Local Search Marketing (LSM) draws in customers in a specific geographical region through strategies and tactics such as online advertising, social media, and website optimization. Search engines weigh multiple factors when ranking local searches, including content on websites, reviews from customers, and citations from government sources.
What is local search marketing and how does it work?
Local search marketing is a form of SEO focused on local keywords and signals rather than broad national ones. It works by signaling to search engines that a business is relevant to a specific geographic area, through tools like Google My Business, local keyword usage, consistent NAP (name, address, phone number) data, and review signals.
1. Optimize Your Google My Business Profile
Establishing and managing a Google My Business profile is one of the key elements to any local search marketing strategy. Doing so enables you to claim and verify your business, update company details, and respond to reviews.
Enhancing your local SEO by regularly adding photos and updating your profile can significantly help with local search optimization. Inviting customers to leave reviews on GMB pages and responding to them can also increase local visibility.
2. Add a Photo Gallery to Your Website
Add a photo gallery to your website for enhanced user experience and increased engagement, showing off products or services as well as adding a personal touch to your business.
Create your photo gallery without needing any programming knowledge. Choose from various ready-prepared templates and select one that best meets your needs before adding images.
3. Participate in Events in Your Local Community
Increased visibility in local search results raises the number of people who discover your business online; they could visit your website, contact you directly, or even make purchases.
Participating in community events allows your business to network and build relationships while becoming part of the local scene. From sponsoring local causes to organizing car washes and even providing goodie baskets to hospitals or retirement homes, getting involved gives your customers and employees an opportunity to bond while creating goodwill in your community.
4. Create a Google My Business Listing
Google My Business listings are one of the cornerstones of local search marketing, enabling companies to claim ownership over their data, update it as necessary, and respond to reviews. Use the description section of your business listing to provide details. Up to 750 characters may fit. Additionally, specifying service areas helps increase relevancy, which is essential for service businesses.
5. Optimize Your Website for Local Keywords
Websites can be an effective tool for local SEO when optimized with specific local keywords. Make sure that your NAP is consistent across all online sources, and use Ahrefs to monitor keyword popularity on a local scale.
Whitespark provides an advanced local SEO tool suite, including management of listings, recommendations of where they should appear, competition analysis, and building and monitoring citations for improved local search rankings.
6. Optimize Your Social Media Profiles
No matter the nature of your business, local search marketing can help bring in new customers or inquiries online. When done right, curating Google My Business profiles and company pages correctly increases the odds that people searching for what you offer will find you more easily.
Search engines take many factors into consideration when determining who should appear in their local packs, including review signals such as online reviews. Regularly gathering new online reviews has also proven to boost local SEO rankings.
7. Optimize Your Online Reviews
Reviewing your business online is an effective way to increase its local search visibility, as search engines take account of positive reviews when ranking businesses in local searches.
Submitting your business to local directories can also help enhance its search visibility by providing search engines with accurate, consistent information about it.
8. Use Photos and Service Areas on Your Google Business Profile
By uploading relevant photos to your Google Business Profile, you can increase the chance that search engine users will come directly to your website via image results. This could increase traffic significantly.
Also, by specifying service areas and increasing relevance on local searches, businesses with multiple locations can increase relevancy on searches. Furthermore, regularly gathering reviews online is another powerful way of increasing your local search visibility.
9. Match NAP Data Across Local Directories
Add local keywords to your website content in order to help search engines understand its relevancy. A tool such as Google Keyword Planner allows you to check search volume ranges at the local level.
As part of your online directory strategy, it’s also vital that the NAP information matches across each directory. Tools like Yext can assist in doing this efficiently.
10. Strengthen Local SEO Across Your Site
Local search marketing is a specialized form of SEO. The key difference is local SEO’s focus on local keywords and signals.
Attracting local keywords into your meta description can help increase the chance of your website being found in Google search results, and maintaining consistent NAP (name, address, phone number) across websites and other online sources is also vital for ranking higher on search engine result pages.
FAQ
What is local search marketing?
Local search marketing (LSM) is the practice of drawing in customers in a specific geographical region through strategies and tactics such as online advertising, social media, and website optimization. It is a specialized form of SEO focused on local keywords and signals rather than broad national ones.
How does a Google My Business profile help local search marketing?
A Google My Business profile lets you claim and verify your business, update company details, add photos, specify service areas, and respond to reviews. Search engines use these signals along with review signals and consistency of NAP (name, address, phone number) data to determine which businesses appear in local packs and local search results.
What tools can help with local SEO and local keyword research?
Tools referenced in the post include Ahrefs for monitoring local keyword popularity, Google Keyword Planner for checking local search volume ranges, Whitespark for managing listings, competition analysis, and citation building, and Yext for keeping NAP information consistent across online directories.
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