Understanding Local SEO and How It Works

Discover how Google collaborates with local sites through this guide on local SEO, and begin optimizing your website for local search results to boost your business.

Local SEO is a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy designed to enhance your business's visibility in local search results on Google.

Businesses with physical locations or those serving a specific geographic area can greatly benefit from local SEO. If you search Google for important keywords related to your business and see a map with three listings beneath it (known as a map pack), then local SEO can help you expand your business.

To grasp local SEO, it's essential to first understand how Google functions.

How Have Search Engines Evolved?

Initially, the internet had few websites, making navigation straightforward. As the internet grew, search engines were developed to help users find the sites they needed more easily.

Typing a phrase into a search engine would match that phrase to websites containing those keywords. Google adopted this method but outpaced other search engines by using links between sites as a measure of trust and authority.

Today, Google examines hundreds of factors both on and off your website to decide if it’s relevant to display as a search result. These factors constitute your “digital footprint,” each with varying weights, which the search engine combines to produce results. Your digital footprint influences whether your site appears as a top result for a user's query.

How Does Google Operate?

When you input a search phrase into Google, it evaluates the pattern of various website signals, or ranking factors, such as the relevance of your site, to generate a list of sites that match your search.

Google does not conduct a live search of the entire internet each time a query is made. Instead, it searches a stored copy of all the sites it has discovered, known as the Google Index.

Google creates the index using small programs called “spiders” to crawl the web. Each spider starts on a single page and follows the links on that page, examining content on subsequent pages.

As web content is crawled, it is stored on Google’s servers, and the index is built. Spiders operate on an immense scale, continuously crawling trillions of pages at a rapid pace to ensure the index is current and new sites are quickly found.

Ranking Search Results

Google uses various algorithms to rank hundreds or thousands of sites almost instantaneously. When you search on Google, an algorithm checks the index and returns a list of websites that match your search in organic results, ranking them by relevance, prominence, and popularity, as determined by inbound links.

The algorithm considers various on-site and off-site factors to identify which websites are related to your search. Relevant sites are ranked by prominence, and the algorithm determines which sites best answer your query, listing them at the top of the results.

Improving your SEO can influence relevancy, prominence, and link popularity for your website. Optimizing the right elements of your site’s digital footprint helps it appear higher in search results.

Local SEO: A Unique Pattern

Local SEO works differently. After studying user behavior across trillions of searches, Google realized that people looking for certain types of businesses need results from their immediate area. Therefore, Google’s local search algorithm includes a proximity factor, meaning Google considers your location when you search for a local keyword (a query with local intent), even if you don’t include a city name or “near me” in your search.

For example, searching for “pizza delivery” at work will show a list of locations near your office. If you perform the same search at home, the results will differ because you need a pizza delivered from a nearby location.

Local search has existed for years but was limited to desktop users. With the surge in mobile internet access, mobile search has increased dramatically, making local SEO crucial for businesses offering local products or services.

Check Your Local SEO Health

Use this free tool to evaluate your local SEO strength.

Key Factors for Local SEO

For search marketers, the local map pack is displayed within standard Google organic search listings, but different algorithms power the main Google search results for local rankings and the local map pack results. As a local business, you can appear in both the main organic search results and the local map pack simultaneously.

Marketing analytics firm Moz publishes an annual Local Search Ranking Factors survey, including top experts in local SEO. The survey provides insights into factors influencing local search visibility.

Localized content and local link popularity are crucial, as in Google’s traditional search algorithm. It's essential to create local landing pages for each location, including your business name, address, phone number, and optimize titles, meta descriptions, and follow SEO best practices. This should also be reflected in your content marketing and link-building strategies.

Additionally, factors like having a Google My Business listing, local citations, and reviews from local customers impact local SEO rankings and should be part of your strategy.

Local SEO tools can assist in performing local SEO audits, keyword research, citation building, managing Google My Business listings, business profiles, Google posts, and monitoring local pack inclusion.

Starting with Local SEO

Understanding the basics of SEO and Google’s ranking of local search results allows you to focus on optimizing your site’s digital footprint for local searches. This enhances your business’s visibility, attracting more potential customers.

Local search continues to evolve, so staying updated with changes is crucial. Refer to Moz’s annual survey to guide your strategy. Improving each significant signal area will help you serve more people in your geographic region and grow your business faster.

If you have questions, reach out. We are happy to help you find the right solution, whether it is Talloo or not.