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Local SEO, or local search engine optimization, is an essential part of the online marketing strategy of location-based businesses or search engine listings. It describes the process of optimizing a website to rank higher in search engine results within a specific geographic area, thereby drawing more attention to your local location page or your local products and services. In short, it’s about optimizing your online presence to reach a larger audience in a specific area.
A placement in this area means that more users notice the ranking and thus become customers, either online or in a retail store.
In order to achieve higher positions within local search results, it is important to optimize your own website with regard to various factors. In this guide, we will introduce you to the most important influencing factors of local SEO and show you how you can rank better locally with your company.
One of the goals of local SEO is to increase visibility in the so-called local 3-pack. This refers to the first three results that are displayed when a user performs a Google search for products and services in their area.
In order for your listing to appear in local search results, several factors must be taken into account in addition to the relevance of the local search term and the distance to the searcher’s location. If these factors are met, the entry can either be displayed in the so-called “Local Pack,” which precedes local search results, or listed within the organic local search results.
In addition, information from the Google Business Profile of the local location is included in the evaluation of possible search results.
Organic local search results, on the other hand, are more strongly influenced by classic on-page factors. For example, there should be specific landing pages on your own website for each service or product you offer in order to generate separate rankings for them, but the internal linking structure and the quality of the backlinks pointing to the page are also included in the ranking evaluation.
One of the most important levers for a successful local SEO strategy is the correct and complete maintenance of the Google Business Profile. Previously known as Google MyBusiness, the business listing, which is available free of charge for every company, is one of the most important touchpoints for users of local search in Google.
This includes, among other things:
Depending on the type of business, additional relevant information such as menu links for restaurants or specific landing pages for the services listed in the profile can also be stored. Linking the website, phone number, email, or even social media accounts creates additional touchpoints and makes it easier for potential customers to get in touch with the business.
Another new feature is the integration of reservation tools for restaurants, which allows customers to make reservations directly from the search engine, further simplifying user conversion.
Other information in the profile is enriched by Google and can only be influenced indirectly, such as short descriptions or meta information from third-party sites such as Wikipedia.
The Business Profile offers various ways to get in touch with customers. Relevant customer questions can be asked and answered within the profile. By posting company updates, important information, such as changed opening hours, can be communicated. These channels should be used to improve customer relationships and strengthen the external impact of your own company.
Optimizing your Google Business Profile therefore has many advantages from an SEO perspective. To help you realize the full potential of your company profile, we have put together our own guide to optimizing your Google Business Profile, which covers all the relevant details.
In order to rank as high as possible locally, it is important to fulfill the Google ranking factors for local search engine optimization. Just as with conventional SEO, Google uses a variety of factors to determine how websites are ranked for local search queries. Fulfilling these ranking factors is at the core of a successful local SEO strategy.
According to a study by Moz, local SEO ranking factors can be divided into the following categories:
Google MyBusiness is an important tool in any local SEO strategy. It helps you increase your visibility in search results by providing your customers with more information about your business. Some of this data is used by Google to determine your position in local search results:
Success in local searches therefore also depends on Google’s evaluation of the page being searched for – many different factors are taken into account:
The user signals that Google perceives in the form of reviews are another aspect in determining local search rankings. Google distinguishes between three types that are considered relevant:
Reviews from all three sources are also assessed in terms of timeliness, frequency of reviews, distribution across different platforms, and review format. In addition, reviews from special users, such as those from the Google Local Guide Program, may be weighted more heavily than those from new users.
As already mentioned, the company name, physical address, and associated telephone number (also NAP) are important key data for local ranking. To assess the local relevance of companies, the presence of this company data in relevant business directories and listings is also taken into account. Cross-platform accuracy and consistency play an important role here, as do the quantity and quality of the platforms used and the potential relevance of a listing for the user.
Both the internal link structure and the number and characteristics of a domain’s external backlinks play an important role in the evaluation of search results in local search engine optimization. In addition to the authority of the linking domain, the page authority of the individual landing pages is again evaluated in terms of internal linking.
Google also measures the relevance of incoming links by evaluating the thematic connection between search queries and the target page. If this connection exists, the page can rank better than a page without thematic relevance. In this context, the anchor text is also a local ranking factor. Texts that describe a relevant fact rank better than generic texts such as “Click here.”
