Small Business Local Seo – How To

Local Business SEO is one term you will see quite often mentioned when working with an SEO agency. It is usually the starting point of an SEO strategy if they know that you are a local brick and mortar store business or have a local presence in an area and would like more brand presence and customers from the surrounding area. Examples of businesses that are local business focused are Dentists, Doctors, Local Restaurants etc. These are all localised to an area or suburb and can be more specifically targeted to just search results for that area.

So, what is local seo for small business?

Local SEO for small businesses encapsulates 2 areas of SEO.

1. Localised organic search results – typing in a service or business and attaching a localised area for example, “Chinese restaurant Melbourne” as well
2. Map pack search results – A map pack search result is what you will get if you are trying to Google a certain business in an area and you see a knowledge panel on Google with a map of where the business is located and other important information like reviews.

This is huge for small businesses because it gives them a way to compete locally against large corporations with huge marketing budgets. Google has specifically done this so that local businesses can cut through a lot of the companies targeting wide cities or countries and only show results relevant to the search intent of the user.

How do I improve local SEO for small businesses?

Here are our top 4 methods to improve local SEO for small business.

1. Check for Technical SEO issues impacting Indexing
   First, learn the basics about how search engines crawl and index your website. Next you will be able to quickly narrow down how to make sure Google is actually indexing your issues properly and is not showing any issues in Google Search Console.
   
   This can already improve your local ranking in your area. Make sure that your website has no big red marks and engage a developer if needed in order to fix those issues as they contribute to you not performing against your competitors in the area.
   
2. Get a Google My Business sorted.
   If you do not already have one we cannot stress enough the importance of having a Google my business listing for your business and location as one of the biggest improvements to visibility for your small business in an area.
   
   This works best when targeting more specific areas but can work for entire suburbs as well. Going outside of those parameters would mean more competition so it is normally not advised. Help searchers understand the experience they’ll have at your business with a variety of high-quality photos and videos.
   
   Showcase offers, events, and more with Google Posts. Interact with customers via Messaging, Q&A, and responding to reviews. Proactively share differentiating features, health and safety information, payment methods, and more with Attributes.
   
3. Do outreach and show brand presence with Google Ads for keywords in your area
   Post regularly on your social media accounts including Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. Make sure everyone in the community knows about your business. Be an active participant in the local community both online and offline to make sure people know about your brand.
   
   To help with this you can also purchase google ads keywords targeting the service you offer and location to test the waters and make 100% sure it is viable to invest in your SEO optimisation for those keywords.
   
4. Use schema markup on your website.
   Local Business schema markup is very powerful and can help to improve your local SEO serving as another strong indicator of your presence in the area on top of the map pack offering.
   
   This schema markup becomes even more powerful with our local business services generator allowing you to add your own business services on the schema and tell Google exactly what services you offer and the type of end result they will get.

Need some help for your local business SEO strategy?

If you are looking for local seo services for small business, try getting in touch with our SEO service Agency partner.