Knowing where you stand regarding your ranking on the SERP is influential when doing local SEO for your business. This article is for you if you are new to local SEO and rank trackers.

You will learn:

• Understand the benefits of doing local SEO
• Know more about local rank tracker
• Know the best tool to track your ranking – Grid My Business

Whether you realize it or not, local SEO is a critical strategy for your business. Ignoring this aspect will only jeopardize your business more than you initially realized.

There are a lot of stages and works for a proper local SEO plan, and there are just not enough hours in the day to take care of everything that comes across your crowded plate.

But, checking the position of your business in local rankings doesn’t have to be another to-do list. You now can enable automatic local results monitoring and track local rankings every week with one local rank tracker. 

This article will show more about local SEO and local rank tracker. I will also show you one incredible tool to identify your ranking – Grid My Business.

What is Local SEO?

As mentioned, local SERPs, are the results that show up for a local-based query based on location. Local SEO refers to the process of optimizing your business’s website for a better local ranking in the SERPs while indirectly bringing better brand awareness. It is a subset of the traditional SEO commonly adopted by local businesses with physical stores to reach customers in their vicinity.

Results in search engines like Google and Bing will differ based on location, so searching for keywords yourself won’t give you objective answers. Searches in different cities, California and Nevada, will vary, as will searches in other areas, such as San Diego or Los Angeles.

The benefits of local SEO:

When roughly 97% of people use online search engines to look for local businesses, some businesses may gain an edge from a regional approach to SEO. Brick and mortar businesses like coffee shops or hardware stores are likely to benefit more when optimizing for local searches than the traditional SEO and here’s why:

#1. It helps you to increase traffic and sales. 

Reaching the top of local search engine rankings means you have to gain more website traffic, increase domain authority, and build brand authenticity. However, the ultimate benefit is the opportunity to attract more customers and increase conversion rates.

Since every SERP is localized, all businesses need to localized search results. Even if you sell globally or only deal with digital products, you should pay attention to how you perform on the local SERPs. Otherwise, you could potentially lose traffic and conversions.

Many people rely on Google My Business listings to discover a local business nearby to visit and support.

#2. It helps you to reduce advertising costs.

One of the must-do lists when planning a local SEO is to create a Google Business Profile, which is entirely free. There is no need to send out flyers, place ads in the newspaper, or conduct localized social media campaigns. By using local SEO, regional customers can easily find your business online.

#3. It can gain more foot traffic from local online visibility.

The fact is one in three people uses their smartphone to search for products before looking for a physical store. By optimizing your company’s local SEO, these local customers are more likely to find you and visit your store. 

If local customers find your business through an online search and have a positive experience, they are very likely to become repeat customers. Such customers are easier to retain and often refer businesses to others in the same locality, thus, bringing in more clientele.

Local Search and Google 3-pack

Local Search

A local search by which a user expects a subjective result is affected by the user’s location or location provided in the search keywords.

Examples:

• best sushi in Australia
• San Francisco watch shops
• Pizza in Chicago

The above search results take the user’s location or the location provided in the search query into consideration and therefore display the results that would match them best.

Previously, search results would be the same regardless of which country you searched from – provided you didn’t use specific geo-modifiers in your search. Now, Google and other search engines modify the search results based on location. Localization is arguably the most crucial filter Google passes its results through to build its SERP.

Google 3-Pack

Most rank trackers claim to track locally, but they only track the 3-pack. The Google 3-Pack, often also referred to as the Google Snack Pack, is a listing of three local businesses (with physical locations) below a Google Map with location points.

The results in the Local 3-Pack are strongly tied to the location the user is searching from, and it varies by which geo-modifier you use.

The Google 3-Pack shows up whenever your query has local intent or implied local intent. Searches with local intent might be: “coffee shop near me” or “Coffee shop in Kuala Lumpur”. 

Understand more about Local Rank Tracker

What is it?

A local rank tracker is a tool that helps you to check your website ranking as a local user. It makes you understand the results of your SEO campaign and identify the way your website is ranking on different search engines. 

All this obtained data can help you in the keyword process or give you the possibility of using them in the development of your marketing strategy.

What can you get from a Local Rank Tracker?

#1. You can see the most important SEO metrics:

If you’re running a local business, you must be able to receive and track accurate and relevant data on your rankings. When you want to refine the data, you can also add filters to see how you rank in different locations or on different devices.

#2. You can have your local ranking updates: 

The thing is that website rankings are constantly changing. Plus, they differ heavily across different geographic locations. 

Monitoring local rankings will provide you with a much better understanding of your website’s visibility on Google as well as on other search engines. This way you’ll automatically level up your SEO results that won’t take long to be noticed. 

You can even check your progress in different countries, cities, and zip code areas, and choose from daily, weekly or monthly updates.

#3. You can save your time:

You can typically set up local business listings across the web for free with tools like Google Business Profile and check your ranking automatically with tools. As a result, it can save you tons of time and effort to manage your business information on the internet. 

How to improve your local ranking

So you have gone through the information about local SEO and local rank tracking tools, and you might be struggling to know where you should start. Here are 5 tips for you to optimize your business local SEO.

Tip 1: Optimize for local keywords by creating content – BiQ

People use search engines to identify local businesses that provide the items or services they require. To rank in these search results, you’ll need to incorporate local keywords into your website.

When creating content with local intent, it’s critical to include local keywords in the title and meta description tags to help with local SEO. Thus, to delineate your site conceptually and geographically, your content will have to focus on long-tail keywords frequently.

