Local search is essential for service-based industries with clients in the same area. We all want to be included in local search queries related to our industries—for instance, for a law office specializing in divorce, that would be [divorce lawyer near me]. By creating and optimizing your Google Business Profile and Bing Places Profile and updating your website content with local phrases that will resonate with your local audience, you can improve your site’s local visibility. Let’s dive into it!
Local SEO, or local search engine optimization, focuses on optimizing your online presence to attract more business from relevant local searches. These searches usually occur on Google and other search engines (like Bing!) when users are looking for nearby services or products. When you give search engines more information on your Bing Places for Business or Google Business Profile (GBP), formally known as Google My Business listing, you can rank higher on the Bing Local Pack or Google Local Pack, formally known as the Google Map Pack, and appear more often for related search queries.
The Google Local Pack and Bing Local Pack are the sections displayed typically above the organic search results and contains all the local results and showcases the top-ranking listings for your location or the searched location.
Here is the information you should include in your Google Business Profile:
Searchers can click on a listing to learn more about the company, like their phone number, or pull up directions to their location. Optimized Google Business Profiles have all the works. They include photos (real ones, not stock images), reviews (with company responses!), link to make an appointment, link to the website, links to social media profiles, a snippet about what they do and who they are, the area they serve, and posts.
Here is the information you should include in your Bing Places listing that is not on Google:
** This can also be done on Google but considering how important social signals are to Bing, it fit better here.
WOW that’s a lot of information right? Your online profile is one powerful tool. Not only can it increase your company’s online presence but it can also be the one-stop-shop for your potential customers to learn more about your business and complete a transaction - and for some businesses, they can do all of this before visiting your website! Aside from the stark differences between Bing and Google, it is advisable to create a profile on both search engines.
Think about how often you rely on Google or Apple maps to find the location of a business or type of service. If you are a service-related business and aren’t on the map, people will most likely drive right past you on their way to one of your competitors with an optimized profile. Optimizing your local search increases your business awareness to your audience across the marketing funnel.
There isn’t a magic formula to get instant local traffic to your website. The main difference between your website content and local content is searcher intent. When creating your website content, it is essential to consider the local user and how they will engage with it.
When creating local content, try these tips:
According to Google, local rankings are determined primarily by relevance, distance, and prominence. What does that mean?
Bing on the other hand utilizes social signals from Facebook, Yelp, and Trip Advisor. It also considers similar metrics to Google, relevance, distance, and overall popularity.
Google and Bing use what it can find on your website and the information you provide in your content to provide the most up-to-date information about your business. That is why keeping your website information current and as relevant as possible is essential.
Service-based businesses whose primary audience is local customers benefit the most from local searches. These businesses can include but are not limited to brick-and-mortar stores, construction trades, personal and professional service providers like housekeeping, law firms, medical offices, small business owners like boutiques, restaurants, marketing agencies, pet care and boarding, and more.
In short, the key factors for successful local search engine optimization include accurate and consistent business information across your website, Google or Bing Places Business Profile listing, high-quality content (on both your pages and blogs), positive customer reviews, and effective use of keywords and metadata.