Hi, happy Friday.
The Importance of Local SEO
So today I want to talk about local SEO. So this is an important part of SEO, whether you are a local business or not. I think it's really important not to ignore the local factor of SEO.
My Journey into SEO
This is actually how I got into SEO. Because I, when I left my full time job, I realized I was at that point, I was building websites for my clients. And I realized after a few months, I was still on the Google business profile from my. Old job and , when I had a look at it, I went to take myself off of it.
And when I looked at it, I saw their stats and I saw that one of their pictures had had something like 3000 views in a month, and this was at the point where I was helping people with their websites, how we could actually, like we built these websites, how can we now actually get people to see them? And it was just a light bulb moment for me, really, where I just suddenly realized that actually.
This, this could be a really good way, especially for local businesses, a really good way to get some eyes on, on these websites, really. So that was how I kind of got started.
Optimizing Google Business Profiles
And I started off building out people's Google business profiles, which I still do now. And I love doing that. I think that's always a really fun thing to do, just optimizing your profile, making the most of it.
There's so many things within your profile that you can use and they can have a massive effect. And it's, it is, it's really important. I think that's.
The Power of Local Searches
We, we kind of under undervalue how many people do actually make local searches locally. So they reckon that 46 percent of all searches on Google are for something local.
And that's increasing as people are on their phones, more out and about, they can find things, they can look for things when they are actually out and about.
Leveraging AI and Technology
And this is being something that is developing with AI as well. I've seen a couple of adverts. I think it's for, I think it might be for the Google pixel phone, but I've seen a few adverts on TV around that of a guy and he says something like, find me some great local restaurants and put them on the map or something like that.
And actually that will be their Google profiles or their Apple profiles. Cause that's the other thing is the Apple maps profile is something else that goes alongside it, but it will be one of those local profiles. That's actually allowing the AI to map those businesses on a business on a map. So it's something that's, that can be really, really valuable just to make the most of it.
Standing Out in Local Listings
And all you need to do is be doing a little bit more than your local competition to be the one who is actually, who will stand, stand out on that map really. And then people will always look at those local listings and see which ones have got the most reviews, have got the most information on there.
And then it makes it more likely that they will then come through and visit your website or visit your business. At the end of the day, that's the goal to actually get them to come through. And make a purchase through your business and using your Google business profile can also help to enhance your website SEO as well.
Enhancing Website SEO with Local Pages
So there are things that you can do, like building out local pages on your website that actually mentioned the local area, the town or the county or wherever you are. So mentions those local things and actually then building that back and. Linking between that linking between your Google business profile and mentioning that town there and your website, then that can build, build links and just really enhance those pages.
It helps to enhance the trust as well. So Google understands that what the information that's on your website is also the same as what's on your Google profile as well. So it just makes your business more trustworthy and you can, I think with local SEO, you can get some quick wins.
Quick Wins with Local SEO
So SEO is never a. Certainly website. SEO is never something that we would say. It's a, it's a short term marketing tactic. It's something for businesses that are still planning to be in business a year from now. They want to build a, a sustainable way of marketing their business that brings people in when they're searching for services or products like theirs, and it brings them in at that moment of search.
And so it's, so, it is one of those things. I always say to my clients that the work that you do now on your. SEO pays dividends in three, six, nine, 12 months and beyond from there, really. Whereas with local SEO, if you optimize your Google business profile, that those changes can show up straight away. So you can start getting immediate results from that.
And that can be really, really helpful and just give you that little motivation that actually, Oh yes. If I do this, it's giving you that little. Quick win from SEO. And I think it just helps you. It helps to encourage you to then keep going with that.
Tracking and Analyzing Local Traffic
If you can see that people are coming into your website through your Google business profile.
then that can be, be really good. And the way that you can see that is by setting up tags on your profile using, tagging, or sometimes you do actually see that if you, , if you filter in your Google analytics, you can actually see that people are coming in through your Google profiles. And I often see that a lot with myself and with client sites as well.
We can see that those Google profiles are actually bringing people through to your website. It, when, when you do a local search on Google. The map results that come up are always very visual. They're always eye catching, especially if you're looking on a desktop and you can see the panel on the right hand side with that Google profile.
And even if you're not, even if on mobile, if you, if it's like those Google business profile results that come through straight away and you've got that link to your website, then that's really clickable. It's going to encourage people to then to click through and just find out more about what you're doing.
