The Complete Guide to Local SEO Success

New to local search? Or want to fire up your local search results? Follow our complete guide to local SEO success. 

Local search has a powerful impact on businesses of all sizes. Did you know that 77% of consumers use Google to find local business information? Or that 76% of people who search on their smartphone visit a physical place within 24 hours?

A staggering 46% of Google searches seek local information, which means half of Google searches set out to find a local business’s location, contact details, and opening hours. 

The bottom line? 

You must invest in local SEO to be found by local customers and increase local awareness and sales. 

So, how do you optimise your business for local SEO?

This guide will delve into what local SEO is, how it works, and our top local SEO marketing strategies for success. 

Let’s dive in. 

Table of Contents

• Understanding Local SEO
• Key Components of Local SEO
• Step-by-Step Local SEO Strategy 
• Advanced Local SEO Tips
• Summary

Understanding Local SEO

Let’s kick off with the basics. What is local SEO, and how does it work?

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO is where search engine optimisation (SEO) is focused on specific geographic regions to help your business be more visible in local search results.

Any business, however big or small, that has a physical location or serves a specific geographic area can benefit from a local SEO strategy. For smaller businesses, especially, local SEO is your opportunity to get ahead of the competition. 

Local SEO entails the usual SEO tactics—content, on-page optimisation, keyword research, and link building—but with a local focus. Other essential tactics include Google My Business, citations, and online reviews to help boost brand credibility. 

How Local SEO Works

Local searches are highly relevant. They focus on a location, product availability, opening hours, or directions and generally have commercial or transactional intent. The search engine needs to be able to see all of this information to ensure your business shows up in the results when customers are looking.

Let’s say you want to find an Italian restaurant near your location. 

In addition to its usual ranking factors, Google uses some local search algorithms to help find the best match for your search:

• Relevance – How well does the Google Business Profile match the search intent? 
• Distance – How far Google believes a user is from the business location when they search. 
• Prominence – How important Google thinks a business is to its potential customers, based on factors like the number of reviews, review score, and other ranking factors. 

Using these factors, Google displays two types of local search results:

1. Organic results: The usual list of search results you’re used to seeing on Google. 
2. Local Pack (or map pack): The top section (or on desktop this can be placed on the left hand side) of the search results that highlights three or more local businesses related to a search and a Google Map pinpointing these listings.

As a local business, you can appear in both types of Google local search results if you do your local SEO right. 

There are some important things to note about how Google displays local search results.

The search engine doesn’t just display local results for queries containing a city, town, or “near me” keyword. 

In other words, you don’t have to search “Italian restaurant in Melbourne” or “Italian restaurant near me” to get local results. 

Google simply needs to think that the intent of your search is local, and it will display local results if their location is switched on or they are signed into their Google account which denotes their location. 

Google’s local search algorithm includes a proximity factor, which means that Google takes your location into account when you search for a local keyword. 

So, if you’re in Melbourne and want to find an Italian restaurant, for example, Googling “Italian restaurant” will show you a list of locations near you in its search engine results pages (SERPS).

If you’re in Sydney and do the same search, you’ll get different results. 

The Importance of Local SEO for Businesses

If your business isn’t optimised for local search, you miss out on potential customers ready to shop in your area. Local SEO can send your business to the top of the search results in your area and ensure those customers searching near your business will find you instantly.

Any business that has a physical location or serves a geographic area can benefit from local SEO. 

The proof is in the statistics:

• Google Maps searches for “shopping near me” have grown globally by more than 100% yearly. 
• Mobile searches for “store open near me” also grew by over 250% in two years. 
• “Where to buy” + “near me” keywords grew by more than 200%. 

Mobile is a massive force behind the local SEO explosion. People are using their smartphones to search for services or products at the exact moment they need them, wherever they are. 

Being at the top of those local search results pays dividends: According to Think With Google, 76% of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby visit a business within a day, and 28% of those searches result in a purchase. 

How can you get noticed in local search results? 

You need a local SEO strategy that will send you to the top of the listings in your town, city, or region, right where your local customers can see you. 

Key Components of Local SEO

What are the critical components of local SEO you should focus on?

Google Business Profile Optimisation

One of the most important things you can do for your local SEO is to claim and optimise your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business).

When putting together search results for someone’s location-based search query, Google uses Google Business Profile information to decide which businesses best fit the searcher’s intent. 

Google Business Profile is also how you ensure that the most accurate information about your business shows up on Google Search and Maps. This includes your location, contact details, and opening hours, but it also extends to your reviews, the latest menu, photos, and more.

Your efforts won’t be in vain: According to Google, customers are 2.7 times more likely to consider a business reputable if they find a complete Business Profile on Google Search and Maps. Further to this, customers are 70% more likely to visit and 50% more likely to consider buying from those with a complete Business Profile. 

