Optimize the local SEO of your website
Local SEO consists of optimizing a website with a view to developing its traffic. It also helps to develop leads as well as brand awareness when a user performs local searches. Local SEO involves optimizing your site on localized queries, example: query + name of your city(Digital Marketing Agency in Zurich). This also involves optimizing your Google My Business listing with the address of your head office or store and your services / products. Finally, good local SEO also plays on the creation of so-called “NAP” citations, an acronym for Name Address Phone. In other words, make sure to have the name of your company, your address and your telephone number visible on several sites around your geolocation.
Local SEO: Why is it important?
Local referencing is essential in a geolocation referencing strategy. Indeed, according to a study by “Search Engine Rountable”, 46% of queries made on the Google search engine have local search intentionality behind the request. It is therefore essential that your company has a local influence in order to respond to your closest prospects.
Another interesting number, according to Google, 76% of Internet users doing a local search on their phone visit a store the same day. This constitutes a considerable number of prospects that you can bring within your structure.
How to do local SEO?
When a user performs a search, Google scans the index in order to offer the best query results to it. In order to understand the search intentionality of the Internet user, the search engine will offer the most consistent results with the request.
Indeed, since Google’s BERT update, the famous search engine has been trying to interpret the natural language used by its users in their query. This update makes it possible to better analyze the entire expression in order to offer results that are in line with the search intent of the Internet user.
But then, what makes local SEO unique? The search engine uses a set of factors that determine the ranking of search results. These factors are not the same as for a more “traditional” query.
Among the signals that Google uses for local SEO, we find:
- The famous “NAP” quotes, explained above
- The geolocation of the Internet user performing the search
- The existence of a Google My Business listing
- Using good keywords in the Google My Business listing profile
- Online reviews (both in terms of rating and the lexical field used in these same reviews)
- Ranking (by stars) in Google Maps search results
Tips for developing local SEO
We have concocted some tips for you to develop your local visibility. We know how important it is to have a local reach when an Internet user searches for your services / products in your catchment area.
Add an interactive google map to your site
Indeed, an interactive map integrated on your site is an effective way to let Google know that you are located in a very specific place.
Installing a Google Maps type module on a site can be a tedious and technical job. If you ever need help installing this module, do not hesitate to call on our services! Our technical teams will listen to you and support you in setting it up. In addition, we recommend putting this interactive map on your contact pages for more relevance, and not on all the pages of your site.
Use a local search term
At Target Web, we know that this tip can be a huge help for your positioning in local search results. By optimizing your page with a local query in the title, as well as in the first level title (H1 title for the most experienced), this will have a significant impact on your local visibility. Nevertheless, we recommend having a site optimized in terms of user experience (UX) to increase your local visibility. Therefore, when an Internet user searches locally, he must be able to access the information in less than 3 seconds.
Moreover, by having the local request in your titles, this gives confidence to the request of the Internet user who will have more interest in going through a local company.
Don’t neglect the meta description
Why should not neglect the meta description? Although it has no real impact on natural referencing, it should not be neglected all the same
It’s no secret to SEO experts that the meta description is a great way to improve your click-through rate on natural results. At Agence 25, we often find that the meta-description is wrongly neglected. A little tip that we can give you would be to use the Google Ads ad creation tool (requires having a Google Ads account) to write impactful meta descriptions. In addition, you can also monitor your competitors carrying out campaigns themselves via Adwords.
For example, for the request “Web design in Lausanne”, we see that the ads contain information such as “Online shop”, “Ideally located”. This means that we have a real interest in using this semantics in our meta descriptions and that these terms would be perfectly usable within the content of our site.
Now you are able to achieve local SEO for your business! Congratulation. In this article, you have therefore learned several tips for developing your visibility and working on your local SEO. And since we are friendly and we are currently in the middle of the end-of-year celebrations, we are offering you a free SEO audit of your site. Internet ! To benefit from it, fill in the form on this page and get a tailor-made SEO audit to relaunch your 2022 SEO strategy in the best way.