Local SEO: Becoming the Popular Neighbor
Google now knows where people are. Let them know your business is nearby with local SEO!
Want to gain some street cred? Google now uses a new algorithm that finds businesses geographically close to where a person is searching from and displays those businesses before the others. That’s as long as your business represents itself in a way that Google can find you. It isn’t enough to throw your address on your contact page and expect Google to pick up on it. With Google searching through billions of websites, you need show some responsiveness back to it. And don’t think you’re shouting into a void. With our local SEO tips, you can become a local business that Google will show whenever someone searches for a business like yours or searches for businesses near a certain area.
Why You Can Show Up in Local Search Results
One way the Google processes the local SEO is by using someone’s location (via their GPS) to find a business near them. For instance, let’s pretend you’re a hardware store in Ringwood, New Jersey. If someone presently in Ringwood types in simply “hardware store” in their Google search bar, Google will scan the area. If your website states that you are a hardware store in Ringwood, NJ the correct amount of times, your website is one that will show up. Under “Local Search Results.”
However, local search results don’t need to be in your town directly. If someone from a nearby town (can even be 20 miles or so away) searches for your type of business and you have a prominently effective website that clearly states where your location is, you’ll show up. To state another example, from my hometown in Oakland, NJ, if I type in seafood restaurant, I can get results from New York City because the seafood restaurants around me don’t have effective webpages. Google won’t register them unless they have websites with good content that reminds them where it is geographically located.
Another reason why you would show up with local SEO would be if someone is typing in your town’s name or a town name near you. If someone in Florida searched for a hardware store in Oakland, NJ, your hardware store could show up in their local SEO search. That’s because Google doesn’t only know about where you are- it knows about anywhere and everywhere. It’s important to represent yourself and your local area.
So, knowing what Local SEO is now, you want to know how to accomplish it. We’ve already covered that in our Local SEO: Gaining You More Customers article.
