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By yeeken on September 23, 2021
Local SEO has become a huge topic in recent years.
In fact, did you know that ânear meâ, and âbuy nowâ searches are up by 500%? Thatâs right. They are completely smashing it.
Moreover, with the rise of smartphones, every third search is related to location. And we are sure that you want to attract people looking for âwhere can I buy…â, right?
This is a golden opportunity for every local business owner to get ahead.
And if you have a local business, you canât be missing out on it. Thatâs what we will look at in this guide today.
Weâll talk about local SEO, local rank tracking, and everything you need to know to dominate local rankings.
Local SEO is a set of strategies to rank high in the local search.
If you have a local business and a Google My Business listing, searchers can find it online and decide whether to visit it. If they type in any local query such as ârestaurants near meâ, theyâll get a bunch of businesses listed.
These businesses are shown by location and sorted by local SEO score.
Thatâs right, the more you work on your local SEO game, the higher youâll rank, which will increase your chances of attracting more customers. And of course, if you give it no attention, you wonât even be able to rank for local searches at all.
Before we start working on your local SEO game, you must learn a few things first.
When it comes to local SEO, itâs very similar to organic SEO. The only difference is that everything is local-related.
With that being said, letâs look at a few concepts you should understand.
When it comes to local keywords, they are similar to organic ones.
But unlike organic queries, they are location-related. You can see a great example of the difference between the two below.
While the first one serves everyone, the second one is only for people from London. So be sure to keep that in mind when conducting local keyword research.
The second new thing is the GMB listing – A.K.A Google 3-Pack.
When it comes to organic searches, you type in a search query to Google, and youâll get a list of search results as below.
But this is different for local SEO.
When you type in a local-based search query, you will get a list of nearby businesses. And this list features the three best businesses – Google 3-Pack.
All these businesses have been registered in Google My Business, and you can see them in Google Maps.
If you rank among the top businesses, there is a big chance you attract more customersâŚ. Which will go a long way in making your business more profitable.
Lastly, there is Google Maps you are probably well familiar with.
We are sure that most of you have used it at least once, whether it was looking for a business or trying to navigate somewhere with a GPS.
No matter what it was, you wonât be found if you donât perfect your local SEO.
Your business wonât be shown in Google Maps, and your potential customers wonât find you, which can drastically decrease your sales.
Local SEO can bring you a lot of benefits that organic SEO canât provide.
Some of them can motivate you, but some can do wonders for your business, traffic, and sales.
Here are the 5 biggest benefits of working on your local SEO.
Small business owners can feel overwhelmed competing with giant companies such as Amazon, eBay, or AliExpress.
The struggle is real…Youâre getting only a few customers while theyâre getting millions.
They are completely dominating the market, and there is only a slight chance that you can ever compete with them, let alone beat them.
Fortunately, if youâre taking advantage of local SEO, you donât need to compete with them.
Instead, youâll shift your focus to only local businesses in your area.
You will stop selling to everyone and focus only on the specific group of customers that can physically visit your store.
You will also start to optimize your content and business towards your niche.
And this will, in turn, help you dominate your niche and local-based businesses. You will become a shark in your ocean.
Like the previous benefit of niche marketing, local SEO is excellent for establishing authority and brand awareness at a local level.
If you choose a few local keywords carefully, you can avail the local market and dominate.
It will help you narrow down competition from worldwide to local-based. This means competing with a few local restaurants rather than the best restaurants in the world.
This can have a tremendous impact on your rankings and brand awareness.
Moreover, it can increase your profitability and make you more successful.
If you are looking to dominate your neighborhood, youâll also need to smash your local online presence.
And for that, we will be using a local rank tracker.
Itâs essential because it can allow you to track your competitors’ local rankings and compare them with yours. You can then use this information to adjust your strategy and win.
Local trackers are a MUST when it comes to a thriving local business online presence.
Starting a local SEO marketing campaign can be difficult, especially if this is your first time.
You need to learn about local rank trackers, get on the most popular listings, and create your Google My Business profile.
