Local SEO for shops and services
Your potential customer catchment area may be further away from your locality than you are currently reaching. Most shops & businesses make sure they have their Google Business Profile listing verified, which can help your business get added to the ‘Local Pack’.
Your Business Profile listing is shown to people who search for your business name, regardless of their location. Your business can be added to the ‘Local Pack’ which is shown to people who search for your business type, only when they are located within what Google considers your local area. Outside of your local area, people will be shown a different ‘Local Pack’ which highlights businesses in their location.
So, is this enough to catch all of the people who might be your potential customers? Definitely not.
Keyword Optimisation
Google only know what you tell them about your business via your web pages. Keyword research is vitally important if you’re going to reach all of the people who are looking for a business like yours. There are a number of methods you can use to find out which search terms people use to find the products or services you offer.
Google have their own keyword research tool which generates keyword suggestions and search volumes. This tool and other keyword planning tools can be useful for terms you may have missed when compiling your own list.
Keywords are used within your page titles, internal links, content & content titles, meta titles & meta descriptions. Using your relevant keywords within your pages tells Google and other search engines which search terms your pages are relevant to.
The better optimised your pages are, the further up the list of Local Pack results your listing will appear and the more likely your listing will be clicked and viewed. While local SEO is based around the geographical location of your business, the reach of your website is not limited to a specific area.
More local customers
There are several reasons to optimise your web pages for local searches. The URL which you give Google for your Business Profile listing is generally going to be the homepage of your website. Google uses the information they gather from your homepage and from your business profile to determine which keyword searches to index your listing for. The more information you give Google via your homepage content about what you offer, the more likely your business listing is going to be shown in relevant searches.
It’s very important to note that Google indexes pages individually, not websites. A Google Local Pack does not show for some searches. This is another reason to optimise your site’s pages for keywords & keyphrases which are relevant to your business. Where a Local Pack is not displayed for a search, Google display 10 search results per page (plus paid Ads). If a business local to the searcher has optimised a webpage for a matching search term, Google is more likely to show that page to the searcher.
By optimising your website pages for relevant search terms, your website pages are far more likely to be shown outside of your local area, thereby introducing your business to many more potential customers.
Do you have questions about local search?
Find out more about local SEO and how it applies to your website. Get more in-store customers or clients by optimising your web pages.