And. I think people are more likely to trust local businesses as well. I certainly find that most people want to, as much as we are all very global, we most people would prefer to do business with somebody locally. I think that immediately instills a bit more, um, willingness to do business with somebody.
If you find out that a big company is just down the road from you, it almost makes you like them a little bit more. Generally, unless they, unless they're not great for the local area, but I think it's certainly for small businesses. If you find out somebody is local and they do what you're looking for at that moment, you're much more likely to at least try and check them out and find out if they, they can help you.
Building Trust with Reviews
And you can also use it as a place to get reviews as well. And that's really important. If you get more than 10 reviews on your Google business profile, that can immediately give you a really good, Boost in terms of being likely to show up in those local map results. You can get those reviews. You can also then share those on your website.
Either you can then do a direct direct link. So that's what I would always suggest to try and do is actually link to your Google profile from the area of your website that you're mentioning those reviews. That way as well, you're not going to get any penalties in terms of Google thinking that it's duplicate content is, it's a, it's a bit tricky with, with reviews, because I think, I think you would have to be unlucky for Google to, to take whatever you've put from their profile.
What I tend to do is , take a screenshot of that review. If I'm going to use that on my website, I'll take a screenshot of that review and then use it there on my website and make sure that I link back to my Google profile from that as well. But it's very easy to ask for reviews through your Google profile.
I would always say to try and get a well rounded number of reviews across different places on the internet. So get some Facebook reviews, some Google reviews, some maybe trust pilot. If you've got that set up that way that You will never be reliant on one place for all your reviews. I always tend to say to people as well, when you do get a new review anywhere, make sure that you take a screenshot of it.
And especially on Google, the downside of a Google profile is that it's sometimes a little bit snippy. So if you suddenly get a hundred reviews on your profile, From none or from, you know, not getting many at all, then Google will treat that as suspicious. So you're going to have problems where your account may get suspended.
It's much better to have a trickle of reviews coming into your site or your profile rather every week or every month or on a regular basis. So that's why it's really important to keep asking for reviews from your clients. On an ongoing basis, and whenever you do get reviews, make sure that you do reply to them as well.
Even if it's just a few words saying thank you so much for your kind review or something along those lines, and you can actually use AI to help you write those answers if you're not sure what to write. And I would just. I think this can sometimes trip us up as we think that we need to write an essay almost saying thank you for the reviews, but sometimes just saying thank you is enough to at least then you're acknowledging that person, you're acknowledging that that person has actually Being kind enough to leave a review for your business.
And you are then showing that your profile is still active, that you're a business that's still active as well. And it is important to keep those reviews coming in because if your reviews suddenly dry up, that will then affect your Google business profile rankings, if you ever are concerned about, if you get a bad review.
then I always sort of say to my clients not to worry too much about that because that can be a really good PR exercise. So if you get a review and hopefully you wouldn't ever get a really bad review, but if you get a review that is not five star or is, you know, is a bad review, then think about how you can turn it around and show people that you, how you respond.
So think about if that was a real customer standing in front of you, giving you this feedback, and you had a shop. Full of VIPs. How would you be responding to that person in order to show yourself in the best light, really? And to acknowledge that the fact that they've given you feedback, that can be really, really helpful in terms of the trust for your business.
So actually, if you've, if you've only got five star reviews, I think that that's you, that they say that. People are more likely to trust if you've got between four and a half and 4. 9 in terms of the, the, the review rating on Google business profiles, because it shows that , you've not just gone out and paid for loads of five star reviews.
It's not just all your mates reviewing you. It's one of those things that I certainly say, don't worry about getting reviews that are less than perfect, really, which is easy, easy said, but it's not always as easy when, when we actually get those kinds of things coming in.
So.
Content Strategies for Google Profiles
One of the things I would say, sort of in terms of tips and how to actually go about updating your Google profile, making the most of local SEO.
If you're creating content for social media, which most of us are doing, but not necessarily thinking about how we can use that in different places like our Google profiles. Even if you did nothing else, but took your top performing post on social media each week and added that to your Google business profile, that could make a massive difference to the amount of traffic and the amount of.
searchability and the amount of rankings that you're getting for your Google profile is showing Google that you are an up to date business. It's also showing people on Google what you do as well. So if you've got things that you're sharing about events happening in your business, new products coming in, anything, really anything that you would share on social media, there's that is specific to the business.
