“The most effective way to illustrate what local SEO is to put forward a typical example and you will recognise whether or not your business should be making use of it. In short, if you happen to be a local business and you target local people then it is perhaps that you need a local Search engine optimisation solution.” quoted from http://www.seowigan.net
Think of the search engines for instance Google and Bing as “answer machines” , in other words their objective is to provide the people who are using them the very best and most relevant search results for the search queries they are being asked. With this in mind if anyone using one of these search engines types in a phrase that would provide the search engine some idea as to your intentions regarding goods or services which could be located in or around the local area to the place you are physically in or searching against, then the search engines could bring back the most relevant search results intended for phrase which was searched against.
So what is it that determines whether a local search takes place? Basically it is given away by the name of a town or local service. For instance if you are searching for a builder in Chester you might type in “Chester Builder” or “Builder Chester” then you would be given results similar to this:
The results in the image are local results, do not confuse these with paid (Pay Per Click) or organic results. Local SEO results are organic too but they are specifically geared to give the searcher the most relevant local results rather than a national result.
It’s all about “user intent”
The Google search engine particularly uses especially advanced algorithms to figure out precisely what your intentions are when you search. In the example we carried out earlier if you were signed into Google or Bing at the time you carried out your search then if we were to miss out bit of the phrase that references the location, i.e. the bit which mentions Chester, and if you were to enter the search instead for “builders” or anything similar, the search engine would bring back those local services instead based upon the place where you carried out the search from.
This is because Google are trying to figure out what you mean when you type in a search phrase. Try it for yourself. If as an example you type in a word such as “installers” (without the quotes) and see what your results are. The same is true if you try the search from your mobile phone when you are not at home – the results will reflect the place you are searching from.
We can help you grow your customer base
So what this means is, if your company targets local people then you need local SEO. The initial action is to inform the search engines that you are a local business and we are able to perform this for you. By doing this we are telling the search engines that your company is a local one and that your business wants to appeal to people and businesses locally to yourself. From here we will promote your online business to the best fit parts of the web on your behalf which will ensure people are given the best local results and that your business is prominently placed near the top for these results. As a side effect of this brand awareness that we undertake you will also gain rankings in the general organic listings too.
Of course you may be a local business but you do not want your address to appear in the local search results. It may be true for a number of reasons, we understand you would like to keep these details away from the public. This is ok, there are many other strategies which we will be happy to undertake for you in order to be sure that you still get the customer type that you want for your clientelle. to get. Please get in touch with us so we can talk about how we are able to help your business grow.