Local SEO: A Guide to Optimising Your Site for Local Customers

What is local SEO and why should you care about it?

Who needs local search engine optimisation?

SEO Agencies

Service Area Businesses

Multi-Location Brands and Franchises

How does local SEO work?

Local SEO differs from traditional SEO in a few key ways. For one, local search engine optimisation is more focused on generating leads and conversions for businesses that serve a specific geographic area rather than businesses that operate nationally or internationally. This means that the keywords and search terms used in local search engine optimisation are generally more targeted and relevant to the products or services being offered than those used in traditional SEO.

Another key difference is that local search engine optimisation is heavily reliant on directory listings and citations. Directory listings are simply online directories (such as Yelp, Foursquare, etc.) where businesses can create profiles and list their contact information, hours of operation, products or services offered, etc. Citations are similar to directory listings, but they don't necessarily require a business to create a profile; they can simply list the business's name, address, and phone number (NAP).



Because local search engine optimisation is so reliant on directory listings and citations, it's important to make sure that your business's NAP information is consistent across all platforms. Inconsistent NAP information can confuse search engines and lead to lower rankings in local search results.

What are the benefits of doing local SEO?

Reach More People

If your brand shows up more in the local search results, more people will find it. From here, the searcher might go to your GBP, click through to your website, or decide to go to your business in person.

Drive More Traffic

Better Conversion Rates

Get More Local Reviews

People will love to give honest reviews if you provide good service, which will help you gain more clients. But that won't be possible unless your company is optimised for local search engine optimisation. More customer reviews can be obtained by implementing it. Responding to customer feedback will also help you rank higher in SERP. Google sees it as a sign of improved customer service. Obtaining local reviews can also help your business in a variety of other ways.

Continuous Business Growth

Increasing traffic and improving search engine rankings are always the primary goals of local SEO efforts. As a result, there are more opportunities for marketing and sales. More sales equate to more enthusiastic customers, which in turn leads to a period of purposeful expansion for the business. As a result, if you want to grow your local business, you need to devote resources and effort to local search engine optimisation analytics.

Long Term Ranking

One of the best things about local search engine optimisation is that once your local sites are ranking well, it tends to stay there. Of course, you need to keep up with your SEO maintenance, but generally speaking, once you’ve achieved a good ranking, it takes a lot less work to maintain it than it does to achieve it in the first place. This is one of the reasons why local SEO can be so valuable for small businesses – the ROI can be quite high since you don’t have to put in as much effort month after month to stay at the top.

Key Local SEO Services and Tactics

Link building has long been one of the most important aspects of SEO marketing. It is a process that involves getting other websites to link back to your own site in an effort to rank higher on the Search Engine Results Pages (better known as SERPs), with the links typically being inserted in articles. If you have a new website, a great way to increase its exposure to search engines is by building links monthly.

In the past, link building used to be a really easy thing to do. Webmasters would simply just use tools to automate the process of creating articles, submitting the articles to directories, and generating backlinks (these are the links created when one website links to a page on another website). The quality of the article containing the links or the page that is being linked to also didn’t matter that much.

But today, it’s an entirely different story. Google has become stricter when it comes to the quality of articles and backlinks. That means that right now, link building takes more skill and practise to pull off successfully.

How Does Link Building Help a Website to Rank Higher?

Google crawls the web using links. They will crawl the links between each page on your site, and will crawl the links between entire websites. As the search engine crawls the pages on your website and sees that your content is linked on pages throughout the web, the search engine acknowledges that your brand deserves more respect. That results to higher placings on SERPs, especially if the incoming links are from an authority website.

What Are the Benefits of a Good LINK-BUILDING Strategy?

Google values links so much that it will be nearly impossible for the search engine to rank your site if it doesn’t contain any links, regardless of how stellar the design and content of your web pages are. If you want to dominate the local SEO game and become more visible online, you need to have more high-quality backlinks than your competitors have.

More Credibility

Links serve as an indicator of your domain’s authoritative strength and can provide credibility to your website. How? Google factors in ‘authority’ in order for it to be able to give users more relevant results. The more quality links pointing towards your site, the higher your credibility factor.

