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What is Local SEO?

Local SEO is a strategy to optimize your website to drive more organic traffic and leads to your business. Part of local SEO strategy involves optimizing your business’s Google My Business (GMB) listing, building NAP (Name, Address and Phone Number) citations, and making your website visible in the organic listings when users search for your business using local keywords, such as: house moving Singapore.

What is the Difference Between SEO and Local SEO?

While traditional SEO focuses on improving your website’s organic visibility on a national or global scale level, local SEO focuses on finding local keywords and optimizing your website so that you can capture the organic traffic in your area. Although both traditional SEO and local SEO uses many of the same strategies, there are still differences between them, especially in the area of keywords selection.

Why is Local SEO Important?

According to the statistics, local searches make up a huge chuck of the organic traffic. As researched by Google, 76% of people who conduct a local search in their smartphone visit a business within 24 hours and 28% of those searches result in a purchase. Also, according to another report from Google, searches for local places without the qualifier “near me” have grown 150%, faster than comparable searches that do not include “near me”. This shows that people increasingly expect to get results that are tailored accordingly without the need to spell out their request. Hence, this data proves that local relevance is expected, and google’s algorithms will be tailored accordingly to deliver the local results.

How Does Local SEO Work?

When it comes to local SEO, Google uses a different set of ranking factors to rank the local search results. While the usual ranking signals such as the quality of backlinks is still important, Google looks at these local SEO ranking signal to rank local search results:

  • NAP citations
  • Location of the searchers
  • Updated Google My Business listing
  • Number of positive reviews on Google My Business listing
  • Geo-targeting words used in search query
  • Keywords used in reviews and Google My Business listing
  • Location of backlinks
  • Geo-targeted keywords in Meta Title and page content
  • Shares on social media

Google Local Map Pack

Google Local Map pack is a set of 3 local business results with their map locations pulled from Google Maps. It appears at the top of the search results and the normal search results will appear after the Google Local Map Pack as shown in the image below:

 

 

Google Local Map Pack optimization is very important especially for retail businesses. This is because when someone searches using the keyword “store + address”, Google tends to return Google Local Map Pack in their search results. This is important to keep in mind so that when you are doing keyword research for your SEO, do select “store + address” keywords to optimize. 

 

For example, if we search for Japanese Restaurant Orchard Road, this is the search results that Google returns, and yes, Google Local Map Pack shows up:

 

Why Google My Business (GMB) Listing Matters in Local SEO?

If you want to win in local SEO optimization, having an optimized Google My Business (GMB) listing matters. Here are some reasons why you should optimize your Google My Business Listing:

Mobile First

Google has released statistics to show that mobile traffic has overtaken desktop traffic. Approximately 60% of all searches take place on a mobile device and nearly half of all mobile searches are related to a location, for example, people searching for a japanese restaurant near them for dinner. When you have an updated and optimized Google My Business listing, you are well positioned to capture the audience.

Google is Showing More GMB Listings in their Search Results

And GMB listings appear just below the google ads. When choosing which GMB to rank, Google looks at different ranking signals such as positive reviews, keywords within GMB, etc.

Build your Business Profile

GMB listing allows you to input information such as your business’s location, opening hours, contact information, website links, reviews, business description, business images, etc. A well-optimized GMB ranks well on Google Search results and allows you to showcase your business to your potential customers.

On-Page Optimization for Local SEO

Many traditional on-page SEO practices still apply when it comes to local SEO, such as having keywords in Title, Headers, Meta Description, URLs, etc. However, there are some specific on-page factors that you will need to implement in order to optimize for local SEO. Below are on-page factors that you will need to pay more attention to:

  1. Having a consistent Name, Address and Phone Number (NAP) online.
  2. Add location pages on your website.
  3. Ensure local keywords are present in your meta title tag, headers tag, and meta description.
  4. Ensure local keywords are present within your website content. Build new pages to accommodate local keywords if necessary.
  5. Build internal linking within your website local pages.
  6. Set up and optimize your Google My Business listing.
  7. Ensure your website loads faster on both desktop and mobile devices.

Link Building for Local SEO

Link building strategies that work for non-local websites pretty much works for local websites too. But you can streamline your local link building strategies with the following tactics to make it more relevant to your local city or area:

  1. Create links on your local online business directories with consistent NAP
  2. Gather all your local distributors, partners and suppliers. Look at their website to identify specific pages where a link to you would make send and send an email to them to request for the link.
  3. Join your local chamber of business and get your website listed on their website.
  4. Sponsor an event and get them to do a shout out about your company with a link on their website.
  5. Guest posting on local websites.
  6. Engage on social media and post content to link to your website.
  7. Create press releases about your company and submit them to local news sites.

Choosing OOm as Your Local SEO Agency

OOm has been assisting SMEs and enterprises with their SEO work since 2006. As one of the pioneers in digital marketing and SEO in Singapore, OOm brings along many years of experience to help your business to win in local SEO. Leverage on our local SEO experience and outsource your local SEO work to us.

In-House SEO Team to Work on Your Local SEO

By having an in-house SEO team, we are able to control every part of the local SEO process to deliver the highest quality work for you. Our highly-skilled and competent SEO team knows what works for you so that you can rest assured and leave the heavy lifting to us.

Our Clientele

We care greatly about our clientele. Our clients are an expanded mix of SMEs and enterprises. Check out some of the companies we’ve helped recently through our diverse portfolio.

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