For any local business that is set up in multiple locations or has an online presence, your location pages are such an important part of your web page. They give your physical store locations, your business contact information, and all your product information to any potential customers!
Because most of the time, a consumer looking for a specific item will first search locally. And it makes sense – you don’t want to search only to find out it’s only available somewhere that’s hours away. So when your location pages are optimised, search engines can rank your business effectively based on customer location.
Local searches are actually becoming more popular what with the younger generations and the absolute domination the internet has over everyone. The point is, though, that most of those local searches turn into real in-store purchases within the next day. 24 hours.
You can see now why I’m telling you that your location pages are essential.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO focuses on improving search engine visibility for local businesses, especially those with a physical location. Optimising location pages can give businesses a boost in increasing their organic traffic from local customer searches.
Social profiles, links, local content, and citations are some of the signals search engines depend on when it comes to providing the most relevant local results to users. Thus, businesses can use these to their advantage, promoting products and services to local prospects.
How To Optimise Location Pages for Local SEO
Optimising location pages for local SEO is quite easy once you know what to do and why you have to do it. You have to optimise content to make it informative and relevant to each specific location. There are other SEO practices for optimising location pages, too.
Remember, it’s all done so that search engines can identify your business and, thus, enhance its visibility in local user searches.
Google My Business
At this point, if you’re not a newly established business, you’re probably sick and tired of hearing about Google My Business. But I’m not lying when I say it’s basically the cherry on top of the Bakewell.
With a verified authentic business, you can even appear in the sidebar space in a Google local search.
The thing is, it’s not just about the SEO. Not with this one. Is Google My Business good for it? Yeah, of course. But it’s even better for you and your consumers. They can see reviews and responses and contact information and with every up-to-date function you do, you’re exposing your business more.
Consistent NAP Details
So. You’ve got multiple platforms for your business and information to input. What you don’t do is be inconsistent about it.
Has your address changed since you filled out the information? Change it. Everywhere. Don’t make it even harder for both search engines and people to find you. If Google can’t crawl your HTML text, then they can’t display it.
A Page For Each Location
Try and avoid having one master location page for every business location you have. Rather, have a separate page for each location with each page having location-specific information.
And always avoid virtual office locations. This is a virtual office that the business can buy, rent, and implement into their Google My Business listing. However, GMB states you should not use a virtual office as part of your local SEO strategy. Unless you actually have a fully staffed off-site location.
Directories and Citations
Directories like GMB, Bing Places, Yell, and Yelp are all directories where you can list your business details along with images, videos, and a map location. Yelp, in fact, is a social directory which means customers can leave reviews.
Once again, though, consistency is so important. You can’t have any differences across any of these directories. No abbreviations or missing sections. Finding you should be easy so make it.
Perform Local SEO Audits
SEO is always ongoing so performing an audit is always helpful. It helps you see exactly where your website is, what’s performing well and what still needs a bit of work. Different audits will offer up many results depending on their purpose area.
For instance, a GMB audit will include whether or not your information is accurate and how your business appears in the SERPs. GSC (Google Search Console) audits inform you about the crawlability of your site as well as any potential errors causing indexing issues.
Each audit you perform will tell you what you want to know, and what you didn’t know, about the focus area. If you decide to focus on your competitors, then an analysis audit can tell you how you match up to your competition. Whether they’re ahead of you and how you compare in designs, content, links.
Create Local Content
Google gets smarter all the time so people who create content, like us, can put a little extra focus on writing for users rather than search engines. Thank you, Google.
Sometimes, writing about something more general, that applies to everyone or mostly everyone, can attract a diverse crowd from many different places. We’re talking globally. Therefore, writing about something more specific, something local, is sure to attract a crowd that’s more local.
If sharing and promoting local news is what you want to do to reach your local audience then do it. Share educational content on your page, promote local authority actions or industry gatherings, talk about local news. Anything you can create that is also relevant to your business in some way or another.
Our Agency Services
Ready for no nonsense SEO and digital marketing that actually works? Give us a buzz. 01706 706 0012.
GrowTraffic is an award-winning agency based in good old Lancashire and Yorkshire. Whether you want more traffic to your website or a whole new website design, we’ve got you covered. We’ll even whack in some fancifully written blogs if you want copywriting.
Not bad, that.
To send us an inbox, just email info@growtraffic.co.uk.