To find keywords for your local search, you will need to conduct local SEO keyword research, and there is a tool that can make this process easier for you – BiQ Keyword Intelligence. 

You just need to put your main keyword, choose your local area and languages, then press generates and wait for a moment. You can get your related keywords, as well as the keyword intent, volume, trend, CPC, and value.

After you get your list of keywords, you should choose the keyword that has high volume but lower competition. A high-value keyword means it will bring more traffic to your website at a lower competition.

It can be quite challenging to decide which keyword to use at first, but as time goes by, you will get used to it and know your target words. That’s where you can sort the keyword value in.

Know more about SEO keywords here: Supercharge Your SEO with A Keyword Generator

Tip 2: Optimize your Google Business Profile  

Google Business Profile is often the first impression that people get for your business and brand, so it cannot be ignored. You can’t do local ranking without a proper Google My Business listing which will automatically improve SEO and increase the visibility of your business. In addition, it will effectively affect your business on the Local 3-Pack feature, Google Maps, and organic rankings.

In fact, this is one of the top factors that Google evaluates when ranking businesses based on local search and snack pack results.

To make your profile accurate and sufficient, you need a consistent NAP. A consistent NAP data is when your business name, address, and phone number are identically and accurately listed across all online platforms, including on your website, social media accounts, business listings, and other third-party websites.

Tip 3: Obtain and respond to customer reviews

To get into the local pack, you’ll need reviews, which are one of the top three factors for higher rankings. The quality and quantity of reviews on your local listings can easily bring people in as easily as it can deter customer away from you and towards the local competition. Responding to reviews is an opportunity to build a trusting relationship with each customer.

Remember that you should also make an effort to actively start asking for reviews. 

On the other hand, if you already have customer reviews, you should take some time to learn how to respond to negative reviews and positive feedback. Why? Because it shows that you care about the customer experiences and use reviews to improve it for future patrons.

Tip 4: Build links on a local level

Backlinks from 2-3 high authority websites can do much more for your search engine results than your imagination. Though link building has always been tough, it is not impossible. 

It’s a fact that most local events most probably need sponsors. If it’s possible for you to sponsor a local event, then you can try it out; as usual, your link will be nicely positioned on the event’s website.

More link-building strategies that could work for a local site include:

• Reaching out to the local websites that write local news, cover local businesses, and host local blogs. 
• Offering your product or service to a local blogger/review site in exchange for a backlink to your site.
• Giving to your local community by sponsoring charities or local organizations can lead to backlinks.

Tip 5: Track your local ranking and continue optimizing

The essential step to improve your local search rankings is investigating your current visibility. You just need to type your business name in our local search rank checker, add phrases commonly searched by your customer, and see how visible your business is right now.

The best tool to use: Grid My Business

Grid My Business is a local rank monitoring tool that will show you the local search rankings of your local business and your competitors’ on Google Maps in a grid view.

It supports all locations that can be found on Google Maps. Once you have finalized your targeted keywords, you can obtain profound insights into your local rankings with Grid My Business. 

Other great features of Grid My Business: 

• Max up your ranking discoveries with up to a 15 x 15 grid size for each scan.
• Identify local rankings of multiple search queries by performing a quick and easy bulk scan of up to 5 keywords per scan.
• Keep track, monitor, and compare your local ranking performances.
• Get precise and on-time weekly updates of all your rankings.
• Schedule an automated rank monitoring for any of your local businesses.
• Get a comprehensive white-label report of your local rank monitoring results.

How to use Grid My Business to monitor your rankings

Most local rank tracking tools will tell you your local ranking with data alone. And that’s it. You won’t know what your local competitors’ local rankings are for the same search query.

Grid My Business solves this problem by allowing you to monitor your local rankings on a grid. This grid will be placed on top of your business location. Not only will you get to see your local ranking position, but you will also get to see the top 20 business listings at every grid point!

The numbers on each grid point indicate your local ranking position for the search query you have added. 

There are only 3 simple steps for you to monitor your local rankings.

Step 1 – Insert Your Business Location & Search Query

First, you need to enter your business location at the field given (1). A list of relevant results will appear as suggestions; you should select the location that best matches your business location.

After that, add the search query that is relevant to your business. For example, I used a local search query such as “best bakery”.

Step 2 – Select Your Grid Parameters.

The grid is one of the most important features in Grid My Business. This determines the scope and coverage you want to view your results in.

There are two items to select here.

The first is grid size. It is pretty straightforward; you pick the size of the grid you want to view your results. There are seven grid sizes available:

Next, select a grid radius. The grid radius is the radius between each grid point. 

The scanning radius between each grid point increases at an interval of 0.1. The maximum radius you can select in Grid My Business is 100.

Step 3 – View Your Scan Results

Once you have selected everything, click on the “Scan Now” button to run your scan. Do note that it may take some time for the results to load. You can wait for the results or choose to run a new scan with a different search query and location if you like. You can find all your scans in the report feature.

Once your scan result has loaded, you will see a grid that looks like this.

You will see a maximum of 20 business listings when you click on each point. The listings are organized based on their current local rankings on Google 3-pack.

All it takes is just 3 simple steps to monitor your local rankings with Grid My Business. 

TL;DR

It is vital to know how your business truly ranks in local and organic search results. Your website’s global rankings may differ from local search rankings – what your customers see when searching locally. 
This article has helped you understand the impact of your SEO work and make data-driven decisions with a local rank tracker tool. Instantly view your search result ranking, your ranking position for tracked keywords, and more with Grid My Business now.

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Updated: 11 December 2024