If you’re a business with bricks and mortar stores, or one which only serves certain locations, then optimising your website for local search is important. For many Google searches with local intent, the “top 10” search results are pushed down the page, often below the fold like this.
Google knows the intent of the searcher is to see a business in a particular area, so they will preference local businesses with map listings. Optimising for local search is slightly different from optimising for normal search, and the factors that affect local search seem to change even more often. Google is paying more attention than ever to local search, and particularly those from mobile devices, to ensure they are serving up the most relevant pages possible.
While there are many factors influencing local search rankings, we have distilled this into a list of what we think are the biggest influencers, both on and offsite. So for the top tips for local search, as we see them at this moment, download our free guide to local SEO.
Some old-school techniques, like using keywords, still works – and so with location optimising, you need to make sure your site uses the relevant location terms.
Some newer-school techniques, like rich snippets, mean you can have the edge over your competitors if you’re an early adopter.
Popular and controversial strategies, like link building, are still important for local search optimisation, but online ‘citations’ from quality sources can be more important than actual links for local results.