You can update your Google Business Profile information anytime, so you can always control how these details appear online. 

Google Business Profile is free for users, but a few requirements exist to benefit from it. You cannot be a 100% online business. You don’t need a storefront or physical address, but you must have some in-person contact with customers. For example, you may visit or deliver to customers directly but don’t serve customers at their business address, like a cleaning service.

Once you’ve created and verified a Google My Business page, here are some steps to optimise your profile:

1. Use special features. For example, restaurants and bars can upload menus and dish photos and accept reservations and online orders directly from search.
2. Add authentic images to your listing: According to Google, businesses with photos receive more requests for directions and clicks to their websites.
3. Add a custom description: Use up to 750 words to showcase what’s truly unique about your business, which will appear in Google Search and Maps. 
4. Encourage reviews: Customers can review your business directly from your profile or Google Maps, but the best way is to share your review link (use a URL shortener) on email marketing templates, social media, etc.
5. Respond to reviews: Respond to all reviews, both positive and negative. According to research by Ipsos, customer reviews are still the most trusted information source when evaluating a product or business.
6. Keep your Google Business Profile up to date. Nothing frustrates a customer more than looking up your hours online and then making the trip to your location only to find that you’re closed. Update your Business Profile every time something changes for your business. 

Local Keywords and Content Creation

Content plays a massive role in local SEO, just as with general SEO. Whether optimising your web pages for local keywords or posting on local business blogs, local content marketing helps you climb local search results. 

As with regular content, your local content strategy starts with keyword research. 

Keyword research for local SEO is finding keywords people use when searching for local products and services. Your goal is to rank for these keywords, which will drive highly targeted local traffic to your business. 

Tools like Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool allow you to discover geo-specific keywords users are searching for. Once you have found your local keywords, use them to localise your web pages and create locally focused content. 

It’s important to note that optimising content for local SEO doesn’t just mean cramming local keywords into your blog posts. You must show you understand the local audience and are the go-to knowledgeable, authoritative option.

Zone in on your geographic area and write about local or industry news to engage audiences within that area. Focus on local news, fundraisers, and other topics relevant to your business and the area.

For example, if you’re a local real estate company, you might create a helpful resource about surrounding businesses and events for people looking to move to the area. A map of local service providers (such as tradies, doctors, dentists, etc.) or a calendar of town events both provide value for your audience and contain highly relevant on-page local signals.

Local content does more than resonate with your local audience; it significantly boosts your presence in local search results. 

Importance of NAP Consistency

The acronym NAP stands for a business’s name, address, and phone number. In other words, it is the essential information that people need to physically visit your business and make a purchase. 

Google and other search engines and voice assistants use NAP data to verify a listing’s details to ensure users get the most accurate results when looking up local businesses online.

The most common locations for the NAP are the site’s footer or header and a Contact Us page. However, your name, address, and phone number can also be mentioned online in online directories and social media profiles, which are known as local citations.

With local SEO, NAP consistency is one of the most important things to get right to avoid confusing search engines and customers.

According to Think with Google, 60% of smartphone users have contacted a business directly using search results. Rather than clicking through to a company’s website, they grab the NAP data they need from the search engine results page.

The upshot is that one incorrect phone number digit or address detail could send a potential customer down a frustrating dead end, and you may never see their dollars. 

That’s why ensuring NAP consistency across all your citations is crucial. Companies without NAP consistency are unlikely to rank as highly as a business with a set of consistent local citations that are properly managed. 

Managing your local citations can be time-consuming. However, tools exist to make it easy to check and manage your local citations, such as Semrush’s Listing Management or Moz Local. 

It is also important to regularly check and confirm the NAP details on your Google Business Profile page. Google has a habit of updating this based on citations across the web – so if your other citations are outdated such as using an old phone number or business address that you no longer operate at, this may impact your other local SEO profiles. Google can also automatically update things like opening hours based on the information it finds across the web and external people can leave suggestions to change different parts of your profile which can be accepted by Google. Run regular checks on this to make sure that your NAP information remains up-to-date and accurate at all times. 

Step-by-Step Local SEO Strategy

Now, it’s time to create a strategy to increase your local rankings and boost traffic. The following steps will help you get started. 

Conducting a Local SEO Audit

When you’re getting started with local SEO, perform a comprehensive audit to gain insight into your website’s performance and understand what you need to do first. 

Your local SEO audit should include:

1. Website Audit – How are your pages and content performing? Does your site feature on-page SEO elements that help ranking, including keywords, meta descriptions, image tags, and so on? 

   How to audit: Use Semrush’s free website audit tool.

