Local SEO can be understood as the way to optimize keywords related to a certain locality or territory. For example, keywords seo service HCMC; Ho Chi Minh website design service; teaching SEO in Ho Chi Minh City...all are Local SEO keywords.
Obviously, because there are many businesses that want to concentrate customers in a small area, in order to exploit all potential customers first. Besides, to ensure the best quality when expanding nationwide.
46% of Google searches are about local businesses. This number also clearly states the need for Local SEO of the majority of businesses. But in reality, 56% of businesses do not have Google My Business.
Did you know that creating Google My Business is the foundation for the entire Local SEO process? If you are among the 56% of businesses that are not listed on Google My Business, you will face more difficulties.
Google My Business is not only a good start but also brings surprising results when you do Local SEO.
So what is Local SEO? How many benefits are there? I will present and guide Local SEO in detail for you to understand better through the article below!
In this chapter, I will give you the most basic knowledge about Local SEO. First, we will learn about the concept, as well as understand more about why websites need to perform Local SEO. Then, I will show you how Local SEO is most effective. Start!
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO is the process of optimizing your presence on the internet to attract more business from related searches in the same locality. These searches are usually from Google and other search engines such as: Bing, Yelp, Apple Maps, etc.
However, Google is still the most popular tool for finding local businesses. In Vietnam, Google accounts for ~87% of the country’s market share. Therefore, in this article, I only focus on guiding you how to optimize your website on Google.
What is Google SEO and why does every business need SEO? 6 “unexpected” benefits in the article will help you answer exactly that!
Why is Local SEO important?
I will present this content briefly and make it easiest for you to understand, as follows, please pay attention!
First: 46% of searches in Google have “Local Intent” (Search Engine Roundtable).< /span>
Second: 29% of all Google SERP contain Local Pack in search results (RankRanger ).
76% of users search for something local on their phone when visiting a store/business (Google ) .
Through the above data, you can also see that the need to search for local information accounts for a huge part in SEO. Therefore, if your business appears before these searches, it is very likely that users will come to your business in just a few minutes and become customers.
Next, let’s learn how Local SEO works!
How does Local SEO work?
Local SEO works just like a “normal” Google search.
When someone performs a search, Google scans through its index to provide the best results for the user’s query.
However, what makes Local SEO unique is that Google uses a different set of ranking factors to rank local search results.
In fact, Local SEO has a set of ranking signals, including:
- The location the person is looking for
- NAP Citations
- List of Google My Business information
- Keywords used in Google My Business
- Online reviews
- Keywords used in online reviews
- Number of “check-ins” at that location
- Share on social networks
- Google Maps star rating for businesses
What is Google Snack Pack?
Google Snack Pack is the box that appears at the top of the search results page. When you enter the name of a place related to direction or location through Google. The Snack Pack frame will typically display the names of the 3 most popular local businesses.
According to 1 recent Moz survey, 33% of all users will click on the “snack pack” result and 40% will click to select natural results.
Don’t forget that Google searches are performed across many different devices and applications
Similar to the same keyword phrase “coffee shop nearby”. I conducted the search on my mobile phone and the Google Maps app.
In this article, I will also show you how to optimize these two applications in the following sections:
Before we begin…
Make sure your website is optimized for mobile visitors. Because 61% of mobile searchers are more likely to contact a local business if they have a mobile-optimized website.
Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to test this:
You also need to make sure that your website layout is nice and neat and not a messy mess like this:
It doesn’t matter how much your website ranks because in fact, even if it’s in the top 3, if the website layout isn’t aesthetically pleasing, no one will care or contact you.
Finally, I recommend that you prepare a full declaration of information about the business, such as: name, address, phone number and website of the business< /span>
This will be useful for future work! And now on to the next part!
What are the benefits that Local SEO brings?
Increase website rankings on search results tables
Local SEO strategy helps your website rank highly on both Google Maps and Google Search. This is two birds with one stone, helping the website optimally reach users and increase conversion rates.
Increase brand recognition
Local SEO helps you appear with high rankings and will increase visibility, meaning your brand is better known, easier to recognize, and more remembered.
