Local search is an important part of any SEO strategy that targets customers in a particular region, city, and/or neighborhood.
Local SEO simply means that you should focus on improving your visibility and ranking in local search results, such as Google’s Map Pack/Local Pack.
Organic SEO can help improve your website’s rankings in search engines. Your Local Pack ranking can be positively affected by how your website ranks within these organic results.
If a query is of local interest, organic listings can be a great way for your business to appear before motivated searchers.
Although local SEO and organic SEO are closely related in this way, each strategy requires its own optimization strategy.
Let’s begin at the beginning: what is Local SEO Birmingham? Why does it matter?
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO refers to the practice of optimizing search engines for local searches.
This means that your Google business listing will be ranked higher in the Local Pack/Map Pack and appear more frequently in response to relevant queries.
Consider the last time you went out into the world looking for something. It could have been [men’s shoes], [daycare providers] or [coworking spaces].
Google’s mission it to provide searchers with the best answers for every query is its goal.
When its algorithms determine that your intent to search is local, meaning that you are searching for something in the immediate area, Map Pack results will be prominently displayed on the first page.
These results may also be supplemented by organic information about local businesses and services.
Local results might be the default view if you search for “Mexican restaurants opening now” Google has identified that you have a local, immediate need.
Local search results, including business name, address and phone number, as well as photos and videos, reviews from customers and star ratings, are more likely to provide the answer than a link.
SEO is best practice in general. These include adhering to Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, and providing a great user experience.
This is crucial if your website is to rank high in organic search results, where Google has found that there is local intent for the query.
You can still appear in the Map Pack even if you don’t have a website. MapPack results are heavily informed by your Google Business Profile. These results may include information Google has collected from other sites and user suggestions.
Google also has its own set of guidelines regarding local SEO. The most important being the ‘Guidelines to represent your business on Google’.
These guidelines will help you maximize your visibility in Map Pack and avoid having your listing suspended.
Local Search is Important
Here are some stats to show how important local search is for businesses.
Google reports that 76% of smartphone users who perform a local search visit a business within 24 hour. 28% of those searches lead to a purchase.
Google estimates that 30% of all search queries it processes relate to location.
A recent survey of local search users found that 61% said they search locally every single day.
A recent survey on local SEO found that 82% consumers spend around 14 minutes reading online reviews about businesses before making a purchase.
86% of people use Google Maps to locate a business’s location.
Yelp is in the top five results for SMB search 92% of times.
74% of all in-store shoppers worldwide said that they did their research before arriving at the store. They searched for [closest shop near them], [locations],[in stock near them] and other hyperlocal information.
For local searches, more than half of Internet users use mobile devices.
83% of Google Search users use Google Search to find information about local businesses. 55% use Google Maps and 44% Apple Maps. 39% use Yahoo!, 39% use bing.
Google Local Ranking
Google’s organic search ranking algorithm is kept secret, but it is more transparent about how they rank in local results.
According to Google, the three most important categories of local ranking factors are:
Relevance.
Distance.
Prominence and Availability
These are the top Local Pack ranking factors, according to Whitespark’s survey titled “2021 Local Search Ranking Factors”.
GBP primary category
Keywords in the listing title
The proximity of the business address to the location searched.
Address in the city where you are searching
Other GMB categories
High numerical star ratings
Listing of GBP in its entirety.
Inbound links to associated domains are of high quality and authority.
Keywords in native Google reviews
Improve Your Local Search Presence
Local search is an important channel for all businesses that provide local services, including franchises, retail chains, mom & pop shops, financial service brands, service providers, enterprise brand, SMBs and financial institutions.