But if you can get all of that right, you can save a lot of money on advertising.
Thatâs right, creating a successful local SEO marketing campaign can help you big time in promoting your business and increasing brand awareness. You no longer have to run a PPC ads campaign or promote it via social media.
You just perfect your GMB profile, work on your local SEO, and the rest will follow.
Local rank trackers can help you attract a larger audience. This is because by tracking your local keywords, you can dominate local rankings.
More importantly, you can attract the audience that really matters.
These are the searchers who are nearby and want to buy a product from you ASAP.
Attracting them is the most important thing to enhance the profitability of your business. You should also widen your focus on multiple keywords to dominate rankings.
That will establish you as an authority in your niche and help you get more customers.
Only then can you harness the full power of local SEO and local rank trackers.
Before we jump into the whole process of getting these benefits and taking advantage of local rank trackers, letâs look at the differences between local and organic SEO.
This will allow you to see why you should focus on local SEO instead of organic SEO if you are a local business owner.
You will also understand the differences and see the true power of local SEO.
Organic SEO focuses on global scale visibility.
You build content that everyone can read, no matter the location, nationality, or anything else. If the person can speak English, they can become a reader.
Of course, that also means that your competitors are everywhere around the globe.
Local SEO is a bit different, though.
It is very location-related, focusing on a specific location. And if your customers arenât nearby, you are not targeting them.
This has many advantages but also some disadvantages you need to consider.
For instance, you are attracting 1000x fewer customers – shifting from the whole world to only your location.
But even though you are attracting fewer customers, they are all qualified. Moreover, all of them can buy from you, which makes them your perfect audience.
You also have lower competition, competing only with the nearby businesses.
This can be a huge benefit, especially in the beginning. You donât need to compete with every business in the industry like in organic SEO.
Instead, you compete with only a few similar-size nearby businesses.
Ranking high in search results is essential.
It will help you establish authority, gain more traffic, and even boost sales. But if you have a local business, do you need it?
The answer is not really – or at least not as much as being well positioned in local SERP.
Dominating local search engine results is far more critical than ranking in organic search results.
This is because you can leverage maybe 5 – 10% of organic traffic to your advantage.
But with local traffic, it is more like 90 – 100%. Remember, local SEO focuses on the audience that lives nearby, not on everyone like organic SEO.
Using local rank trackers is a lot different from using the organic keyword research tool.
The same goes for keywords.
Organic keywords are very general compared to local keywords. For instance, consider the example keywords below.
All of them are for everyone seeking the information.
Local keywords are different, though. They are tight to the location of the business and usually contain a word or two based on the location.
For instance, if your business is in London, local keywords would look like below.
You can compare these examples with the previous ones and immediately spot the difference.
Donât freak out, though. The whole process isnât that difficult as it may seem.
Local SEO and organic SEO have their differences.
But, they are both still SEO, which means they donât differ that much from one another. You should think of organic SEO as a baseline and local SEO as a superstructure.
They overlap each other and can work great together.
In fact, if you are looking for the best results, you should make them work hand in hand.
The strategies you use for building great organic rankings, such as link building, skyscraper technique, and so much more, are also helpful for your local SEO. This is very convenient because it means you donât have to change up your existing strategy.
Instead, you make only a few tiny changes, and you are good to go. Itâs super simple.
After you have a pretty good understanding of local SEO and how it differs from organic SEO, itâs time that we look into the fundamentals of local rank tracking.
In this section, youâll discover everything about local rank tracking and why it matters.
Local rank tracking is a local SEO strategy for improving a siteâs SERP rankings. There are a couple of things youâll need to rank higher such as:
Local rank tracking can help you achieve all of these things.
Moreover, if you use it the right way, it can help you skyrocket your Google rankings and boost conversions.
But before you can get that, youâll need to learn more about the mechanics of local search.
There are a bunch of ways you can spot a local search query with a local rank tracker.
For instance, consider the example below.
If the query contains ânearâ, ânear meâ, or ânearbyâ, itâs a clear indication for the local rank tracker that itâs a local query. So itâs obvious, if you didnât mind the location, you wouldnât include it in the search query.
