Local SEO

Have you ever wondered how the Local SEO?

Someone carries out a location-based search and Google, which is very clever, shows them the top results for that search query.

Haven’t you ever found that when you search for a hairdresser, it recommends the ones closest to where you are? It’s not that your phone is spying on you – although it sort of is – but rather that someone has optimised their business’s local SEO.

To put it simply, local SEO is a series of specific actions that help people in your town or a particular area find your business when they carry out a search related to what you offer.

For example, if you run a hairdressing salon in Logroño, the aim is that when someone searches for «hairdressing salon in Logroño» or simply «hairdressing salon near me», your business will have a chance of appearing in the results.

Because this isn’t about everyone finding you. If you run a local business, there’s little point in appearing in the search results of someone who’s 500 kilometres away. What matters is appearing in the search results of people who are nearby and who are actually looking for what you offer.

Although this work can be carried out on your own website, it often begins externally – by appearing on Google Maps.

Getting down to work to improve your local SEO means focusing on three key factors or pillars, according to Google.

1. Relevance: Are you offering users what they’re looking for through your business?
2. Distance: Are you within its range or search area?
3. Prominence: Do you project authority and inspire confidence?

If the answer to all of the above is a resounding ‘yes’, you’ve got a head start over everyone else when it comes to local SEO.

But it’s true that not all of us are Mbappé, so we don’t get mentioned in every newspaper, nor do we have Amazon’s budget to get thousands of (purchased) reviews – but reviews nonetheless.

As you can see... doing digital marketing, even at a local level, takes time, dedication, hard work and effort.

Hold on a minute! First of all, although your business listing helps, remember that you also need to improve the links to your website, and that the age of that profile and the distance from which the search is carried out also have an impact.

Does that mean the older, the better? Not always.

You need to bear in mind that your business listing, or GMB, must contain all the relevant information to meet the needs of customers looking for you.

Do you offer facilities for people with reduced mobility? Add this information. Do you have opening hours for in-person visits? Add this information. Do you have products you’d like to showcase on your listing? Add them.

The more comprehensive it is, the better the information you’ll provide to the end user.

Reviews and ratings are a double-edged sword. In my years as a professional, I have seen how some of them were capable of bringing businesses down in a rather dubious way, because Google did not verify their accuracy.

At present, Google is trying to combat this sort of behaviour because, as I say, it can either ruin a business or boost it by creating an unrealistic picture of what is actually going on within it.

So, whenever you can – whether through an email marketing campaign, via WhatsApp or simply during a visit to your shop – try to ask for reviews in a natural way. This will help increase the number of reviews for your business.

Setting up your business listing on Google isn’t rocket science, and what’s more, it’s free.

The first thing you need to do is log in to Google using the account you want to link to your business and start the process of creating your Business Profile. Google will ask you for basic information such as your business name, category, address or the area in which you provide your services, telephone number, website and opening hours.

So far, so easy.

The problem arises when we think that simply creating the listing and filling in four fields is enough. As you’ve seen throughout this article, having a presence doesn’t mean you’re well-ranked.

Once it’s been created, it’s time to fill it in, keep it up to date, get reviews organically, and work on the other factors that help Google understand who you are, where you are, and for which searches it should show your listing.

In the past, Google would send a code by post to your premises, and that was enough to verify that you were there.

Over time, technology has advanced, and Google has introduced a new verification system: sending them a video. This ensures that the person behind the business is a real person and that you aren’t simply using that premises to boost your ranking in the area.

Bear in mind that for years – and this still works today – people used keyword + location strategies to rank on the map across the whole of Spain. They looked like huge companies, but in the end it was just one (very talented) person sitting at a computer.