As a business owner, optimizing for local search is an amazing opportunity. A few years ago, Google was returning mostly paid ads and then relevant webpages, according to the keywords used for a search. But things are a bit different now.

The search engine is able to detect “local intent” and whenever this is triggered, it changes the way the results page looks like, showing the closest location that matches your search.

Considering that a lot of people are using Google to find business information, it’s essential to take good care of the way your business looks on the search engine and create a complete and correct local listing.

In order to better understand how local search results are generated, let’s take a few moments and discuss the main ranking signals taken into consideration!

Proximity

The most majority of local searches are made with local intent, meaning that proximity will always be one of the biggest ranking factors in terms of importance.

Simply put, proximity refers to the distance between the user who is performing the search and the physical location of a business. Still, there are cases in which Google is not sure if it’s seeing the same thing as the user, so that’s why it needs consistent citations.

This is where Google My Business comes in, the most important place for a citation when it comes to local businesses.

We’re strongly recommending to pay a lot of attention when you’re completing your profile, to make sure that all the information is 100% correct.

Prominence

After giving Google a hand and starting your local SEO strategy properly, it’s time to prove that you deserve to be noticed by the search engine.

Prominence refers to credentials like rating and reviews, but also social signals, user engagement, and links to your website, but also the overall domain authority of your website.

While you can’t control most of these, you still have a word to say when it comes to inbound links and reviews.

Consider a powerful link building strategy as part of your local SEO plan and try acquiring reviews and ratings from your customers. All these, combine, can skyrocket your presence in local search results.

Relevance

Ok, so your business has a credible web presence and it’s visible on Google. But this doesn’t mean you’re done with local SEO.

One important thing you should keep in mind is that Google’s mission is to provide search results as relevant as possible, based on users’ intent. Thus your business needs to stay relevant.

To achieve this, you need to consider local keyword optimization.

Besides adding your local keywords to the GMB profile, insert them into your website, blog posts, social media, as well as pretty much everywhere you are present.

Even though it can look complicated at first for some, there are a few simple things you can do to start with local SEO. And you will be amazed by the results!

On the other side, we know that not all business owners have the time or resources to cover this, so it’s better to leave it to professionals.

#ISEOU focuses on offering SEO services for small businesses. Using the latest techniques and technologies, we can help you win at the local SEO game and be one step ahead of your competitors.

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