Local online visibility: 10 (really) useful actions

Melanie Robin
September 26, 2022
3:51 p.m.
0 comments

Local online visibility, an essential step. According to Google, 46 % of queries concern local search. Why bother being everywhere and nowhere on the web when you can be found on Google by local customers? Your ideal customers are looking for your products or services close to home, all year round. So, how can you optimize the local visibility of your business? Read the rest of this article to apply my best tips on local SEO.

What is local visibility on the internet?

Busy Internet users want answers to their queries close to home. Local visibility means being seen at good time, by the good people, on a geographical area given when the Internet user types a query. THE local SEO develops your online presence. The goal ? Appear in the first results of search engines locally.

Why do local SEO?

Let's imagine, you open an eco-responsible flower shop in Strasbourg and you want to attract local customers. Local SEO allows you to be found on the internet by customers close to your place of business. Day and night. The benefits of local visibility are numerous:

obtain targeted visits;
sustain your business;
build customer loyalty;
promote your local authority;
encourage people to invest and consume locally.

Your visibility is at rock bottom, what should you do? Target local specific keywords. That is to say the queries that your ideal clientele would type to discover you on the web. Then, apply good SEO practices.

The keys to boosting your local visibility on the web

Apply these tips to make your presence on the web flourish.

1) Conduct a content audit

The first thing to do before wanting to gain visibility is to analyze all of the content on your website:

web pages (services, products, FAQ, contact, etc.);
category pages;
blog posts;
etc.

The content audit identifies the positive and negative points for develop your organic visibility. This involves sorting out:

pages that perform well (traffic + conversion);
pages to be reworked (low word count, key query, obsolete content, quality to be reviewed, layout, 404 errors or pages not found, etc.);
the pages to delete.

You improve user experience with quality content and your SEO score (visibility in search results). You will also get keyword opportunities relevant.

Receive a free SEO pre-audit

2) Create a Google Business Profile page

There first step to develop your local visibility !

Do you welcome clients or offer your services on site? Do you have a business website, but haven't yet claimed your business with Google? Create your Google business profile.

You don’t yet have a website for your business? It's completely doable to create your profile.

What is Google Business Profile?

Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), is a free service that allows you to create your corporate identity file on the Google search engine. A well-optimized Google Business Profile increases your chances of being seen on the web and attracting qualified traffic on your website.

Example: screenshot of information from the Google Business Profile file

presented in the form of a “Knowledge graph” (box on the right).

Why use a Google business listing?

Google Business is much more than a simple business information sheet. Here are its 3 main advantages:

You develop your local SEO on Google (search results + Google Map).
You inform Internet/mobile users about your products and services close to where they live.
You manage your online reputation thanks to reviews.

Example: screenshot of the “Local pack” (left).

7 Tips to Optimize Your Google Business Listing

Here is advice accessible to all businesses:

Write the sheet with detailed and useful (up-to-date) information.
Insert keywords searched by Internet users.
Select a relevant main activity category.
Collect reviews (significant SEO impact).
Add quality photos.
Publish relevant content using Google Posts (behind the scenes, news, etc.).
Include calls to action and links to your site (learn more, book, etc.).

Regularly view your statistics from the GBP interface to evaluate the performance of your business profile.

Google Business Listing Manager Screenshot — Create a Google Post

3) Create an inbound link strategy

This is one of the secrets to gaining the trust of search engines: Google loves quality inbound links.

An inbound link or backlink is A link that points to your website. Typically, these are websites that recommend your content naturally (you don't have to do anything). The search engine then has every interest in putting your website forward in the search results. You can also decide to look for these incoming links:

register on recognized local professional directories;
write guest posts;
canvass influential local sites.

Backlinks are not required. But it is an undeniable advantage compared to your competitors to obtain the coveted places on Google. Here are now the criteria for choosing a quality link:

a site with the same theme as yours;
a site with good traffic;
a site with strong authority (DA);
an optimized anchor (clickable text);
the quality content in which the link is located.

4) Write SEO content with local keywords

The more your site will be powered by unique quality content, the more your authority will climb in the eyes of Google. Robots will get into the habit of visiting you more often and with complete confidence. Don't forget, editorial content is the cream of SEO. To boost your local visibility, target queries like “ service + location » on your homepage, about page, etc. Put yourself in the Internet user's place, what is their search intent ? Choose your keywords carefully. Ensure their relevance by taking into account the number of monthly searches and the level of competition. Write in a natural language conversational (perfect for voice search). Insert your local keyword sparingly in strategic places:

the meta description;
the title;
title tags;
alternative text for images;
URLs.

5) Optimize your website for mobile

Local search is gaining ground. Today, the use of cell phones is widespread for nearby searches. The mobile version of a website is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity. Make sure you have a responsive site, and make sure the loading speed of your pages : 3 seconds maximum to display a web page, no more!

6) Obtain customer reviews

Collect opinions on Google Business Profile to catch the eye of the web giant and future customers. To obtain recommendations more easily, share the personalized link of your profile from your Google Business dashboard :

Click on “home”.
Go to the “receive other reviews” section.
Click on “share form”.
Share the “request for advice from your customers”.

Google Business Listing Manager Screenshot — Request a Google Review with a Custom Link

Reply to each comment with a personalized response.

7) Put your contact details in your web pages

A guarantee of reliability and security for both Internet users and the search engine. Indicate your contact information (address, telephone number, etc.) in the footer of your website. For example, the contact page or the home page.

8) Post on social media

According to Google, social networks have no direct influence on the SEO of your site. In fact, most links from social networks are ignored by the search engine. Just like the number of “likes” or the number of subscribers.

That said, by exposing your business on the networks, you will flourish! Because there is a good chance that your audience will click on the link to your site.

Social networks do not improve the positioning of your website in search results. But these latter are useful and complementary in a local visibility strategy. On Instagram, for example, make sure to:

put location hashtags;
mention your city in the bio;
indicate the location of the post;
relay content from other businesses in the region;
create events;
establish links with locals on the networks;
etc.

Additionally, your social media profiles will appear in organic web results.

9) Analyze the SEO benefits

Are you moving forward in the fog? To help you see things more clearly, here are two basic tools you absolutely must have as a website owner. Prerequisites: open a Google account and create an email address (Gmail).

Google Search Console

There Google Search Console offers valuable data to optimize your online presence (for free). You can then check:

the correct indexing of your pages in Google;
the keywords typed by Internet users to discover your site;
the average position of your pages;
the good technical health of your site (detect errors, etc.);
the quality of the user experience on your site (loading speed, etc.).

Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4 (GA4), a complete and free tool to analyze the performance of your website: the number of pages viewed, the number of unique visitors, etc. I am not going to detail all of its features in this article. I recommend that you install this tool and familiarize yourself with the mountain of data available to you. A word of advice: never rest on your laurels. When it comes to SEO, nothing is ever a given.

10) Bonus: get out of the house

Socializing remains the most effective method for creating connections and meeting new people. This can have a positive impact on your visibility locally. Share your knowledge, your practices, your history, your values, etc. Consider the different types of partnerships possible in the short and medium term.

Local visibility: what to remember

The successive crises that we have encountered in recent years signify the return of the idea of proximity. Internet users feel less and less the need to purchase products or services online. They aspire to meet brands geographically close to their home with values similar to theirs. It is for this very reason that “consuming local” has now become a way of life in its own right: to become responsible and committed players of today and tomorrow.

Your mission ? You connect to your local customers. Create personalized, relevant and accessible content. Respond precisely to their questions, needs and expectations.

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Need help optimizing your local SEO?

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