7 Best AI SEO Tools For Big Businesses
Digital Marketing | 5 min read
13 Blog KPIs You Should Be Tracking
Digital Marketing | 5 min read
Picture this: it’s Friday night, you’ve had a long week, and you’re craving your favourite food – pizza, of course – but are looking to try someplace new, so what do you do? The answer is easy. You open your browser and search “pizza near me,” or if you’re me, “delicious thin crust pizza in Little Italy.”
The top results for a search-based query are presented to the user in what is called a “Local Map Pack.” The Local Map Pack is a list of the top three Google My Business profiles that are highly personalized based on your keywords. So, in my case, this Maps-based list makes my quest to find a pizza place, specifically ones with reviews that mention thin crust, incredibly easy.
This is just one of the many facets of how local search marketing can help drive consumers to your business’ brick and mortar location. In fact, 88% of people who search for businesses nearby on their smartphones visit or call said business within a day – and 78% result in a purchase.
In this blog, we’ll discuss exactly what local SEO is, Google’s ranking factors, as well as 5 local SEO tips SMBs can start implementing right now. Let’s get started!
Local search engine marketing, or local SEO, offers hyper-relevant information to a consumer based on their search and their location. As a business, optimizing your website for local search can increase traffic, leads, and brand awareness.
In the grand scheme of things, local SEO is extremely beneficial to the growth of any small business, enterprise-level corporation, or chain. As long as your business operates with customers face-to-face, anything you do on the internet will contribute to your local SEO. This can be in the form of relevant content, on-page optimizations, optimizing your GMB profile, or local link building on your website.
Every time a user enters a query on Google the search engine scans its index in order to provide the best results based on the keywords. Today, two people searching the same query one kilometre apart will probably get very different results – this is because local SEO is also based on the user’s search history. So, how does local SEO work?
When it comes to local search, Google actually uses a unique set of ranking factors different from its typical lifecycle. This primarily includes:
Relevance – Is your business relevant to the search query?
Distance – Is your business in close proximity to the searchers’ location?
Prominence – How well known is your business online? This can be calculated by the number of reviews, website traffic, domain rating, and more. Well known and more established businesses may take precedence over newer businesses.
As a business owner, you can’t control all of these factors. However, you can control certain aspects of your local SEO strategy – and we’re here to help you with this.
Essentially, there are two different types of searches when it comes to local SEO. A user could search for “how to get thin pizza crust,” but the SERP will likely give you the top results for how to make a pizza with thin crust.
However, if the user includes a location, such as a region, city, or neighbourhood to their query, Google understands that the search is geographical or transactional in intent and therefore brings the user to the Local Search Results Page with business suggestions that fit the rest of the keywords. In fact, 46% of all searches in Google have “local intent.”
The best part of local SEO is that you can’t ask for better buyer intent. Your business isn’t competing with the top search engine rankings on a global scale, it’s only competing with other companies in the same region that offer similar products and services. This is just one of the reasons why SMBs should prioritize local SEO as part of their marketing strategy.
While landing your business a spot in the Local Map Pack or on the first page of the local search results probably won’t happen overnight, we’re here to offer up some local SEO tips for SMBs that you can implement right now.
Creating and optimizing your Google My Business profile is arguably one of the most important parts of local SEO marketing in terms of discoverability. It tells the user exactly what type of business you are, where to find you, how to contact you, and more. Here are some things to keep in mind when customizing your account:
Business citations, also known as NAP citations, is the name, address, and phone number of your business. This simple information is just as important to consumers as it is for search engines. It’s actually a top ranking factor for local SEO – as long as it’s accurate. If two NAP citations differ (even by something as miniscule as punctuation), it can decrease their effectiveness.
A great tip for those looking to grow their business is to index their company’s NAP citations on more than just Google My Business. Directories such as Yelp!, YellowPages, Facebook, and Bing are also opportunities to link back to your website, incorporate accurate citations, and correct any existing errors.
Start by targeting keywords that have local search intent. Similar to on-page SEO, keyword research should include a balance between a variety of methods including competitor analysis and brainstorming; but your local SEO keyword strategy should combine those efforts while focusing on your existing customer data. Determine the regions that are worth your local search engine marketing strategies and incorporate them into your existing non-localized keywords.