But it doesnât stop there… There are a lot of other phrases like âopen nowâ or âoutdoorâ.
If a local rank tracker spots these phrases, it knows that you are looking for something near you where you can go.
(there are also other similar phrases like âpet-friendlyâ)
Lastly, there are qualitative modifiers like âbestâ, âtop-ratedâ, or âmost popularâ. These are one of the most searchable local queries.
That isnât surprising, though. We all want the best quality, right..? Especially with the food.
On top of that, there can also be geo-modified keywords, including a state or city.
This makes it more than clear to the local rank trackers that a searcher is looking for local businesses in the local area.
So bottom line, imagine being in searcherâs shoes, outside of your apartment.
How would you search for a restaurant, florist, or barber? What questions would you have before arriving at the desired location?
Answering these questions will help you see how searchers would look for a local query.
Weâve covered what local rank tracking does and what local keywords look like.
Now itâs time to discover what happens when searchers press enter and get the local search results from Google.
So if you were to search for ârestaurants in Londonâ, youâd get something as below.
Itâs a Google My Business 3-pack, as weâve mentioned earlier. In essence, Google shows you the three most relevant businesses for your search query.
It counters on all factors, which include location, rating, relevance, etc.
Itâs important here to keep in mind to set the right GMB category for your business. For example, if you have a barbershop but set it as a ârestaurantâ, you wonât earn muchâŚ
(keep that in mind when creating your GMB profile.)
Also, searchers can look for your business directly by its name. If they do, they will see a big Google My Business listing, as you can see below.
Of course, all of that is only possible with the local rank tracking, and GMB set properly.
Weâve covered the basics of local rank tracking in the two points above. But how does it actually benefit you to use local rank tracking?
Thatâs what we will shed light on in the following three sections.
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. This is very true, especially in the SEO world.
If you donât have the right strategy and fail to use local rank tracking to track your local keywords, you will quickly fall short.
On the other hand, using local rank tracking properly can do wonders for your site.
It can transform your underperforming business into a top-ranking peopleâs go-to. As a result, you can increase your visibility, gain traffic, and make tons of sales.
Think about that next time when deciding to use a local rank tracking tool.
Local rank tracking can be the best thing you can do for your local business. This is because it can allow you to smash the Google 3-pack completely.
The critical thing here is monitoring local keywords as well as your competitors.
Without local rank tracking, you cannot know for what search queries you rank or whether youâve outranked competitors.
You can only guess and hope you did (which is never good.)
But with a local rank tracking solution, you can be 100% sure. It can track your keywords and tell you the exact ranking position.
You can then make the necessary improvements and smash the local 3-pack.
Itâs a must for every serious business owner.
Often you can see a new local business opening.
You may not be concerned about it because youâve been there longer, have higher credibility, and will definitely outrank it, right?
Well, not really…
In fact, there can be a new business that has just opened up and outrank you in a few seconds if they know what they are doing.
The worst thing about it is you never find out – unless you use a local rank tracking tool.
Thatâs why itâs crucial to track your rankings and look for any competitors who may be trying to put you down or the ones who have done it already. They are stealing your traffic and customers, so you must take action ASAP.
But without a proper local rank tracking solution, youâll never know.
Thatâs why using the right solution is a MUST for every serious local business.
Before you can take advantage of local rank tracking, you must have an actual business you can track. And thatâs exactly what setting up Google My Business is – making your business online.
It allows searchers to find it online, interact with it, and consider visiting it.
The first step of local SEO is creating your online business profile. The easiest way to do so is to create a Google My Business account.
You can easily do that by navigating to the Google business website.
You will first need to create the whole Google Suite account for your business. This includes everything from a Gmail account to Google Drive.
After that, youâll need to click on âManage nowâ and start creating your business.
The first thing youâll need to set is your business name.
After you take care of that, itâs time to set the category of your business.
There are nearly 4.000 categories, so you can be sure youâll find the one that suits your business the most.
