Did you know that Google takes your location into the whole search process even if you do not include a city name? This is why Local SEO is so important.
You do not have to include “near me” as well, and God (in our case Google) will take your location again.
This is the power of local SEO. But why? Google realized that people searching for different services or products need results from their area. Simple as that.
Let’s say you are at work and today nobody wants to go to the nearest overpriced restaurant. You want to order gluten-free pasta for a change. Just by googling “gluten-free pasta delivery” you are shown the local results. It is like you actually entered your address as well.
If you are partying in completely other parts of the town on a Friday night, and you want to order your pasta again, the same thing will happen.
Again, you will get “near me” results.
In the past local search was not so important because people used mostly desktop computers. But, imagine the difference when the mobile internet came into the game. The whole thing about local search skyrocketed overnight.
Thus, local SEO is of huge importance for any business offering local products or services.
Important things to know for local SEO
What is Google’s local pack? It is a section of Google’s search results that shows the local business related to the query you search. The local pack is shown in the standard Google organic search. However, it has a separate algorithm.
Because of that, you have a chance as a local business to be displayed in both searches. Yes, at the same time… How powerful can that be?
One of the crucial things in marketing is to know where to spend your resources. On what to focus on? What we know for sure is that focusing on the content always works. It is not easy as it was 10, 15 years ago but “content is king” still today.
That goes for both Google algorithms. Keep in mind that in the local pack some additional things like Google My Business, reviews, citation, etc, are coming into the game as well.
Citations? Is that some sort of pasta? Unfortunately not. Citation is any mention of your company’s name, address, and phone number (known as NAP) on some other website.
Investing time in SEO pays off in the long run
Local search will continue to grow. Mobile devices are present in our lives more than ever, the equation is very simple here. There are many factors that influence local SEO and we need to keep an eye on all of them.
Taking care of just some of them is not enough. It will not bring the result we want. There is a real SEO war out there, it is crazy how fast things are changing.
You want to expand, you want to catch the people in your geographic region. Thus, start improving every single thing that influences local SEO.