If you work in digital marketing or business, chances are you’ve heard the term “SEO” before. SEO, or search engine optimization, is a digital marketing practice in which businesses employ several techniques to try to get their website to appear higher on search engine results pages. When you perform this practice without using paid advertising, it is known as “organic SEO.”

Now, organic search engine optimization is an incredibly useful strategy used by all sorts of businesses around the world, both big and small. However, if you’re a small or local business whose business depends on the community surrounding it, there may be a better option for you. 

While it can’t hurt to practice regular organic SEO, there is a lesser known strategy that could potentially be more beneficial to small and local businesses. It’s called “Local SEO.” Keep reading to find out exactly what local SEO is, and how it can help your small business.

What Is Local SEO?

If you have an understanding of what organic search engine optimization is, you’re probably able to guess what local SEO is. When conducting local SEO, you’re essentially conducting the same processes as organic SEO, but scaled down to only focus on the immediate area around your business. This means putting extra attention and effort into creating your Google Business Profile. 

You may have noticed that when conducting a Google search for a store, a list of 3 to 5 businesses in your area pop up, complete with a map showing their location. Those businesses that pop up are known as a Google Business Profile, or GBP. When you conduct a search for businesses, Google assumes that you need relatively immediate service, and gives you results for applicable businesses in your area. For the most part, the need for immediate service is true. According to Google, 76 percent of people who conduct a local business search visit a business within 24 hours of their search. 

To further explain how valuable Google Business Profiles are, Google has stated that 60 percent of people conduct local business searches every day, and 86 percent of people rely on Google Maps, which also displays GBPs, to find locations of local businesses. 

In short, local SEO is a strategy in which businesses conduct various techniques to help their Google Business Profile rank higher, and appear on a map in the search engine results page. So how does a business promote their Google Business Profile? What does local SEO rely on? Keep reading to find out.

How To Succeed Using Local SEO

With millions upon millions of results per results page, it may seem like an impossible task to try to get your business to rank highly. Surprisingly, it’s not that difficult. According to Google, there are only three categories that are accounted for when listing Google Business Profiles. Those categories are relevance, distance, and prominence. With the right amount of work on your website, and on your GBP, your business can be ranked on a search engine results page with no problem. 

In order to get your business to rank highly on results page, you should include a few, if not all, of the following:

• A Primary Category in Your GBP
• Keywords in the Listing Title
• A Complete GBP Listing
  • Including Hours Open
  • Days Closed
  • Phone Number
  • Website
• Physical Business Address
• Additional keywords in the GBP

While this seems like a lot, it is well worth it. With a few days work, and a couple timely searches, your business profile can be located at the top of a search engine results page.

Connect With IT Edge Today!

IT Edge knows that running a small or local business can be hard. We’ve been doing it for over 30 years! If you want to take a dive into local SEO, but don’t know where to start, give us a call!

It may seem like a difficult task to complete all the work needed for a great local SEO strategy, that’s why we’re here to help. 

Let us handle all the legwork, while you sit back and collect the results that come with having a great Google Business Profile.

Contact IT today to get your local SEO strategy started.