Local SEO

ALL SEARCH IS LOCAL

Local SEO Service is the practice of optimizing your Website, Google Business Profile (aka: GBP), and Google Maps (aka: Map Pack or 3-Pack) for your specific target market’s local area.

Regardless of the size of your business, you want your web pages to rank for specific search queries asked by a local audience for each of the suburbs, towns, cities, counties, states, and nations you currently, or plan to sell into.

Whether you are a local shop targeting nearby customers, a business selling internationally online, or a larger company with multiple “Service Areas” and, or, “Multiple Office Locations”, to consistently RANK HIGH on Search Engines, you need a strong, well designed, Local SEO plan.

When you optimize for local searches, you focus on letting Google know, through “signals,” that your business location is in a specific area.

The starting point is to understand that there are 3-Key Components to being successful.

#1: WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION

Everything starts with a great website! For Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and all other search engines to “See Your Business Website” you MUST follow their guidelines. You will generally not be Successful by simply self-building a website in a few hours and calling it “done.”

I urge potential customers to run Google Free Website Checker – Page Speed Insights – to check the overall condition of their current website’s homepage.

Some Key Aspects of Website Optimization for Local SEO

• Who We Are – Name Plus – This must be clear to Google and the Visitor
• What We Do – Product & Services – This must be clear to Google and the Visitor
• Where We Do It – Location(s) – This must be clear to Google and the Visitor
• Citations
• Directories
• Co-Citations
• Socials
• Authority Links
• ON-PAGE SEO
  • Service Areas in Navigation
  • Services in Header, Footer, and Body
  • Service Terms in H-Tags
  • Primary Service Pages
  • Service Location Pages
  • Brand Pages
    • FAQ
    • Meets the Team
    • Terms of Service
    • Returns
    • About Us
    • Blog / News
    • … More
• OFF-PAGE SEO
  • NAP (Name, Address, Phone) Details
  • Anchor Text
  • Link Graph
  • … More
• … More

You’ll likely find that your website homepage is getting “Failing Grades” on their battery of tests. These issues need to all be fixed as the starting point of beginning your journey to getting consistently ranked high on Google’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP)

#2: GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILE (GBP) OPTIMIZATION

The second step is to properly set up your Google Business Profile (aka: GBP, Google My Business (GMB)). Google Business Profile is a free service from Google that lets you tell Google all about your business. It can be a bit confusing to set up properly to maximize the impact on ranking.

However, GBP is not a “set and forget” service. It needs constant updating (weekly at least, daily ideally).

At Idea To Growth, we know how to do this for all sizes of businesses.

Some Key Aspects of Google Business Profile for Local SEO

• Primary Category
• Products
• Services
• Description
• Address
• Updates
• Offers
• Images, Videos
• Reviews
• … More

#3: GOOGLE MAPS (Map Pack / 3-Pack) OPTIMIZATION

The third step is to properly set up Google Maps (aka: Map Pack, or 3-Pack). This is the “Visual Heart” of Local SEO. Google Maps pulls information from your Google Business Profile to share with visitors looking for your products and services.

Google maps has its own “Ranking Algorithm” that is not the same as “Google Search”.

Many people with websites may learn how to get on “Page 1” (aka: the first 10 listed results of a Google Search), but they are not in the “top 100” on Google Maps! This can be a serious business limiter, as many customer prefer to buy from someone nearby when possible, as they feel like they may get better support if they ever have issues with the product of service.

The key for ranking on Google Maps is primarily tied to the propers set up of your GBP and its constant “nurturing”. Most GBP are not optimized properly to ensure that you are getting the best shot at ranking highly on Google Maps.

Some Key Aspects of Google Maps for Local SEO

• Longitude and Lattitude
• Zipcodes
• Area Codes
• Counties
• Cities
• Towns
• Neighborhood
• Sub Divisions
• States
• Countries
• Location Photos
• Reviews
• Ratings
• … More

How Do I Get Started?

At Idea To Growth SEO & Website Design Marketing Agency we make it easy to get started! At the top right of every page you’ll see an “Envelope” icon. Tap it and you will be taken to our Contact Us page, Share a few pieces of information with us and we’ll get back with you same day or within 1 business day to have a chat or to set up a chat. The chat is NO OBLIGATION and 100% FREE. All potential relationships start with “Getting to Know Each Other”. We both want to be sure we’re likely to be a good match before starting our journey together.

I look forward to hearing from you today!