Even though the internet provides eCommerce owners with access to worldwide markets, your local customers – in your village, town, or city – should never be neglected.
Believe it or not, there are people who detest buying from big corporations like Amazon. They’d rather buy from smaller local retailers.
That’s why local SEO for eCommerce is such a hot topic for financial success.
What is Local SEO for eCommerce?
Local SEO for eCommerce is when you optimise your website so people in your local area can find you.
If someone is looking for a local bookstore or a local bakery, then you want to be the first person they find on Google Maps or when someone types ‘bookstores near me’.
You can ensure this by:
- Adding schema on your website with your business details – name, address, phone number, opening hours.
- Setting up Google My Business to snag your business profile.
- Getting yourself into local business directories.
We’ll be looking at all these factors for local SEO optimisation for online stores and more in this article.
Why is local SEO good for eCommerce?
So why go to all the bother of doing Local SEO? There are, in fact, quite a few good reasons.
- Google prioritises local businesses in search. So when someone searches “shoe shop near me”, you have a good chance of popping up.
- Since Google prioritises local businesses, you have a good chance of competing against big, established brands.
- If you have a bricks-and-mortar store, having a locally optimised site with your opening hours, address, and so on will encourage actual visits from people in the area.
- If you have good reviews on your Google business profile, that increases local shoppers' trust in you.
- Being found locally encourages repeat customers as people want to support local businesses.
How does local SEO work?
When someone searches for a product or service, Google gets the person’s location and starts looking for nearby businesses.
They look at information sources like Google Business Profile and other profiles on places like Yelp, TrustPilot, and more. They also look at the business’s website to see if the products are relevant and if the business itself looks trustworthy.
Part of that trustworthiness is reviews. Google loves strong good reviews, so it looks for highly-rated businesses. This is why local businesses should encourage customers to leave Google reviews.
Facebook reviews are all well and good, but Google is where the real action is.
Business and product searches will also likely bring up a map with the first few sources. This is called the ‘local pack.’ Getting in there is pure gold for local businesses, as it’s prime online real estate.
The moral of the story is always “reviews matter.” The more reviews you have, the better they are, the higher your search engine ranking for eCommerce will be.
How to do Local SEO for eCommerce
Here are 7 tips and pointers on how to improve your local SEO eCommerce strategy.
1. Fill out your Google Business Profile
Your Google My Business for eCommerce profile is the cornerstone of local SEO.
Filled out properly, it occupies a prominent part of the Google search page. It also puts your business on Google Maps.
Assuming your website is ranked, search for your company. When you do, there should be an option to claim your business profile on the right-hand side.
Alternatively, go to Get Listed on Google - Google Business Profile and claim your business there. You need to log in to Google with an email address attached to the domain you want to claim.
So, instead of joebloggs@gmail.com , joe@bigcoolclothingstore.com is better. It shows you own the domain.
You will also have to prove you own the business by producing documents with the business name and address on it.
Once you’ve been approved, fill out all the fields. Make sure the information exactly matches the information on your website. Even slightly different information can confuse Google and delay your business profile going live.
2. Get lots of good reviews
This ties into Google Business Profile. Any Google reviews you get will appear on the business profile. As we said, the more good reviews you have, the higher you’ll rank.
So, think of creative ways to get reviews. In the Google Business Profile toolbar, there will be a direct link for people to leave reviews.
Add that link everywhere you can think of.
Put it on a QR code, which you can place in your advertising materials. Put it into customer emails, etc. Ask each of them to click the link and leave a review.
3. Optimise your website
As well as your business profile, you also need a well-optimised website.
Make sure it has plenty of long-tail keywords. So instead of ‘blue yoga leggings’, put something like ‘blue yoga leggings in XL size for women in London.’
This gives Google context when deciding which sites to show in local search.
Also, have lots of local-specific keywords on places like:
- Homepage & About Page – Mention your city and nearby areas.
- Product Pages – Add phrases like “Best running shoes in Glasgow”.
- Meta Titles & Descriptions – Include “Buy [Product] in [City]”
- URLs & Headings – Example: /shop/mens-jackets-london
- FAQs & Blog Posts – Write content around local searches (e.g., “Where to Buy Winter Coats in Manchester.”)
Alongside this, make your website fast. Google loves speed. Remove all unnecessary clutter and optimise your images. Make them all WebP or AVIF, and resize them properly.
Also, make sure your website looks good on mobile devices. With more and more online shopping being done on a mobile, it’s essential to have a completely optimised online store for mobile.
Finally, adding schema will help enormously. This will make your search listing much more informative and enticing to click on.
Since mobile-responsiveness and schema are two things that would be classed under advanced SEO for eCommerce, it will likely require a developer’s help.
4. Get listed on other review websites
As we said, when determining which sites to show in local searches, Google also looks at business reviews on other websites.
This can include, but is not limited to Yelp, TrustPilot, and Facebook.
Set up your business listings on these websites and ask your customers to also post their reviews there. Plus, having a presence on these pages gives customers who have a page preference a chance to leave a review.
5. Create location-specific pages
If you serve multiple locations, then set up local landing pages for each location.
Have a URL such as /mens-clothing-london or /womens-clothing-edinburgh. Make sure your meta title and description mention your product and the name of the geographical location.
6. Get backlinks from local businesses
The more local you can make yourself, the better.
What do we mean by this? It means to get backlinks from as many local businesses as possible. Prove your local success.
These links should be placed naturally and not stuffed into pages as spammy links. Talk to similar local businesses and see if you can promote one another.
If you sell clothes, team up with a shoe shop, for example, to promote each other’s businesses. You can also sponsor local events.
7. Set up social media pages
Links from social media pages don’t rank in Google. However, having a presence on Facebook and Instagram will help more people find your online store.
You can post images, videos, events, polls, and anything else you can think of. On Instagram, reels and stories have the highest engagement.
Place those social media links on your website and your Google Business Profile to make it easier for Google to join the dots and connect your various online properties together.
Conclusion
The internet is global, but there’s still a lot of money in optimising eCommerce for local searches.
Everyone is always on their phones searching for businesses near them, and so not improving online visibility in these results is leaving money on the table. By making a few tweaks to your Local SEO for eCommerce strategy, you too can be promoted by Google for free and reap the financial benefits.