For example, “pizza in Toronto,” is a straightforward short-tailed keyword. Long-tailed keywords such as “thin crust pizza in Little Italy,” are more specialized and usually indicate stronger buyer intent. In this case, focus your keywords on what your business does best!
Now that you’ve identified the local keywords you want to target, you’ll need somewhere to put them. This is where running a company blog comes in handy. Blogging helps boost your SEO quality and positioning, giving you more opportunities to rank for a wide range of keywords – including those that are highly localized. Don’t just create generic content, instead, write pieces that are specific to your location. For example, “top 10 places to get thin crust pizza in Little Italy,” includes your local keyword in the title and caters to your demographic.
“Prominence” is one of Google’s top three factors when it comes to organically ranking on the SERP. Essentially, this is how popular your business is, which is determined by signal links and online buzz.
One of the most effective ways to make noise, especially as a small business, is to have a larger than life social media presence. By posting local-based content, you can drive social shares, start conversations about your brand, and ultimately drive traffic from your community to your brick and mortar location.
As you can see, local search engine marketing can dramatically increase your leads online. Businesses of any size will reap the rewards that this simple, but highly effective strategy can offer.
Does your business need help with your local SEO, content, or other digital marketing strategy? Let the expert team at The Influence Agency help! Contact us today for more information about our services; we’d love to get in touch.
Digital Marketing | 5 min read
Digital Marketing | 5 min read
Stay up to date with the latest marketing, social media tips, guides and news.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us
© 2024 The Influence Agency. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy
Please do not solicit.
No junk mail.
Thank you
For the latest tips, growth hacks, and news in digital marketing
Do you follow an influencer that you absolutely adore and think they deserve to be recognized for all the great work that they do? Click below to nominate your favourite North American influencers for The Influence Awards!
Are you aiming to increase web traffic or grow your social media presence? Figure out why you’re leveraging paid media in the first place and build your strategy from there. Having clearly defined goals in mind will help you focus on your brand’s key priorities.
Designing strategies that cater to all three stages of the buyer journey ensures that you’re maximizing your brand’s reach. Every user at every stage is valuable—and you have to make sure you’re creating paid media content that speaks to each audience type.
Effective paid media is tied to targeting the right keywords. If you’re leveraging paid search ads to appear on SERPs (search engine results pages), then in-depth research is necessary. Bid on the keywords that are most relevant to your business to trigger only the most effective ad appearances.
Gather your team—because it’s time to start coming up with ad copy that wins attention. The key is to resonate with your audience and inspire engagement. Be real. Be relatable. And most importantly, don’t underestimate the power of creativity.
Do the landing pages on your website effectively push visitors further down the sales funnel? If not, you’re letting potential customers slip through your fingers. Optimize each of your landing pages so that they nudge users towards converting.
The options are plenty when it comes to paid advertising, including Google, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, Microsoft, and Pinterest among others. Analyze who your target demographic is, research where it’s best to connect with them, and then target the platforms where you wish to build awareness.
If you’re ready to build your paid media ad campaign, you’ll find that it will be further broken down into “ad groups” to ensure more effective pay-per-click advertising. These ad groups house one or more ads that have similar targets or categories. Let’s say your brand’s website features categories such as clothing, shoes, and accessories. Creating ad groups according to keywords that fall under these categories will help the PPC system decide when to show ads for these products.
Retargeting ads are bound to succeed because it’s a second shot at a conversion. Visitors have shown interest in the product/service once before, and sometimes all it takes is a little reminder to push them to the checkout page. So don’t forget to retarget and aim better this time.
In the world of paid media, what works and what doesn’t? You’ll have to run A/B tests to find out! Whether you’re testing which keywords bring more traffic or which social platforms earn more ad engagement, you won’t find out what really works for your brand until you test it.
Revisit your initial goals. Did your efforts bring about the results you expected? Tracking results is an essential step in your brand’s paid advertising campaigns. The data you collect from currently running ads will help lay the foundation for your future campaigns.
After tracking your results, you’ll be able to see where adjustments are necessary. There’s always room for improvement, so keep striving to consistently resonate and build trust with your audience—it’s how to create paid ads that pay off.
213 Sterling Rd. Unit 214 
Call Us:
info@theinfluenceagency.com
