Local Search / Local SEO / Google Maps

There are many ways to get your business found on Google, but Local Search, also known as Local SEO, is the only way to generate clicks and leads that are absolutely free.

The goal for any Local Search campaign is, first and foremost, to get listed on Google Maps.  Your ranking in Google Maps is going to vary greatly depending on two factors:

• the location of searcher in relation to your business
• the keyword phrases the searcher uses in the query

Local SEO Ranking Formula

There is no guarantee you will rank high on Google Maps. The best you can do is adhere to Google’s recommendations for maximizing your chances. Even then, you should expect that improved results will only come after many months of work – perhaps 9-12 months.

Here are the key steps in the process.

Keyword Research & Planning

This is the basis for any type of search program … because, let’s face it, people search by using specific keyword phrases.

Using one of many keyword tools, you need to begin this process by putting together a list of keyword phases that people use to find products, services or businesses like yours.

This list can be very long, but you can organize it by search volume. 

Obviously, the keywords with the highest search volume are your best candidates, but there’s lots of competition for those keywords – so lower volume keywords might also make sense.

Unless you are highly focused with one product/service, chances are you will have more than one keyword list – each representing a different product, service or niche market.

Your Website

Everyone will have an opinion on your website, but those opinions are very subjective and often nothing more than an aesthetic opinion.

From a Local Search (or SEO) perspective, aesthetics doesn’t have a role in this process.

Google has a different agenda.

Google is looking for how well and how thoroughly you discuss topics around specific keywords. This can be a single page on a topic, or a cluster of pages.

This discussion should include text, images and video.

Google also wants to see you give some attention to the location of your business and/or service area. This should appear on your home page and your service pages – and not just your contact page.

When reviewing a website for local search, we typically look at the home page and the individual service pages.

All of the above has to do with getting more visitors to your website, but your website should also focus on getting more of those visitors to convert into leads and customers.  A strong conversion strategy will get more people to fill out a form, make a phone call or engage in chat.

Google Business Profile

Your Google Business Profile, formerly know as Google My Business, is often overlooked as an important ranking factor.

Most businesses fill out the essential information, but then move on to other things.

Sadly, these businesses are missing out on what Google really wants.

There’s always more to do on the GBP – from more categories, more services, more descriptions, more Q&As, more posts, more photos, more everything.

Listings Alignment

Google uses many factors to learn about your business and decide where you should be ranked.

One is the Listings Alignment where Google looks at business listings and directories across the web to verify the Name, Address and Phone number (known as your NAP) of your business. If your NAP does not align with your Google Business Profile, it creates a problem for Google’s verification and you will pay a price in your rankings.

But we can help get your listings aligned.

Google Reviews

Google has made it very clear that Google Reviews are a key ranking factor – by the number of reviews, the quality of the reviews and the recency of the reviews.

If you want to rank on Local Search, more specifically on Google Maps, you need to have a system in place to consistently generate more reviews on Google.  You can do this manually and face to face, but at some point, your customers have to go online to submit their reviews.

Alternatively, you can set up an online process that uses email and text messaging to bring customers along in the process.

Content Creation & Link Building

What kind of content makes sense for a local business? Yes, you can fill your blog with multiple “tips” or “how-to” posts and videos, but

How-to articles and videos are everywhere on the web, it’s hard to imagine any local business owner is going to develop something new or better than what already exists.

But what you can produce that is even more relevant to your local customers is content related to your own projects and your own community.

Where do we start?

So, where do we start and how do we monitor your rankings?

We start by identifying a specific number of keyword phrases. There are likely to be hundreds of keywords related to your business, so narrowing your work down to 10, 20 or 30 keywords can be a difficult task.

We also need to identify your target locations. Once again, we need to narrow our focus down to a few zip codes even if your market is larger than that.

Then we plug in those keywords and geographic locations to determine where you are currently ranked for each of those combinations.

This becomes our benchmark – and over time we review our rankings to monitor our improvement.

Your rankings will vary with every keyword/location combination.

Wondering where you stand?

Would you like to establish your own benchmarks?

It would be a good first step – and we can help.

Give us 10 keyword phrases and 3 zip codes, and we’ll produce a Google Maps report for you showing where your business stands for each of those 30 combinations (10 keywords x 3 zip codes = 30 combinations).

All for just $295.

If you later decide to hire us to help you with your Local Search, we will deduct that from your first month payment.

Pricing for Local SEO

Below is monthly pricing for our Local SEO services for a one-location business. For multi-location businesses, we would need to develop a custom quote.

As you can see, pricing is based on the scope of your project – in terms of the number of keywords and locations.

But even within those parameters, every project is different in terms of timelines. In many cases, the website – even a nicely designed website – needs to be adjusted for SEO – which takes time. If, however, your website is already well optimized for SEO, we can skip that work and move on to other priorities

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