What is Local SEO?

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What is Local SEO?
Local SEO is the process of promoting a business
or product within your local area using public
places like web pages, public places like plazas
and information panels, local industry experts,
and door-to-door sales representatives. Local
SEO is the act of getting your website or
business found by local search engines. This can
be done by promoting an existing business,
creating an awesome local page, or simply working
with a local professional. For example, if your
local business serves in your nearby local area,
your website wont be ranking in other cities.
Search engines take the finders or users
location to make suggestions related to the
product or service that are within your local or
certain range. And now what you as a user would
do is pick the top results in search engines and
make your decision. Precisely, local SEO tactics
are what help businesses surface in Maps or
search results when someone out and about on
their phone types in best pizza New York or
Pizza near me.

• Why do you need Local SEO?
• The answer could be as simple as you want to hear
  i.e. to get on the top of search engines. As this
  is the most important benefit of why you need it
  but there are other benefits also that are
  equally important. Other benefits include
• Gain loyal customers
• Makes you more visible

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• Boost site traffic
• Get more leads
• No time wasting in competing with big size
  businesses.

Now you might be wondering that if local
SEO is what every small business owner needs
then what is SEO for?
There is a huge difference between local SEO and
Organic SEO (or just SEO). Local SEO is the
process of advertising your business on specific
local websites similar to those used by
television and radio stations. Local SEO is a
very effective way for businesses to reach new
customers, particularly in locations where there
are few other options. For example, local SEO is
what help businesses surface in Maps or search
results when someone is out and about on their
phone types in best pizza New York or Pizza
near me. On the other hand, SEO refers to the
effort to improve your website or blog through
search engines. It encompasses all the activities
that are used to attract leads or convert
visitors into customers. Local SEO is different
from traditional SEO because, while it involves
searching for keywords in the target area, it
focuses more on the relationships you build with
local businesses and local residents. To put it
simply, Local SEO helps customers to your
near geographical area only while organic
or traditional SEO (or just SEO) provides
results or solves queries of anyone around the
globe. Read More What is SEO and why is it
important?
Strategies for Local SEO The strategy of local
SEO is very different for each type of business,
but the goal is the same drive traffic to your
store from the right places usually the local
area network. Local SEO has become increasingly
important as Internet users increasingly
seek out local services, products and
information. Targeting customers within a
specific geographic area has proven to be more
effective in driving business or traffic than
simply sending traffic from one region to another.
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• Here are the Three Elements of a Strong Local SEO
  strategy for local businesses
• Create a Google my business page
• Creating a business page is the first and most
  important step while thinking of setting
  strategies for your business. Creating a
  Google My Business page is easy and hassle
  free. You just have to include the
  following in your page to make it more
  presentable and user friendly
• Business Name
• Address
• Opening Hours
• Services Provided
• Relevant Photos
• Updates

Join Local Directories Being a small business
owner you must submit your business information
to as many in your local area. Though its tough
to believe, Many people still use local
directories. So, your business information must
be submitted in your local area. Backlinking
Strategy is the other benefit this step
can provide. Backlinking is where you try
to get websites to link back to yours. This
shows Google that your site is relevant and has
useful information. Thankfully, Many Local
directories tick this box, so it can help boost
you up the rankings.
Encourage Customers to Leave Reviews There are
very few things in this world that can directly
affect your search engine ranking but one
thing you CAN do is encourage your
customers to leave reviews. Reviews are a
powerful tool for improving a business
reputation and its one you can use effectively
in marketing to drive visitors away from
competitors. There are many different reasons why
customers leave reviews, but its important to
remember that they add to the overall
experience of using a business so make sure
they help your business stand out from the
competition.
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Google local Rankings and Algorithm Local SEO
will be a hotly debated topic over the next few
months as Google updates its algorithm for
determining what sites rank highly. This update
could have a huge impact on local businesses. The
old way of ranking sites by traffic has become
obsolete as new technologies and methods more
effectively deliver results. Following Google
algorithm is a must for any business to get more
relevancy and top rankings in search
engines. Googles local feature allows you to
display a nearby address in the search results
when someone types in a location specific to you.
The idea behind this is to help users get
interested in certain locations and also help
Google find them easier.
Google local algorithm comprises of mainly three
factors
Relevance Local relevance plays a central
role in Googles attempts to provide users
with relevant information. There are two
fundamental approaches taken in the search
engines effort to respond to the user query, one
aimed directly at removing irrelevant information
and another aimed at rewarding users that bring
up useful and relevant information. When
local relevance is incorporated into an
application algorithm it can improve both the
ranking of local queries and the timeliness of
responses.
Proximity Proximity is an algorithm that
helps Google understand your location,
giving it a better chance to serve you
search results more relevant to what youre
looking for. When youre near a business
open for business, for example, youre more
likely to see their information appear in search
results because the computers spread out across
the world have identified them as being nearby.
And since theyre better able to respond to
queries based on where you are, its a
win-win situation all around.
Prominence Local SEO for your business or
website is one of the most important factors in
building success. If you cant make it clear to
Google that your business exists in a specific
location, and if the results of a local search
are misleading or inaccurate, you could be losing
precious sales. Prominence is an excellent tool
for local SEO. Using it will help your website
rank higher in the SERPs (search engine result
pages) for that area, increasing traffic and
making clients aware of your presence.
Now that we have covered Local SEO in depth you
can use these strategies and tactics to make your
business digitally worthy and earn more from it.