Traffic from Other Websites

As the online visibility of your website increases, there’s a good likelihood that you’ll get additional traffic from the sites where your links are placed on. You can also attract your target audience by placing backlinks on industry-specific authority sites and making sure that the content you generate is compelling enough for your relevant users to take an action.

Brand Building

Link building can help with your brand-building efforts as it can help to show your target local audience that you are an industry authority through links to relevant content. Aside from that, it can also help to promote the full extent of your company’s products, skills and capabilities.

Building Local Citations

Citations are another important local SEO service. A citation is simply a mention of your business on another website. Citations can help improve your website's visibility and authority.

There are a few different ways to build citations. One way is to submit your business to online directories. Another great way to build citations is through customer reviews. Encourage your customers to leave reviews on popular review sites, such as Google Places and Yelp.

Managing Your GMB Profile

Google My Business (GMB) is one of the most powerful ways to improve a businesses local search engine optimisation and online visibility.

Often overlooked by businesses an important first step in any local SEO strategy is to create or claim and then verify your local business's GMB listing. Getting on GMB increases your chances of showing up in Google’s Local Pack, Local Finder, Google Maps, and organic rankings on Google, especially if you keep your profile active with regular publications. Regular publications contribute to building your authority. This tells Google that your business is legit. The more you legitimise your business to Google, the higher local rankings you will get. 

Google’s algorithm for ranking Business Profiles does not just consider proximity and relevance but also activity and quality of information.

Not only is your GMB Profile easily visible to potential customers when they search for local keyword (query with local intent) on Google, but GMB is also a key Google local ranking factor. You can use the posts in many ways—to announce upcoming events, highlight new products and services, share interesting news, or communicate your special offers. It’s free, easy, and a highly visible way to show off all the great things happening with your business.

Google My Business Posts

Google Posts are almost like “mini-ads” or “social media posts” that show up in Google search in your GMB listing (in the Knowledge Panel and on Google Maps). Start using Google posts NOW. At least once per week, but preferably a few times per week. Are you already pushing out posts to Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter? Just use the same, lightly edited, content on Google Posts.

How to add a GMB post

From the menu, click Posts.

 ✓ At the top of the page, choose the type of post you'd like to create from the options given.

 ✓ Options to add photos, videos, text, events, offers, and a button to your post appears. Click each field and enter the relevant information.

 ✓ To get a preview of your post, click Preview.

 ✓ If you're happy with your preview, in the top right, click Publish.

 ✓ If you'd like to change your post, in the top left, click Back Back. Edit your draft until it’s ready to publish.

1. Decide the type of post

2. Add your picture and then content and choose the relevant button - call to action

3. Publish

Creating Quality Content

One of the most important local SEO services is creating quality content. This means creating blog posts, articles, and other forms of content that are relevant to your business and industry.



Your content should be well-written and informative. It should also include the keywords you're targeting. Creating great content will help improve your website's visibility and authority in the search results.

Build Internal Links

One of the most important local SEO services is building internal links. This means linking to your own website's content from other pages on your site.

Internal links help improve your website's authority and can also lead to increased traffic. They also help the search engine crawl and index your website more effectively.



To build internal links, you need to make sure you're using relevant keywords in the anchor text. This is the text that's used to link to another page.

Mobile Optimisation

Mobile internet usage is growing at an exponential rate. In fact, over 60% of searches are now performed on mobile devices. This trend is only going to continue as more and more people purchase smartphones and tablets.

If you want your website to be successful, it needs to be optimised for mobile devices. Fortunately, local SEO can help with this. By making sure your website is mobile-friendly, you can reach a larger audience and ensure that your visitors have a positive experience when they visit your site.

Getting Started with Local Search Engine Optimisation

Local SEO can be a great way to improve your website's visibility in search results. By following the tips above, you can start to see some real results.

If you're not sure where to start, we recommend hiring an experienced local SEO company. They can help you create quality content, build internal links, and optimise your website for all types of devices. With their help, you can achieve your goals and reach a larger audience.

At Love My Online Marketing, we specialise in SEO optimisation. We can help you improve your website's visibility so you can reach a larger audience and earn more sales. Book a free meeting to learn more about how we can help your business grow online.