Local SEO refers to helping search engines better understand your business — the what, where, and when about the services you provide. Especially important for brick-and-mortar businesses, Local SEO also applies to all types of businesses, even ones with a national or international reach. Basically, Local SEO is the practice of building signals of relevance around a specific geographic location, be that one location, many, or a service area.
What, Where & When
Don’t just optimize your SEO so that Google knows WHAT you do. Make sure searchers can find all the information they’ll need about your business, such as exact location, hours, services, or products, so they know WHERE and WHEN you do too.
Local SEO applies to city listings, businesses with services that span across multiple states, that have a national or international presence. It also helps businesses with brick-and-mortar locations or serve their clientele virtually. When building your Local SEO, we use many tools, including:
- Google My Business– Google My Business is the most important Local SEO tool. Making sure your Google My Business(GMB) is fully optimized is a big part of getting the most out of your local SEO. One of our first Local SEO tasks for a new client is making sure their GMB is claimed and contains all the correct information, and follows Google’s guidelines for best practices. GMB offers many features to enhance your listing. For instance, you can now share promotions or events as “Posts” through your GMB listing. Spectrum helps to make sure your business is utilizing the most relevant GMB features for your local business.
- Aggregators – Aggregators are an important part of the Local SEO landscape. There are 4 main aggregators in the US; Acxiom, Factual, Localeze, and Infogroup. These Local Data aggregators are large data mining systems that find and spread business information online. They source many search engines, directories, and social marketing platforms through an automated process. Keeping Aggregator details accurate is an essential piece of the Local SEO foundation. We help clients identify current listings on aggregators and fix any inconsistencies or duplicates using MOZ Local or the BrightLocal Citation Burst Tool.
- Structured Citations – Take Control of Your NAP! (Name, Address, Phone #Spectrum will help you manage your structured citations by making sure you have a consistent NAP (name, address & phone number) online. Our process begins with a manual analysis of core citations (ie: Apple, Bing, YP, Yelp) and other top trusted citation platforms/local directories such as Yellowbook, Merchant Circle, & HotFrog. We initially focus on up to 30 citations. At the end of this project, we can teach you how to use the report to claim/edit/update your citations or work with you to perform these tasks on your behalf. 80% of consumers say that if they find an incorrect address online for a company, they lose trust in that business, so ensuring your NAP is correct is vitally important.
- Local Links – Links are different from Citations. We think of link earning rather than link building. By creating relationships with your local Chamber of Commerce, attending events or sponsorships, you can earn offline ‘links’ within the community, which can turn into online links. Spectrum’s custom Link Earning Strategy includes the identification of opportunities, and assistance with outreach to build these links.
- Local focused Content – Don’t forget about content on your website! Locally focused and optimized content helps to solidify your reputation within your community. It is more than having a specific city or state landing pages, but rather an opportunity to showcase Partnerships, Sponsorships, & Events. When your website pages rank on the first page of Google, you are more likely to show up in Google’s Local Pack.
- Local PPC Campaigns – Pay-per-click campaigns on Google Ads, Bing Ads, and social media can be configured to only show in certain geographical locations. This is great if you’re opening a new store, launching a new product, or just looking for more customers.
- Reputation Management – Your reputation is a big part of Local SEO. Spectrum offers ongoing management of reviews and assistance with responding to both positive and negative reviews.
Do You Need Local SEO?
Local SEO is the act of optimizing your business’s online presence so that you show up in local searches. Local SEO isn’t just important for brick-and-mortar businesses. Service-area businesses (or SABs) should also care about Local SEO because where your business is located is a major factor in when Google will show your company’s details.
When they’re done correctly, both local and organic SEO efforts will help improve your website rankings, but when done incorrectly, both can have a hugely detrimental effect on your digital marketing efforts.
Our Services
At Spectrum, we believe in White Hat SEO. This means we follow ethical SEO practices and take a step-by-step approach to SEO. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will your company’s Local SEO profile. We will aim to build a solid foundation for your Local SEO by making sure your NAP (name, address, phone number) is correct, then claiming ownership of any online citations you have while taking management of any other online listings that mention your business. Then, while maintaining your NAP, we move on to a custom strategy for building relationships that lead to “local links.”
If you want to learn more about how we work, check out our pricing page.