appear on page one of Google.

They will therefore always be working on improving their own marketing.

This means pushing the weaker SEO websites down and the better websites up the rankings, which is why this type of marketing never comes to an end.