If you have a firm whose business is related to a particular market, always keep in mind that people on the Internet search local businesses, services, restaurants, or shops when they have (urgent) need for something. They expect to find what they are always looking for, in a very short time and preferably as close as possible to their current location.

If you focus on meeting their expectations, both using optimization for local search, as well as high-quality product offerings and top-notch services, you will have great chances to position yourself high on the first page of Google.

How to achieve this result?

By expanding the circle of satisfied customers in this way, which will share their positive impressions with others, which today means not only talking to friends, it also means giving a good assessment to your company on Google and social networks, as well as writing online reviews, what will Google and other search engines know how to help you recognize and reward you with a better position.

WHY IS IMPORTANT LOCAL SEO?

Statistics show that even 97% of users on the Internet were looking for some of the local companies in 2017, of which 12% did it every day. About 60% of people were looking for a restaurant or coffee, while the vast majority were looking for hotels, health facilities, supermarkets, clothing stores and cars services.

There is an increasing number of people searching the Internet through mobile devices and more and more who trust online reviews as well as the recommendations of friends. Nearly 80% of people who have found the desired service or product near the mobile phone and read positive comments, most often on the same day bought what they were looking for.

This was demonstrated by the results of a consumer habits survey conducted by the British agency BrightLocal.

All this points to the fact that the percentage of those who naturally make purchases in the local environment is very high.

Why, then, is it needed a strategy for local SEO?

Because with the help of local SEO optimization, you can target more and more potential customers in the immediate environment, whether your company is selling products or offering services. This makes this type of optimization indispensable for anyone who wants his business to be successful in the market in which he operates, and even visible to as many people as possible.

HOW TO CREATE STRATEGY FOR LOCAL OPTIMIZATION

When it comes to optimizing a site for localized search, it's important to approach it logically and meaningfully so that as many of your potential customers or customers go to your door.
There are several key items to be considered when creating a strategy for local SEO and we will now consider each of them more closely.

REGISTER YOUR COMPANY ON GOOGLE MY BUSINESS

Wherever your company is located, be sure to consider the possibility of reporting to a service called Google My Business, which is freely available to anyone who has an account opened at Google and a company registered at a particular physical address. If you operate multiple addresses in one city or multiple locations, a separate account should be created for each of the locations.

All those to whom the job entails field work, without the existence of an office, can apply for the Google Service Area Business option, thus giving the users in whose city their services are available. This mostly refers to masters, courier services, delivery from restaurants and other service activities.

DO NOT FORGET ON WEB DIRECTORIES

Online address books and business directories that bring together a large number of local businesses from various industries, such as the Yellow Pages, may not have been so popular in the last few years among Internet users, but you should not ignore the web directories of this type if you own a small or medium enterprise.

It is important to make sure that the name of the company, the address of the exchange and all other addresses, as well as the phone numbers, website and other contact information are written in error every time and that they match the information on your site. Because consistency in your company's contact information that is available on the Internet is a very important factor in ranking in a localized search.

The description of the company in the web directory is a good way to build a network of links that will lead from relevant sites into your online presentation. In this way, you can increase the number of visits to the site, and therefore you get the opportunity for a larger number of potential customers.

CHOOSE A LOCAL DOMAIN

If your website is a local business, it would be best to choose a local domain, depending on the country in which you are located.

Depending on how much your business is spread, or whether it is known to a close circle of people in the neighborhood or operating on the market of the whole country, the domain name should also be different.

If your brand has already been developed and well-known throughout the state, it will suffice for the name of the domain to be just the name of the company, while for those less familiar to the wider population, along with the name of the company, a branch can also be added to the domain name is doing business or location. In this way, the results of the search will make it clearer as to what is being said and the searchers will be able to assess whether it is exactly what they are looking for.

Conversely, if you are planning to do business on the international market, setting up a site on a local domain may not be a good idea. It all depends on the industry, but the worldwide probability of competition in your region is so strong that the local domain will not have a high chance of ranking.

Therefore, regardless of where your company is located, if your target group is international, let your domain be .com, .net, .org or some similar.

CHOOSE CAREFULLY KEYWORDS

Like any other type of website optimization, SEO for a local search also involves selecting the keywords on the basis of which your site will rank.

When doing business locally, you should also choose phrases that clearly indicate the location of the company.

Although for some keywords it is certain that Google and other search engines and naturally (organically) recognize and position your site as part of the activity you are dealing with, it is never off-the-shelf and help search engines understand what you are doing and in what ways you can Help your potential clients.

You can also select several important keywords in the form of long-tail keywords that your target group might search. In this way, you can optimize the site more precisely.

DO NOT NEGLECT IMPORTANCE OF ONLINE RECENSIONS

This leads us to another very important item for a local SEO strategy - authentic user reviews.
More and more people check the description of products online, as well as the rating of the manufacturer or seller, and only then decides whether they want a particular product or not.
The BrightLocal survey showed that 90% of Internet users use reviews to assess the quality of a particular local firm, and as many as 84% trusts online comments as much as personal friend recommendations.

It is noticeable that reviews become one of the most important factors when deciding on buying because more and more people on the basis of positive comments come into contact with a particular company, even without accessing the site of that company.

The number of those visiting the company's home site has dropped by 17% compared to 2016, statistics show, while on average seven positive reviews are enough to persuade customers that a particular product is what they are looking for.

Because users like the reviews so much, Google's algorithm for site ranking is quite appreciated. As a result, business profiles with positive user ratings have a much greater chance of being well positioned in the search.

COUNT ON POWER OF LOCAL TARGET GROUP

While you may be striving to make your product a world-renowned brand, it does not necessarily have to be an international audience for your business.

You do not need to underestimate the local target group because branding, trust, and constant tracking of news from someone from the same location as your company will be much more pronounced. Many will be more attached pizzerias in the immediate vicinity, than a three-star restaurant in another country, even if this restaurant was the best in the world.

Brand trust is one of the key items for local optimization and visibility of the company. Why? Because the loyal customers or service users come from building a relationship based on trust and positive experiences.

And when it comes to that, that's another reason why reviews are important. We can freely say that collecting original reviews of satisfied customers is one of the more effective marketing techniques that can greatly contribute to optimization for localized search.

OFFLINE OPTIMIZATION IS IMPORTANT AS IS ONLINE

If you run a beauty salon, a cafeteria, a fresh fruit and vegetable store, or a children's playroom, just online optimization will not matter.

When you have a place related to a specific territory, it's important to have flyers, brochures, brochures, and catalogs to help reach as many people as possible about your local business. And, once they find out what kind of services or products you have on offer, they will probably see your site on the same day and begin to track your profiles on social networks.

Google and other search engines will be able to recognize the increase in direct interest for your company and you will get additional points when positioning.

And not just that. If those who are interested in your business in some way delight in, and even exceed their expectations with the quality of their products, they will share their impressions with friends and thus contribute to the good voice about you very well heard. Advertising "from mouth to mouth" is of great importance for local SEO.

We hope that our SEO optimization guide has been useful to you. Do not hesitate to ask us if something is not clear and share with us your impressions, doubts or questions in the comments below the text.

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