Local SEO, which is fundamentally just “SEO”, can be defined as optimizing your online assets and entities with a specific geographical target in mind.
In most cases this will be your local city or area where your business is located; where you live and serve customers.
Our Local SEO Service includes Website hosting, website management, Local SEO Optimization, Social Posting(on select social platforms), and link building options. It doesn’t get any better than this!
How we rank your business on Google Maps
This is the question we get the most.
“How do I rank my business on Google Maps?“
It is a fair question and that is exactly what this service is about. Local maps visibility.
We help your business show up for the right search terms that will be the most profitable for your business. Cuz let’s be honest. Nobody hustles for nothing.
Back to the question though. Most people don’t quite understand what they are asking when this question gets put forward, so I will rephrase it for you and then we’ll break it down.
Here is what they are actually asking:
“How do I manipulate someone elses software platform that I don’t own so that I show up at the very top of the results so people looking for services or products I sell can easily find me and contact me to buy them”
Now lets dig into this service and how we make that happen.
Digital Assets and Entities
When people are looking for a product or service in their local area, they pull out the phone and whatever search engine is loaded on their device, type in their query and magic happens. Whatever shows up after that would be considered the search results or SERPS. We would consider each of those results a “Digital Asset” or “Entity“. An “Asset” is something you own, an “Entity” is anything that is unique, can be defined or destinguishable. Some of them you can own, some of them you rent.
The most common Digital Asset is your website… That is, IF you own it!
Local SEO For Websites
Your website is often the piece that gets overlooked when considering local SEO. Most marketing companies slap up a poorly built website with no thought to structure and content. The “something is better than nothing” mentality prevails and you pay dearly for it. The website goes live and they continue to just focus on social media posting and the GBP which we’ll address next but the website is extremely important.
Google is very clear on HOW your website urls should be structured. You can read more about it here.
To summarize it, here are the things we focus on because we are playing in Google’s sandbox:
- Simple, descriptive words in the URL
- Localized words in the URL, if applicable
- Use UTF-8 encoding as necessary
- Country-specific domain
- Country-specific subdirectory with gTLD
- Hyphens (-) instead of underscores (_)
“Create a simple URL structure. Consider organizing your content so that URLs are constructed logically and in a manner that is most intelligible to humans.“
But, that is SO SIMPLE! Yes… yes it is. But, that is one of the most overlooked parts of SEO. If you want to dig into the patent Method and apparatus for creating a category hierarchy for classification of documents you can learn more about it.
Website structure really is step one. Keep it logical. Keep it simple. Keep it consistent with your GBP and Vice-Versa.
Along with SEO for Web Design(designing your website properly from the start), we also provide Canadian Website Hosting that is secure and blazing fast.
Google Business Profile Monitoring and Optimization
We need to reiterate something before we carry on.
You don’t own Google. Neither do we. Let’s just get that straight.
Google gave the community a life changing listing called the Google Business Profile(GBP) that uses your data as the currency. You don’t pay out of pocket, but they collect and use your data.
Why is the GBP so life changing? Because that is where EVERYONE searches for local services and products. It is tied to your local area and allows small businesses to compete with large enterprise companies in a local market. It is a game changer and is underutilized.
Our Local SEO Service monitors your Google Business Profile
Yes you read that right. We monitor your GBP profile for changes every day so that if something happens to it, we can stay on top of it so you can keep the calls coming in.
FACT: Google Business Profile is responsible for 70-80% of calls across the board with ALL businesses we have worked with. That number is staggering. When the listing goes down or something happens to it, the tap turns off and your business disappears over night. It can be devastating.
Local SEO: GBP Optimization
The GBP has only so many parts to it that can be changed or filled in. There are only a few parts of it that affect ranking. We optimize your listing for your local area to make sure it communicates the right message and is consistent with other digital entities like your website which helps improve your ranking in the local maps.
Google Business Profile Posting
Google has provided an option to post updates, offers, events related to your business. Our experience and data shows that posting 1 time per week consistently results in an increase in impressions and conversions. It is important to leverage all types of updates though. Regular Google Business Profile posting is included in our Local SEO Service.
Citations and Directory Listings
Citations are digital entities that list your business Name, Address, and Phone Number. This can be a mention on any site.
Directory Listings are digital entities that list your business information including Name, Address, Phone Number. Often additional info is included such as your website url, services, service areas, business description and more.
We focus on 40 -50 Key directory listings and also focus on local citations and directory listings. It is important to leverage data aggregators such as Data Axle, Neustar Localeze, and others as well. This is included in our Local SEO Service.
Voice Search Optimization
This term “voice search optimization” gets tossed around a lot. We have people ask us specifically how we optimize for voice search. Its pretty simple really. When you are searching via your voice, you are using a service like Siri, Cortana, Alexa, Google… they use the search engines they are associated with along with the GPS map services they are connected to such as Apple Car Play, Tom Tom, Android Auto, WebLink, MirrorLink and more.
Most voice search happens on a mobile device and is often while driving. People generally search for things like restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, etc.
When we optimize for voice search, we make sure your business information is up to date and connected to all of the search engines and their voice protocols, as well as the maps and gps associated with each of them.
This is usually done through data aggregators since many of the listings cannot be accessed unless through an approved third party. Between local listings, GPS system updates, and the content containing your messaging on the web, your business will be set up for voice search.
Link Building
Link building is important. It is heavily focused on in the SEO industry for good reason. It works. But, not just any link building. You can build thousands and thousands of backlinks to your website and you won’t rank.
It will actually do more harm than good. We see it all the time.
Link building shouldn’t just focus on backlinks. Internal linking of your website using contextually relevant anchor text between pages is MORE important than backlinks.
You should go back and read that last paragraph again. We focus on the WHOLE link structure.
When it comes to backlinks, we take a different approach than most companies. We network and connect with local, relevant businesses and individuals in your area to provide High Quality, Relevant backlinks. We have a “guaranteed” option and a “non-guaranteed option“.
It is important to note that ALL of the digital real estate mentioned above — website, GBP, Citations, Directories, Links, etc. that you have on the internet related to your business play a factor in your local ranking, and local visibility.
Our Local SEO Service leverages Key Digital Entities to demonstrate to Google that your business messaging lines up with what potential customers are actually looking for. We help make it clear to search engines that your digital entities as a collective provide the best answer their search query and/or solve their problem in the most efficient and most effective way.
Our Local SEO Service helps you become the best solution in your local market.
What this service is NOT
Our Local SEO Service is NOT a one size fits all fit you in a box kind of service.
It is also NOT a get rich quick scheme filled with spammy tactics that are going to get your Google Business Listing and website penalized.
We understand that there are some agencies out there that will post a bunch of meaningless blog posts on your site and throw a thousand links at your website to boost its rankings but we do things different. We are much more intentional, calculated and transparent about what we do.
If you are doing this as a last ditch effort before throwing in the towel and shutting your business down then we are probably not what you need.
This is not a guarantee that customers will call you over your competitors. You still need to run a good business and offer a great product or service.
