“Local” Search Engine Optimization is different from “regular” SEO in that you’re emphasizing your local location instead of a level of general knowledge of the keyword terms to be optimized for within your website content.
Let’s start with an example:
“Rob’s Widgets” is a Keswick business that specializes in making widgets that enhance the home with unique touches and uses. The customers of this business have a lot of options to find similar types of widgets and a quick google search tells us the competition for first page search results is fierce with many competitors being larger brands and franchises.
As the website is being built, or undergoing an optimization make-over, search engine traffic analysis and google search console analysis needs to be started and an action plan mapped out. If the website was not set up with these accounts this needs to be completed now and a period of time and traffic needs to be logged so there are results to start as a baseline before any optimization steps are started. If traffic to the website is very low, on a monthly basis less that 1,000 unique visitors to the website, waiting for results to use as the baseline SEO analysis can take some time.
The action plan at this point is:
- Build out the value statement of the business and it’s mission statement.
- Publish detailed content around the widgets and related services the business provides on the website (start with the most popular widget products and related services and continue into the more unique widgets that provide “long tail keywords” for search engine optimization).
- Build out the contact page to include all social media links, methods of contact and a map.
- Ensure that local directories have the business website listed and all the information is up-to-date (this includes directories such as Yelp, YP and local search maps like Google Maps and Bing maps).
- Check that related specialty business directories have the business listed (this is a very involved step, many of these specialty directories scrape information from other directories and this is a time-consuming task to get the information updated).
Additional Accounts
Besides Google’s G4A and Google Search Console these accounts should also be set up:
- Yelp.com
- YP.ca
- Bing Webmaster Tools
- Google Business Page
- And other’s depending on the business niche
As the search engine optimization analysis results come in and the action plan steps are being managed, we’ll want to build out content that can be used on other local websites to provide external incoming links to “Rob’s Widgets”. Writing content about a specific widget that a customer uses in their business and provide that article to the customer to publish on their own website and linking back to “Rob’s Widgets”. Or to other local websites such as news websites, local directories, etc. Publishing press releases can also help with external links to the website to help build authority and improve search engine ranking.
Results from these steps are usually seen 6 to 12 months after they are started. You can see that local search engine optimization is very involved, on many levels, to get the busines on the first page of Google for the keyword terms the content is optimized for.
Search engine optimization is an ongoing process as Google tweaks their algorithm, competitors step-up their SEO work and the business grows.
