Some Key Advice Regarding Local SEO And How It Differs From Standard SEO
by Patric Fransko
If you have been following this column for any amount of time, you have likely read about the importance of having proper SEO (Search Engine Optimization) down on your website. While this is very important and not to be overlooked, that SEO is often not specific to a location or region. What I want to discuss in the article is specifically around local SEO so that your company can perform well in searches that are location specific.
Use Location Specific Data On Your Website Structure – While standard SEO may have you optimizing a page for a particular product or service that you offer, local SEO takes that a step further by integrating location specific data. An example might be a page specific to home window tinting. While that page may perform ok for searches related to “home window tinting” in your area assuming other things are present on your site like your address and phone number, you can do better with a little local SEO thrown in. An example of what many do vs what is possible for a fictional company selling home window tinting in Timbuktu is below;
Keyword/s: Home Window Tinting (Standard) / Home Window Tinting Timbuktu (Local Optimized)
Page Title: Integrates “Home Window Tinting” (Standard) / Integrates “Home Window Tinting In Timbuktu” (Local Optimized)
Page URL/Slug: Home-window-tinting (Standard) / Home-window-tinting-timbuktu (Local Optimized)
Meta Description: Mentions “home window tinting” (Standard) / Mentions (home window tinting Timbuktu” (Local Optimized)
**Photo Alt Tags: **Integrates “Home Window Tinting” (Standard) / Integrates “Home Window Tinting In Timbuktu” (Local Optimized)
Heading or H Tags: Integrates “Home Window Tinting” (Standard) / Integrates “Home Window Tinting In Timbuktu” (Local Optimized)
Location Maps Used: Use standard map with location pin (Standard) / Use Google My Business generated map (Local Optimized)
You can see that this is just one example of a specific page on your website and how these small changes could dramatically help the Local SEO of this company when someone is searching for their service in Timbuktu.
Set-Up, Verify And Optimize Your Google My Business Page – I have discussed the importance of properly setting up a Google My Business page to properly show up on the Map Pack in a past article here called “Don’t Make This Huge Marketing Mistake in 2020 (Part 2)”, so I won’t go over all the points again here. I can only say that it is imperative to any local SEO efforts that this page be set-up and properly maintained.
As mentioned in the above point, you can also use your Google My Business page to generate a map that can be integrated on your website for directions and to tell Google exactly where you are. This ties all of the SEO on the page to the Google My Business page so that you give your company a better chance to come up for relevant searches locally.
While this is not a comprehensive guide to local SEO, these are areas that we see many clients lacking. Standard and Local SEO are an ongoing and moving target, but it is important that you have these foundational things done properly to set your company up for success when it comes to high localized search rankings.