The distribution of backlinks is also evaluated. For example, links from many different relevant websites are rated higher than links from a few individual link sources.
So-called user signals provide Google with information about the behavior of users who interact with local search results or local ads. Interactions that correspond to or come close to a conversion within the local search have a particularly positive effect. These ranking-relevant metrics include the click-through rate of the local listing, the length of stay after clicking, and comparable interactions with other touchpoints within the local search:
Clicks-to-call, or the number of calls initiated by users, for example via Maps or the Google Business Profile. The number of clicks on the route to the company and the number of website clicks via the local listing are also included.
Here is a brief summary of the most important best practices for successful local search engine optimization:
Create separate landing pages for each of your locations or each of your location-specific offers. These subpages, created specifically for local searches, allow you to focus your keywords specifically on your local offer. This not only ensures that your content is relevant to local users, but also increases your chances of ranking higher in local search results.
On-page optimization of your website is essential if you want to appeal to a local audience. Therefore, take advantage of all optimization opportunities. Ensure that titles, meta descriptions, image alt tags, and other elements are tailored to local users and that your content is marked up with structured data.
Links to your website from relevant and popular third-party domains can have a very positive effect. If many high-quality websites link to you, your domain authority will also improve, further increasing your chances of ranking in local search results.
The constant changes to local search algorithms, Google Maps search, and Google Business Profile indicate that local search engine optimization will become even more relevant in the future.
The latest local SEO trends in 2023 show a further increase in the relevance of voice search as a means of local search. With the advent of virtual assistants such as Siri and Alexa, voice search is becoming increasingly popular and enables quick searches while exploring a new city, for example. If a local business is optimized according to the above ranking factors and has, for example, a fully completed Google Business Profile, this can help attract potential walk-in customers.
As personalized search results become increasingly relevant to users, businesses should try to deliver tailored content and offers based on a user’s exact location.
Using GPS and IP addresses, businesses can target audiences in a granular way, for example, based on their city, neighborhood, or even their address. This strategy is particularly useful for businesses that have a physical location that benefits from walk-in customers (e.g., restaurants, retail stores, and other local businesses).
Google frequently updates its algorithms and, as a result, often changes the weighting of the factors used to evaluate search results. Accordingly, it is important to be aware of such changes and to continuously optimize your own local listing.
There are many online tools that can help you with your local SEO efforts. These include tools for keyword research, content optimization, and competitor analysis. Some offer comprehensive features, while others focus on a specific aspect of local SEO. Some of these tools are free, with advanced features available for a fee. Accordingly, it is important to choose the right tool for your needs.
Moz Local is an automated tool for managing a variety of business listings and allows for active and continuous synchronization of business data. The Moz Local Toolkit helps positively influence your local visibility on Google by publishing all relevant location data and ensuring its consistency across different sources.
With the help of the PlePer extension for Google MyBusiness, local search listing data can be viewed and analyzed. This can be used, for example, to examine the information provided by competitors and find out which categories other companies use to maintain their rankings.
The tool also allows you to break down the review profiles of your local competitors. The extension provides data such as the number of reviews, average star ratings, the number of listings without reviews, and the maximum and minimum number of reviews received.
Since reviews are an important factor for visibility in local searches, this detailed insight can help you understand how your own review profile compares to potential competitors.
Yext is a toolkit for simplified management of multiple related listings. Similar to Moz Local, Yext allows you to keep the NAP data (name, address, and phone number) of your listings consistent and up to date.
The combination of Yext Listings and Yext Pages can also be used to update NAP across the web, including your own website. This makes it easier to add local content to location pages and listings, and technical optimizations such as schema markup and structured data can be entered directly. In addition, Yext offers review monitoring features and allows authentic customer reviews to be placed on location pages.
If you want to optimize your WordPress website for local SEO, the Yoast Local SEO plugin is a good choice. The extension not only allows you to manage all your business data in one place, but also enables technical optimization of your content. For example, data such as your address and opening hours are automatically output in Schema.org format. The plugin also generates information such as your geo sitemap and KML file and adds it to your XML sitemap.
This brings us to the end of our guide to local SEO. If you take all of these points into account, you will be well equipped to grow your business and beyond. Do you have any further questions about local SEO? Then feel free to contact us. 😊
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