What does a Local SEO Company do?

You’re probably aware that online marketing can be valuable, but doing it effectively can be difficult. That’s where a local SEO company comes in. They’re experts on how to position your business online in order to create the maximum effect. Here are some things you should know about how they do it and why it’s important for the success of your business.

What A Local SEO Company Does And Why It Matters

In a nutshell, a local SEO company applies its expertise and tools to make your business more visible on the internet so that when people search for the product or service that you’re selling they’ll find you. It will optimize your online presence for the specific local area where your business is located. In order to get the best results for your business, a local SEO company will do some or all of the following things.

• Keyword Research - This can include a variety of activities, such as:
  • Brainstorming your service in locations (SILs). For example, Gym in San Francisco.
  • Looking for keyword ideas on websites such as Craigslist.
  • Using Google Autocomplete to generate more search suggestions.
  • Seeing which keywords your competitors rank for.
• Google My Business/Bing Places/Apple Maps Listings
  • Google My Business (GMB) - Set up or optimize your page with your business name, address, exact location, type of business, phone number, and website. After verifying your listing, they may optimize it further by adding more categories, uploading photos (on your premises or nearby work best because they’ll have location metadata attached), listing your hours and any services you offer, adding any additional phone numbers and relevant attributes/amenities, and anything else that customers may find useful.
  • Bing Places - Bing is similar to GMB but not exactly the same. A local SEO company will check if you’re already listed, pick the business type, enter your basic information, choose a business segment and category, and add your phone number, links (website, Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, TripAdvisor), and photos.
  • Apple Maps - â…“ of all cellphone users in the US (tens of millions) use iPhones and Apple maps is the default maps application. It’s built into Siri and Spotlight searches so it’s important to claim and optimize your Apple Maps listing.
• Local Citations (NAP) - NAP is short for name, address, and phone number. In structured citations, your info is presented in a structured way in places such as business directories, social profiles, etc. Unstructured citations present your information in an unstructured way in blog posts, on newspaper websites, on business blogs, etc. Consistent NAP citations matter because they are an important ranking factor for search engines and having accurate NAP listings on sites (social media, directories, etc) lets potential customers who search there find your business, all of which leads to more business for you. A local SEO company will do a citation audit and build more citations for your business.
• On-Page SEO - When it comes to on-page SEO a local SEO will perform a few activities.
  • Set up your website structure to rank local landing pages.
  • Optimize your homepage.
  • Optimize your local landing pages.
  • Add schema markup to your pages.
• Link Building (for Local Sites) - According to a survey by Moz, link signals are the number one localized organic ranking factor and number two local pack/finder ranking factor. Some ways to build links to local business websites include:
  • Creating and promoting a useful local resource
  • Guest blogging
  • Improving popular content (skyscraper technique)
  • Finding common links from your competitors and getting them for yourself
• Reviews (and Other Ongoing Activities) - Like most things in business, local SEO isn’t a set it and forget it activity. For your local SEO to stay effective, you’ll need to keep doing certain activities.
  • Stay active on Google My Business by responding to reviews, looking for incorrect edits, and using Google Posts to keep customers informed.
  • Publish new content regularly so that Google knows you’re active and you continue to attract links.
  • You’re also going to want to do some type of conversion tracking (call tracking, contact form conversion tracking, etc.) so that you’ll know if all the work you’ve done on your local SEO is paying dividends in the form of leads, customers, and more revenue for your business. 

Wow! That’s a lot to do. Fortunately, you don’t have to do it all yourself since there are local SEO companies who specialize in this stuff and are ready to help you get your local SEO working the way it should.

If you want to know more about local SEO or you’re ready to put the professionals to work for you, Ellipsis can help!

Tags: local SEO