Increase conversion rate
All marketing strategies in general and SEO strategies in particular aim at the ultimate goal of increasing revenue and profits for businesses. Local SEO is also among them, the conversion rate on the website will increase.
Potential customers in a small area will be more potential than in a large area. When targeting the right geographical location of potential customers, businesses will gain maximum benefits with minimum costs.
High investment efficiency
The conversion rate is high thanks to Local SEO, which indicates that this is a fruitful investment. You need to spend your budget to advertise in a potential area instead of spending a large amount of money on all regions of Vietnam. Statistics show that users searching for geographical keywords are more likely to close orders than users searching for general keywords.
Is an indispensable part in overall SEO optimization
In overall SEO, there is Local SEO, which plays the role of reporting to Google about the presence of the business on the map. A business’s presence in a location is evidenced by images, products, and user reviews.
- Online frequency of the business.
- Customer reviews about the business.
- The extent to which businesses care about updating information for customers.
And there are many other factors that Google evaluates whether a business is showing up in its physical location or not. By evaluating this factor, Google can trust the business and increase the website’s ranking score on the keyword search table.
What is keyword spam?
Keyword spam represents the repetition of worthless content many times, causing discomfort and annoyance to readers. This leads to low evaluation from Google and from users, keyword spam shows the website manager repeating keywords with too much frequency, overusing keywords unrelated to the article,…
Articles that use unrelated keywords or try to stuff keywords reluctantly will be penalized by Google and marked as spam. This negatively affects your website and worse will result in penalties from SERPs. You need to know what spam is and avoid keyword abuse and keyword stuffing to avoid being penalized.
What is Local Search?
Instead of a regular search, Local search is where users search to target a specific geographical location.
For example, if a user searches for a place to eat in a specific location, Phu Nhuan district, they will type the phrase “eat around here”. Google will understand and display dining locations near the user’s current location.
Google can track your location if you search using a mobile phone or desktop computer that allows location access, you don’t need to enter a place name Google will automatically determine your location.
Website ranking factors in Local Search
Google will rely on the following factors to rank websites on Local SERP:
Relevance
Through the information the business has declared, Google will determine the level of relevance between the query and that information to appear the most relevant results. For example, queries about products, services, addresses, etc., the more relevant the information is to that query, the easier it is to get to the top.
Distance
The distance from the user’s location to the business’s location will be determined by the GPS global positioning system, this is an important criterion when ranking on the results page. Simply put, when searches are related to a specific, local geographic area, your SEO in that location will likely rank highly.
Prominence
The level of popularity determines a business’s ranking on Google Maps. This criterion is evaluated by Google from information from the business such as links, reviews, articles, customer scores, etc.
Based on that, Google evaluates the popularity and decides to rank that business on the Local map.
How is Local SEO different from regular SEO?
Local SEO is essentially SEO but targets the scope, oriented to specific geographical locations and localities. Pure SEO is SEO aimed at a global scope.
It can be seen that Local SEO is a component of comprehensive SEO. More fully, SEO operations will include the following main components:
- Technical SEO: Optimize technical SEO on a sitewide scale.
- Onpage SEO: SEO of on-page elements.
- Offpage SEO: SEO for factors outside the website, also known as Offside.
- Local SEO: Focus on locally oriented SEO for content.
Local map pack and organic results
According to Google statistics, up to 46% of current searches are local. This is a large number. Depending on the industry, there will be different specific numbers, but usually up to half of searches for products and services are related to certain regions or localities.
People who are in the locality you search for, half of these people search locally. This is your opportunity to reach potential customers, do you want to take advantage of the opportunity to appear in front of them?
If so, you need to know how the specific benefits of Local SEO will help you attract customers effectively.
Customers are more inclined to shop online, search for products on the internet and look to local businesses that provide those products and services.
Mobile devices are commonly used, this device also supports regional searches very well.
Local search has a high conversion rate, because it appears when and where customers want it.
Local search trends are becoming more and more popular, especially food services, hotel services, etc. Now is the time for you to take advantage of Local SEO services to promote your business to keep up with your competitors. defense.
Most businesses will improve business efficiency and increase revenue from applying Local SEO. If you want to be more profitable and don’t want to be left behind in this competition then start now.
