The spread of smartphones and the development of geolocation in recent years have boosted the volume of local searches and therefore the importance of local SEO. Thanks to geolocation, the results of local searches are displayed more and more in the form of maps and highlight the nearest business addresses.
The local SEO has become essential for local shops and small businesses that rely on local activity, especially as mobile traffic tends to exceed desktop traffic. With local SEO, you can promote your business, products, or services to users near your location.
Some figures to understand the interest of local referencing
• 88% of smartphone users do local searches
• 84% of tablet and computer users do local searches
• 40% of requests are motivated by the search for a product or service nearby
• 47% of local search clicks are on Google Map results
The optimization of local SEO of your site is paramount to be visible to your customers. Local SEO relies on several techniques that help to position your site in local search results and appear in Google Map suggestions.
How to optimize the local SEO of your site?
Create a Google My Business listing
The first step to refer to your site locally is to create a Google My Business listing, which Google defines as "the showcase of your business for those who search the Internet." For local businesses, the relevance of Google My Business is obvious.
Be careful when completing the form because it is very important to fully inform all information requested, including those concerning your location, your telephone contacts, the list of your products/services and keywords and key terms for your business.
The more complete and accurate your listing is, the more likely you are to appear in a good position in local search results, especially in Google Map results, which are among the most clicked.
Banking on data microphones
The data microphones (or metadata ) is information contained in the HTML code of your site that are not visible to users and searches engines analyze to assess the relevance of a page with respect to user queries.
These metadata play a crucial role in natural referencing, but not only because, if they are well structured, they make it possible to trace the good information (addresses, schedules, contact, products, prices, ...) directly in the results of local searches.
For example, it is a good idea to mention the information about your locality (region, department, city) in your meta tags (title, meta description, H1, ...) or to specify by attributes specific to the HTML language (span) that such type of information is an address, street name, phone number, zip code, opening hours, email address, or Google Map URL of your location.
Get consumer reviews
As on social networks, users are sensitive to the opinions of other users to form an opinion on a product or service. Google places a high value on users' opinions, which it considers as evidence of the reality of your business and the quality (or lack thereof) of your products or services.
The more positive comments you have on Google reviews, the better your site will be positioned in local search results, and vice versa.
Register your site on the directories
To verify the authenticity of your information, Google cross-checks its data with those retrieved from other sites deemed reliable like Yellow Pages, LaPoste or local and thematic directories.
It is therefore in your interest to register your domain name on these sites and to ensure that the same information is consistently provided everywhere to enhance your reliability.
Neglecting local SEO means taking the risk of not being visible to your closest targets geographically of your activity. Local SEO is all the more effective if it is part of a global SEO strategy.
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