2. Local Backlink Audit – How many local websites are linking to you, and what is the authority of these sites? 

   How to audit: Google Search Console is a quick way to see your backlink profile although this may not be completely comprehensive. Go to Search Traffic > Links to Your Site. Click “Who links the most” to see which sites give you the most backlinks. You can also see your most linked content and how your content is linked. Another one of the best tools for backlink auditing is Moz’s Open Site Explorer or Ahrefs’ Site Explorer > Backlinks tool. Ahrefs also offer a Backlink Checker tool for free. 

3. Google Business Profile Audit – How does your Google My Business appear in the local search results? Is the information correct and up-to-date? 

   How to audit: Go to your Google Business Profile. Its help centre runs you through how to check and update different sections. 

4. Google Search Console Audit – How well can Google index your website? Is your site crawlable? 

   How to audit: Google Search Console’s free tools and reports help you measure your site’s search traffic and performance, as well as fix issues. 

5. Local Citation Audit – How many citations do you have? Are you in the top online directories? Are your local citations consistent and correct? 

   How to audit: Semrush, Moz, and BrightLocal all have good local citation trackers you can use. 

6. Competitor Analysis – Check out your local competition. How does your local search ranking rate against the competition? How can you close the gap? 

   How to audit: Go to Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, enter your domain, and check the Organic Competitors report. Semrush has a similar feature called “Main Organic Competitors.” 

Once you have done your local SEO audit, you can prioritise the issues that need to be fixed immediately (such as Google crawling issues) and plan out your timeline for local SEO tactics. 

Building Local Citations and Links

Local citations are complete or partial references to your name, address, phone number, and website (NAPW). Most citations take the form of an online business directory, such as Yellow Pages Online and True Local. 

Citations are considered a ranking factor for local SEO. When your business is listed in trusted online directories, it tells Google that your business is legitimate. The important thing is to ensure your local citations are accurate and consistent.

You can add citations manually, but this can be incredibly time-consuming. A more efficient way is to use a third party for local citations and listings, such as BrightLocal or MozLocal.

How do you know which citations you need?

Some of the most important local citations to have in Australia include:

• Google Business Profile (previously known as Google My Business)
• Yellow Pages
• White Pages 
• Facebook
• Whereis
• True Local
• Yelp
• Bing Places
• Apple Business Connect

There are also important citations to have according to your industry. You can find out what these are using tools such as Moz – Citations by Category and WhiteSpark – Best Citations by Category. 

For example, on Moz, you go to the industry you are in, such as Restaurants, to see a list of citations to focus on. 

Here are some tips to create the best citations:

Ensure your NAP is consistent across all listings

• Add business descriptions with top keywords to help improve local rankings.
• Add a website link to your location page rather than your homepage unless your home page is specifically location-focused. 
• Add business photos to help improve customer conversion rates and rank in image searches.
• Include reviews to win over customers and improve your local search rankings. 

Next, focus on your local backlinks. 

Not to be confused with citations, local backlinks are also compelling opportunities to boost your local SEO. As with general SEO, every local backlink tells Google you’re a legitimate company and can help raise your domain authority. 

Local SEO means approaching link building with a more local focus, but the links must still be high-quality and relevant.

Try these ways to earn trusted local backlinks:

• Sponsor local community groups and sports teams.
• Sponsor meetups and local community events.
• Partner with other local businesses.
• Look for local bloggers with a following within your target area.
• Approach owners of local event pages that write content about what to do in an area – tourism sites, Chambers of Commerce, etc.
• Get involved with your local Chamber of Commerce to raise your local business profile. 
• Build a relationship with your local journalists and keep them up to date with business stories. 

Leveraging Customer Reviews for Local SEO

Customer reviews are crucial to local SEO success. Potential customers heavily rely on online reviews to make informed decisions about whether to buy from your local business. BrightLocal’s local consumer survey shows that 49% of consumers trust reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family members. This increases to 91% for 18- to 34-year-olds. 

According to ReviewTrackers, 63.6% of consumers are likely to check reviews on Google (through Google Maps and Search) before visiting a business location. And 49% of local consumers say that a review left within the last month would help them to feel positive about a local business. 

How can you get more online reviews to boost your local SEO?

Here are some top tactics:

• Integrate your Google Business Profile review link into your email campaigns, email signature, post-purchase communications, and customer service interactions. 
• Train customer-facing staff to ask for reviews, especially where customers seem to be happy with the service and product.
• Write personal emails to request reviews from loyal customers.
• Use product review sites to gather more customer reviews. Start with TrustPilot, as Google trusts it enough to include its product ratings in Google Shopping ads. 

Worried about getting negative reviews? It seems counterintuitive, but negative reviews can positively impact your brand, sales, and visibility in local search results. In fact, according to a study by ReviewInc, more people will trust a 4.7 rating than a perfect 5-star rating as it seems more authentic.

