Local SEO: How Important Is It?

local seo
Portrait of business people pulling SEO banner

You must master local search engine optimization (SEO) if you want people in your area to learn about your company. Without it, you’ll undoubtedly find it difficult to build your brand online, which may have an impact on offline sales as well.

The urge to find goods, services, or information nearby is referred to as local intent. This kind of search is typically recognized by the addition of “near me” to the keyword or by the addition of a geographic place, like the searcher’s town or city.

For instance, a Google search for “raw dog food” is likely to return information regarding this kind of dog food in general. While searches for “raw dog food near me” or “raw dog food Syracuse” have a more regional focus—the user is obviously trying to discover a local vendor who sells raw dog food.

Every day, people conduct almost 8.5 billion searches on Google, and given that about half of these queries have a local focus, it is clear that many of them are looking for local information. You can expect that your competitors will be using local SEO if your company isn’t making an attempt to participate.

Local SEO: What is it?

In order to appear more prominently in local search results, local SEO requires boosting your online presence. This improved visibility is attained by doing a variety of things, like:

The management of your Google Business Profile, the growth of your reputation, the optimization of your website, the creation of citations, the observation of your competitive search environment, the observation and exploitation of Google changes, the creation of local links, and the elimination of spam.

Organic Local Results

When considering Google search results, the majority of people will be familiar with the localized organic results. They’re the list of blue website links that displays below the Local Pack for a local search.

Organic Local Results Search on Google

The local search algorithm, which takes into account ranking elements including on-page optimization, links, and behavioral indications, decides the order of the websites included in the localized organic results.

Google Maps

In the same manner that it does for the Local Pack and Finder, Google also uses GBP to collect search result data for Maps results. The difference is that because Google Maps returns results from a larger area, a much longer list of results will be presented.

In Google Maps, advertisements frequently appear at the top of the results, though not in every sector.

Google will display the results for a local search in a list on the left with the locations highlighted on a map to the right when returning Maps results:

Using Google Maps

As you move the map and utilize the “search this region” feature to visit other areas, the results will refresh. To find the results that are most pertinent to your needs, you can also use the filtering options at the top.

The Local Pack, Local Finder, and Google Maps all depend on GBP visibility, therefore this should be a major area of concentration for local SEO strategies.

Local companies

Naturally, all local business owners will want—and need—to catch the eye of anyone who is looking to use a business like theirs in the area.

You’re losing out on a sizable portion of potential customers if your company doesn’t appear in the local SERPs.

Contact Us

If you are looking for help with your local search engine optimization, Vertex Visibility has got you covered! We specialize in boosting your google search results organically, and offer a variety of packages to fit whatever your business needs. Contact us today!