Local SEO is mainly client based and encompasses many areas when trying to increase a businesses online presence locally. It involves natural search rankings, featuring in the google maps listing, creating citations for local directories, for example, Yell, Yelp and Yellow Pages and having an active online social profile.
Client SEO
Natural Search Results
More specifically when referring to natural search results, local SEO involves ranking a local business for a “keyword” plus “location”, for example “dentist Cardiff”, “electrician Gloucester” or “SEO Bridgend“. These are the type of phrases many people will search when trying to find a service or business within their local area, hence the importance to rank highly for such keywords. To find out the number of searches each keyword generates per month the best method is to use the google keyword tool. A rough estimate of how many total potential new customers can be made from analysing the keyword tool results and could be that extra bit of information required to attain a client for SEO services.
Google Map Pack
However, natural search results is not the only important element that a good SEO will try to achieve when undertaking local client SEO. Featuring in the 3 pack in the google maps listing is also very important for local businesses as these generally appear at the top of the search results above the natural results. Appearing in the maps listing, while having a good 5 star rating will add trust and reliability to a business and therefore will more likely attract customers.
Citations
Not only is it important to increase the trust of a business in the eyes of your customers, but its also important to increase it in the eyes of google. There is no type of google penalty to be afraid of, so the more citations the better. An important point to note, the NAP listing (name, address and phone number) must be identical in each submission to show consistency to google and therefore increase trust. This will also help improve the chances of a map listing, so care must be taken with all citation submissions. A method also applied by good SEO’s is the rank the actual citation page in the natural results.
Dominate Google
All of these areas combined will lead to total domination of the google results page. A top position on google natural results, plus a listing in the map area and also a citation ranking on page 1 will boost traffic to any given local business website. For complete and total domination and PPC campaign could also be undertaken resulting in even move exposure on page 1 of google.
If you are a local business and would like to dominate google and increase your revenue, then please contact us today.
Directories / Lead Generation
If you are an SEO and are looking to make money online, but don’t not want to go down the client route, you could create a directory and go down the lead generation route. This is similar to client SEO, however you rank your own site in google first then “rent” out the pages, rather than contacting a client first and ranking their site. The advantage of this method is if a paying client decides to cancel their SEO service with you, you can always contact another business in the same area, who would more than likely grab at the chance to be at the top of google. A good example of this type of lead generation directory is Dentist Search. It covers all the counties in the UK and ranks for specific areas in each county, with the aim of renting out each page to a single dentist in each area. If you decide to go down the directory route, more focus will be directed towards natural search results and link building techniques.