The trick to dealing with negative online reviews is to respond promptly and sympathetically. Over half of consumers (55%) say that it matters to them to see a business responding to online reviews, and it is likely to leave them feeling good about that business.

Your response matters to Google, too—it even offers advice on how to respond. To stay on top of negative reviews, use an online review tracker, like ReviewTrackers.

Advanced Local SEO Tips

Ready to take your local SEO further? Use these more advanced tips. 

Mobile Optimisation for Local Search

Local and mobile search go hand in hand. According to Think With Google, 54% of smartphone users search for business hours, and 53% search for directions to local stores. 

Google is helping drive this behaviour – its Local Pack is beneficial for mobile users as they can find a business near them and see opening hours, phone numbers, reviews, and more without wasting time clicking through to a website and digging around for information. 

However, your website is still important for mobile searchers who want to find information quickly on the go. 

Make it easy for potential customers to achieve their goals by making sure your mobile website is fully optimised for local search:

Increase your site speed

Along with general technical SEO fixes, user experience can be negatively affected if your site is slow, which can impact whether visitors stay on your website or move on to your competition. 

While a few extra seconds of loading time might not seem significant, consider this: e-commerce sites that load within a second convert 2.5 times more than sites that load in 5 seconds. 

Test your site speed with online tools such as Pingdom Website Speed Test and GTmetrix or Page Speed Insights. 

If you need to speed up your site, some quick wins include compressing images and optimising your code.

Make sure your mobile site is responsive 

This means users get an experience specifically designed for mobile devices. Think simplified navigation, easy-to-read text, and properly spaced-out links. 

Infinite scrolling can provide a better mobile user experience by reducing the number of button taps required with menus. And avoid pop-ups (known as interstitial ads) that cover the screen.

Engaging with the Local Community

Local SEO is all about getting in front of more local customers. But that doesn’t mean focusing solely on digital tactics – you should also be engaging with your local community in real life. 

The more you participate and engage with the local community, the more brand awareness and trust you will build, and the more digital PR you’ll receive as a result. 

You can sponsor events, get a local media story and partner with other businesses to boost brand awareness, build your reputation, and earn inbound links.

In addition to real-life engagement, be sure to engage with your local community on social media. Actively participate in local community groups, share community events, and respond to comments. 

Monitoring and Adjusting Your Local SEO Efforts

One of the biggest mistakes that business owners and marketers can make is to consider local SEO a one-time marketing task. 

This couldn’t be further from the truth. 

Local SEO is an ongoing process, and to see results, you need to invest time in continuously monitoring and adjusting your efforts. Only by monitoring your results can you see what’s working and what’s not and tweak your strategy accordingly. 

How do you monitor your local SEO?

Here are some things to track:

• Go to your Google Business Profile Insights to track clicks and business profile interactions.
• Check Google Search Console for website performance analytics to evaluate impressions and clicks for local search terms. 
• Use Google Analytics to look at traffic and conversion rates – you can even drill down by page or geographic location.  
• Check your keyword rankings to see how you’re ranking for your target local keywords. 
• Monitor your local citations and backlinks from local publications. 

Summary

Now that you understand the importance of local SEO, how it works, and some key strategies, you have everything you need to start driving local traffic to your business. 

The question is, will you do everything yourself or hire a professional SEO team to help? While you can do many of the tasks yourself, such as setting up your Google Business Profile, it’s worth working with a professional SEO team like StudioHawk to ensure your local SEO strategy is continuously working hard to keep your business in front of your potential customers. 

At StudioHawk, SEO isn’t a side hustle – it’s our bread and butter. We have mastered what really matters when it comes to local SEO that drives revenue-shifting results. 

FAQs

What is the difference between local SEO and general SEO? 

The difference between local SEO and general SEO is in their geographic focus, target audience, and search intent. General SEO aims for broader visibility, while local SEO targets specific geographic areas to ensure a business and website is in front of customers when they search with local intent, e.g. for a business location or opening hours.

How often should I update my Google My Business listing? 

There is no limit to how often you should update your Google My Business listing. The number one rule is that you should always update the listing when something changes for your business, such as your contact details or physical address. Searchers rely on your listing for up-to-date information about your business and the outdated information could end up sending them to the wrong location. Google also recommends that you post at least once a week to keep your business profile active and visible to potential customers. 

Can local SEO help my business if I don’t have a physical storefront?

Yes, local SEO can still help your business even if you don’t have a physical store or business location, provided you still have face-to-face contact with customers. For example, you might visit or deliver to customers directly – just not at your own business address. Google allows you to create a Business Profile if this is the case. As Google says: “You can have a profile if your business doesn’t have a physical address as long as you make in-person contact with customers.”