Itâs important to pick it wisely, though. So be sure to take your time on this step.
If you are unsure of which category to pick, you can go ahead and look at the whole list of all GMB categories here.
Youâll then need to select the address of your store.
Make sure always to double-check it. You have no idea how many businesses write an incorrect address to their store.
It will frustrate your customers and significantly decrease your sales.
After that, youâll need to pinpoint the exact location of your business on Google Maps. Take your time on this step and make it as precise as possible.
It will literally take you only a few seconds but can save your customers a lot of time.
Then youâll need to add your phone number and website URL and verify that itâs really your business.
The usual procedure is to send you a postcard by mail from Google.
After receiving it, you can verify that you are really an owner of your business, and so you can claim it.
Once you do that, youâll get your business online, and youâll show up in Google Maps.
You will also get listed in the SERP if somebody searches for your business. Itâs definitely a MUST for every physical business.
Almost every business has its GMB profile nowadays. But only a tiny portion of business owners actually takes time to optimize it and make it top-notch.
This opens up an excellent opportunity to take advantage of it and perfect yours.
Here are 5 steps to optimize your GMB listing.
NAP stands for âname, address, and phone number.â For local SEO purposes, you must include this information when creating your GMB profile.
But just writing any NAP isnât enough. It must be consistent and accurate.
Often, local businesses feature inaccurate addresses, or they feature different NAPs across multiple listings.
That isn’t ideal, though, and may present two major setbacks.
For these reasons, you must make sure itâs consistent and accurate across every listing and business directory.
In fact, if you look at the two most common ranking issues, youâll come to find out this.
I am sure you donât want to be like the majority of businesses with an inaccurate NAP.
And thatâs why itâs critical that you always double-check your name, address, and phone number when adding your business to a listing.
Itâs the only way to achieve substantial rankings and generate more sales.
The business description is the best place to describe your business and help customers know what to expect.
Itâs also an ideal place to include some local keywords and do the selling.
You should pay attention to the tone of your description as well as including unique attributes to attract more customers.
After all, why should a customer visit your store instead of choosing competitors?
You must make it all clear in your description.
Remember, its point is to describe, persuade, and rank your business higher.
We are visual creatures, so a picture is worth a thousand words is very true, especially when it comes to marketing.
We process visual information a lot better and faster and find it much more appealing.
And thatâs why itâs a MUST to upload relevant photos of your business to your GMB listing.
(it will also help you rank higher because itâs a ranking factor.)
Of course, this is only true with high-quality, relevant photos. If you upload blurry images that have nothing to do with your business, you wonât get far.
Thatâs why you should pay attention to the resolution, quality, and relevance.
All of your photos should be sharp and taken from your business or at least have some connection to it.
Adding stock photos may only lure in readers on something you canât deliver. So make everything believable, high-quality, and relevant.
Reviews play a huge role for Google as well as customers.
If you see a business with a 4.7-star rating compared to the one with no reviews, which one are you more likely to pick?
The first one, for sure.
Reviews are very critical, but so is the way you handle them.
You must make sure you respond to every review, especially negative ones.
Most business owners receive a negative review, and they get mad and ignore it or attack the person writing the review.
But that isnât a good policy and may lead to some severe problems in the future.
So make sure always to be kind and respond to every review.
You should also monitor your reviews and find out your negative-to-positive ratio.
If you see many negative reviews and almost no positive ones, that means that there is something seriously wrong with your business.
The most common reason is your personnel – the customer service.
If this is the case, talk to your employees, and be sure the same inconveniences donât repeat in the future.
That will help you stay away from negative reviews and replace them with positive ones.
Confusion kills sales.
Sometimes your customers may be considering visiting your store, but they might not be sure of something.
And because they are not sure, they decide not to visit it altogether.
Fortunately, you can prevent it by incorporating a Q&A section with your business. Your customers will no longer be confused or indecisive.
Instead, they will know all they need and will have no problem visiting your business.
That will help you be different and make customers choose your business rather than go for competitors’.
Youâve learned quite a bit about local rank tracking and local SEO.
