The 2021 Guide to Local SEO
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66% of shoppers are intending to shop more locally since the covid-19 pandemic a Google Study has revealed. With this INCREASING to 74% during the christmas period as shoppers seek to avoid crowds of people, another Google Study found.
Local SEO is about unlocking not only the potential of those “shopping more locally”, but also tapping into those who were already shopping locally.
The above search data shows the increasing trend over the past 5 years for searches globally including the term “near me” — these local searches year on year grow hugely with one study suggesting that from 2018/19 to 2019/20 they almost doubled as Google continued to double down on it’s mobile first approach. Even with the current pandemic, this isn’t something that has reduced, and with the data from the Google Studies we know that these searches are only going to increase as time goes on — making local search ever more important.
In this article I will guide you through how to optimise your local business profile, whether you are looking to optimise for multi-location, or a single business / retail location. This guide is designed for you to jump in and out of, its written to be jargon free and is full of links for you to fulfil your potential and reach your target audience using organic search.
In order to help you set up and make the most of your business profile within organic search, below are a set of questions to help you optimise your online profile both within Google and your own website.
What is Local SEO?
Your website and domain in general will give your business the ability to target the entire world as a ‘target audience’, but the reality is that you may not want too. You may want to target the UK, a region in the UK or a city or town such as ‘Manchester’.
Local SEO gives you that ability to target a specific Nation, Region or Locality.
Today, Local SEO has never been more important. With Local Lockdowns and travel restricitions meaning travel is less likely and users looking to shop more locally (see the Google studies above), optimising your website for local shoppers is a must. Local optimisations don’t always require code changes, it can be simple content optimisations, page name changes and other simple tweaks which…