So I wouldn't be sharing, I mean, you potentially could share things like motivational quotes. If they are, if they do. Link up if they're very relevant to the content and then if you're bringing it back to your website. So whenever you're putting any post anywhere, whether it's socials or your Google business profile, I would always be thinking about how can I bring this back to my own domain?
Anyway, that's probably one of the key things is using that that content you're creating to bring people back to your domain. And it's the same with your Google profile. So think about the things that actually relate to the services and the products you offer that you're sharing on social media, the, the, the kind of posts that are more sales generating really.
And if you're not doing things like that, then that's something to think about is how, you know, what are you doing to sell through those social media posts? Cause ultimately the goal is. Not just as posts on social media for the sake of engagement. We do want people to take some action from that as well.
So yeah, whichever are your most popular posts or the posts that just look good and you feel like if it's a post that you feel proud of, share it on your Google profile as well, and then bring them back to your business from that. If you're creating blog podcast episodes, Share those on your Google business profile as well.
I've actually been doing that with my podcast, making sure that every time I create a new podcast, I create a link to that on my Google business profile. I'm deliberately not. Promoting my podcast through social media. I want to grow it without using social media, traditional social media, the way that the main ones that we think of a Facebook, Instagram, and just using things like my Google business profile.
Just to see if I can just generate some more traffic. So I'm actually then linking to the, those podcast episodes on my website, the ones where I've created a blog and created an individual page for that episode, then I'm linking to those from my Google profile as well. And then, if you're creating case studies or client stories for your website, share those on your Google profile as well.
Especially if you can get those clients to write a review on your profile, and then you can mention that within that post where you, where you are actually sharing those client stories, or even if it's a case study that then links to your website, and these can be really good case studies. For local businesses can be really good in terms of, for example, if you, if you have a local client in the next town along, you could then create a case study about how you've helped them and the results they got from working with you.
And then create a URL that contains that town name as well. So how you've helped them and that town name, and then create a page on your website, all about that. And that could be really, really good for SEO. And then if you link to that from your Google profile as well, it's, it's Just all helps with your local authority and really helping with that local SEO.
So if you, whether you're thinking about whether you need a Google business profile and you need local SEO, I would say if you need more footfall through your business, if you need more bookings, if you're a service provider, you need more bookings, and if you need more traffic to your website, then definitely I would be thinking about how can I utilize my Google business profile to help me get some more local traffic and get more local SEO.
Mobile Optimization for Local SEO
One of the things I would say to do if you are doing that is make sure that your website is optimized for mobile as well. This is a good thing for general SEO, making sure that your website is mobile friendly. But this is even more key for local SEO as well, because people will be searching on their phones.
And if your website doesn't load quickly and is not optimized for mobile. Then you're going to lose that local traffic from the people who are actually searching on their phones. And also Google won't even show them that if your website and Google knows that your website isn't optimized for mobile, it's not going to display it realistically in the local search results.
Voice Search and Conversational Keywords
One of the things, if people are searching locally is, is thinking about voice search. So using more question related. terms through your website. So when you're thinking about keywords to optimize your website and key phrases to optimize your website, those local searches can be really powerful using things like how, what, where, those kinds of queries where you're actually writing those queries.
Questions, and you can do it as a Q and a section. You can do that in your Google business profile as well. Adding Q the Q and a section, you can actually add that as a business owner and you can add the reply to that as well. So thinking about the kind of questions that people may be asking that relate to your business and using that conversational language in that is really, really good as well.
So I can help with this. .
Services and Resources
I've got different ways that people work with me with their Google business profiles. I have an online course for Google business profile optimization. So it's just a short course that you can go through and it will tell you the main ways that you can optimize your profile, make sure that you're making the most of it.
So you find that on my website, I offer power hours for this as well. So that would be a strategy session where we talk through your profile. We look at what your, what your Utilizing at the moment and the ways that you can keep utilizing your profile. So you've then got an action plan of what you need to do to make the most of your profile.
And obviously that's tailored to your business. And then I also offer this as a done for you services as well. So if you want to book me for half a day, we do a Google profile optimization, and I actually go through and optimize your profile for you. So if any of those will be helpful to you, then reach out.
Conclusion and Contact Information
If you've got any questions about this, I'll pop the links to all of those services. And I also have another thing on my website is my, I have a free Google business profile checklist as well. So I'll also drop the link to that there as well. So I hope you have a lovely weekend and I will see you soon.
Bye.
