Local SEO
Our local SEO services help businesses maximise their visibility for location-based searches. Effectively reach and engage customers with geographic search. Get local SEOWhat is local SEO?
Local SEO is the practice of optimising a website and its content for local search results. If your business has a store or physical location, or if you service a specific geographical area, then local search engine optimisation is for you.
Primarily focused on Google & Bing, effective local SEO can influence your listings within the map pack, how well your business is represented in the knowledge panel and how you rank in search results with a local intent.
As a specialist Local SEO agency we focus on ranking your website for keywords plus specific geographical search terms, such as “plumbers in [city]” or searches including “near me” as a modifier.
Local search optimisation includes practices such as adding your business to relevant local directories (citation management), encouraging customer reviews and creating high-quality content relevant to a local audience.
Why is local SEO important?
Local search engine optimisation is one of many digital marketing initiatives that can support your business by having a website rank highly within region-based searches. It increases the likelihood of potential leads clicking through to your website, as they can see that you’re a local business relevant to their needs.
In the modern age, more searches are performed on a mobile phone than ever before, and a huge portion of mobile searches are for local businesses. Boosting your local SEO helps put your website in front of the people looking for it, where they are looking for it.
Local SEO can benefit both businesses with a physical location customers travel to, and those that service a defined area. If your business fits one of these criteria but isn’t ranking for local search terms, you’re missing out on a huge potential audience.
The leads produced by effective local search optimisation are usually intent-driven, and looking for products or services in close proximity to their location. Therefore, they have a high chance of converting into customers.
What areas of Local SEO do we specialise in?
At Bespoke Digital, we have a range of SEO services that can help your business rank highly for relevant search terms online. As there is no one-size-fits-all approach to Local SEO optimisation, we carefully customise each of these services to best suit your business.
Local SEO Audits:
A Local SEO audit is an overview of what location specific content is on your site and how it performs in searches with a local or geographic intent. This might include regional office contact pages or service pages specific to towns and cities.
Typically, our local search audit will look for structural or contextual issues that may prevent your pages from performing well in local search results, as well as providing suggestions on what you can do to improve your website’s performance and increase visibility.
Getting your website audited is the first step in any local SEO campaign
Local Keyword Research:
It’s important to have a good understanding of your target audience when it comes to SEO, especially if you are looking to rank for local search terms. This is where location based keyword research comes in handy and can help you place your business precisely where customers are looking for it.
On a basic level, you can find out what location specific keywords people are searching for by using tools like Google’s Keyword Planner Tool or Google Search Console. Knowing what people are searching for locally, and understanding the intent behind these searches, will help ensure that your site is optimised for the correct local search terms, which will in turn help you get more local search traffic.
Google Business Profile Optimisation:
Claiming your free Google Business Profiles is an easy way to tell the world about your business. Formerly known as Google My Business and Google Places for Business, Google Profiles allow you to set up a page for each of your business locations, which includes information such as contact details, opening hours, photos, and much more.
Optimising your Google Business Profile may include tasks such as adding clear, concise text to describe your business and detailing your products or services. Through Google Profiles, you can provide a quick, easy way for searchers to get in touch without needing to visit your site, provide directions to your physical location, and display reviews to help sway the opinions of any potential customers looking for your services. This is all essential for effective mobile search strategies.
Utilising the Map Pack, where businesses are listed according to geographical location, could help you rise in local search visibility. The Map Pack and Local Knowledge panel will pull from your business profile to display information to local searches, so to get the most out of Google’s local search, it’s important to make sure your Google profile is accurate and up to date.
Local Link Building:
Local citations are a critical part of any local SEO campaign. In essence, they are online mentions of your business – the more you have, the better. Local citations can come from business directories, regional websites, social media profiles, and more. We’ll help you get your business listed on the most relevant sites for your region, industry and target audience.
There are a number of different ways to build local links, and at Bespoke Digital we have a wealth of experience in this area. We are able to get links from high-quality websites that are relevant to your industry and target market in the local area, helping to improve your website’s rankings and visibility in search engines.
Bing Places for Business:
Just as with Google, we’ll help you optimise your Bing Places for Business page to ensure you rank well in Bing’s local results. Whilst not as dominant as Google within UK search, Bing’s local search results still get a reasonable number of views, all representing potential leads for your business, and so should not be overlooked or forgotten about. It is important to remember that by default, Apple’s Siri assistant uses Bing Search Results over Google, and Microsoft Edge sets Bing as its default search engine, so neglecting to optimise for Bing Places could cut out a large portion of potential leads.
NAP Consistency:
Ensuring that your business name, address and phone number match on all your business listings is vital for local search engine results. Making sure these are consistent across all owned, rented & earned media goes a long way toward boosting local search rankings. Double check your Google Business Profile and Bing Places pages, your website, and all social media profiles to make sure you’re consistently using the correct details.
Local Landing Pages:
A local landing page is a page on your website that is specifically designed to rank well for specific local search terms. We can create (or optimise) these pages for you, populating them with the right content and keywords to help reach your target audience.
Localised Content Creation:
Creating high-quality, localised content is key for ranking well in local search results. We’ll help you create content that is both relevant and usefulrelevant to your target audience, bringing you new potential customers and keeping them engaged with your site for longer.
Measuring the Success of Local SEO
So, what can you expect when your site’s local SEO is optimised correctly? There are a variety of factors that should be tracked to evaluate a successful local SEO campaign. Some of these include:
- Increase in rankings:
An increase in SERP rank brings more visibility for your website which should result in greater click throughs. By using tools such as Google’s Search Console, you are able to see where your website ranks for specific keywords.and what searches are driving customers to your site. Local SEO can help boost your postions not just on SERPs, but in the Map Pack and local listings.
- Traffic:
One of the most obvious benchmarks of success for local SEO is an increase in traffic coming from local search queries. This can be measured by looking at the percentage of website visitors that have reached your site organically, using a local or ‘near me’ search term, when compared to past user numbers. You can also look at increased footfall if you have a physical location for customers to visit as a barometer for local SEO success.
- Conversions:
The end goal of any SEO campaign is to generate more leads and conversions from your website visitors. As mentioned before, Google’s Search Console lets you view organic traffic. Google Analytics lets you cross-reference your traffic sources with your conversions – if you see a positive correlation, then you know your Local SEO campaign is effective. You might also want to make use of tracking codes or UTMs to more clearly track your conversions from local SEO.
- Local Reviews:
Much like online reviews in any kind of business, local reviews can be a valuable source of feedback and testimonials. They also help to improve your website’s visibility and relevance in local search results.
- Increased Local Citations:
The growth of links from local sources will help raise your profile in the target area, with each link acting as a mark of trust from the source. What’s more, each link has the potential to refer traffic to your site, which may result in a conversion or visit from a new customer.
How much does Local SEO cost?
At Bespoke Digital, we’ve learned that every client we work with is unique. Because of this, we’ve decided to forego a one-size-fits-all pricing plan and offer our services at a fee that makes sense for each client individually.
When you work with us, we’ll take the time to assess your website and give you a quote that reflects the needs of your business. Most of our quotes are for either a 6 or 12 month campaign, where we look to maintain, manage and improve your SEO. However, local SEO audits and implementation can be run as shorter term agreements. Citations and local link building takes longer to complete.
Request a free local SEO health check
Let’s get started with a free appraisal of your local SEO health. Use the contact form below to arrange a call.