Local SEO—Basics

Whether it’s finding the nearest eatery, a good cleaning service or a hardware store in the vicinity, people often begin their local searches at Google. Region-specific searches, in fact, take a substantial volume of the overall Google searches.

According to Think with Google, 30% of the total mobile searches are related to location [59]. The same source also says that 76% of people who search for something nearby end up visiting a business within 24 hours, and 28% of the searches result in sales.

If we have a local business, it will need certain optimizations to help it rank higher in geo-specific searches. That’s where local SEO can help.

What is local SEO?

As a local business owner, one of our foremost goals should be to ensure that local searchers can locate us, contact us and choose our product or service over others operating in the area. That’s where local SEO can help us.

Local SEO is a set of efforts that can help increase our business’s visibility in local search results. With sound local SEO, our business can appear higher up in Google’s Local Pack/Map Pack.

Local SEO encompasses a number of optimization strategies, including researching local keywords in our niche, adding our business to Google Maps, building local citations, and beyond.

Who needs local SEO?

If we have a brick-and-mortar store at a location, we need local SEO. Local SEO can help potential customers locate us and reach us. If we offer services in a particular city or area, that is another indication that our business needs local SEO.

Here are some of the industries that can benefit from local SEO:

• Home service contractors, such as plumbers and HVAC contractors.

• Restaurants

• Law firms

• Medical service providers

• Veterinarians

• Real estate