But we have never talked about the exact strategies and ways to use a local rank tracking solution to outrank your competitors.
This is the last missing piece in your local SEO strategy which youâre about to discover.
Here is the exact process of how to take advantage of local rank tracking.
There is a lot of great local rank tracking solutions on the market.
You can choose them in the form of plugins, web-application, or even standard desktop apps for your operating system.
Each one of them has its own limitations but also advantages to take into account.
For instance, plugins tend to be really easy to use and intuitive, but they are also only lightweight and don’t have a lot of features.
If youâre serious about your business but also your comfort, we suggest using web apps.
They can provide you with the same amount of functionality as desktop applications while still being lightweight and intuitive, like plugins.
We highly suggest using Grid My Business when it comes to local rank tracking.
There are a couple of reasons for that. First, itâs really precise, and you have a ton of features that can help you work more effectively.
Many solutions get their position by the zip code, which may not be so accurate.
With the Grid My Business, you can choose the grid to cover, and we will calculate rankings as they appear in the real world.
(we also support multiple-location which is very convenient for larger businesses,)
It also features additional handy features like analyzing competitors, managing GMB reporting, and so much more.
You can see some of the best Grid My Business features below.
Itâs really one of the most complete solutions for local rank tracking on the market.
Grid My Business is super simple to use.
The whole process of analyzing your business and local SERPs starts with inserting your location and target keyword into the search bar.
So, for instance, letâs say your business is âDi Fara Pizzaâ and the search query you are checking is âpizza delivery.â
Your input into the search bar would then look like below.
You will then need to further specify the location, as you can see below.
The last step is setting up the grid or the cover of your business.
In essence, you are setting the grid size and the location from which people can go to your business and buy.
Right after that, you hit Run Scan, and the tool will perform an in-depth analysis of your business and SERPs.
After you get the results from your local rank tracking tool, itâs time to act on them.
If you got great results as we did, you have nothing to worry about. Just keep doing your thing and stay on top of your game.
But if you didnât get the results you expected, itâs time to do something about it.
You should compare your business to your competitors, find out what they are doing better than you, and improve your business to beat them.
You can also conduct competitor analysis with our tool and learn more about competitors.
The most common reason you may not be ranking well is reviews, your overall local SEO game, and NAP citations.
If you are struggling with local rankings we suggest putting in the time on these things.
Especially with reviews, all you have to do is ask your customers to leave a review, and you can give them a coupon in return.
NAP citations are also extremely easy to fix. All you need to do is go to Google, type in your address or business name, and look for citations.
We are sure that you will find some that don’t match your real location.
If you do so, fix them, and avoid unpleasant situations where a visitor comes to an incorrect location.
But of course, if youâve followed our tips to optimize your GMB profile, your business is on point, and you are the king of your local rankings.
Either way, do what you have to do to get on top, boost traffic, and maximize conversions.
Local SEO, together with local rank tracking, isnât a one-time thing.
Instead, itâs a continuous process you need to constantly put in the effort into if you are looking to succeed.
Unfortunately, thatâs not how most business owners see it.
Part of it is because they donât want to go through the whole process of analysis over again, and they think itâs a waste of time.
And thatâs why we incorporated Scheduled Scanning into our solution.
It makes it incredibly easy to scan and monitor your business continuously.
Whether itâs your business, your competitorâs, or anyone elseâs, you can stay up to date and observe the rankings effortlessly.
This feature is a true gem and will allow you to save a lot of time and effort.
So make sure you set up scheduled scanning in your rank tracking tool. Keep an eye on the local rankings at least once a week and stay updated.
Itâs the only way to substantial growth and great results in the future.
As it gets more competitive in each industry, local SEO and local rank tracking have become much more valuable in ensuring that your business remains relevant.
Local SEO and search engines have also become more sophisticated over the years.
Fortunately for you, you now know everything about local SEO, local rank tracking, and how to rule the local rankings.
Follow the advice youâve learned above, perfect your business, and become a local king.
Updated: 7 September 2024
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