Can you imagine the hassle of finding an electrician if every Google search returned global SEO results?
How many pages of search results do you have to go through to find a beautician in your neighborhood?
On the other hand, think about how ineffective your digital marketing strategy would be if your local business had to compete with all competitors worldwide for clicks.
Fortunately, Google has provided a solution to this problem through local SEO.
By allowing you to target only the customers in your area, it’s a quick and easy way to provide information about your business to those most likely to support it.
But what if you have multiple locations in multiple cities?
Is it possible to rank for keywords that target multiple cities without hurting your local SEO?
But before you run off to optimize your site for local search, there’s one caveat: Getting it wrong can actually hurt you. So it’s important to make sure you do it right.
It’s a little more complex than plain old search engine optimization, but never fear—we’re here to guide you through the process.
Follow the instructions below and you’ll be ranking in search everywhere before you know it. Ready to get started?
Why Is Local SEO Important?
If local SEO can potentially “harm” you, why do it at all? Here are two good reasons:
Local SEO Attracts Foot Traffic
Imagine you’re out of town for a cousin’s wedding.
The night before the big day, you’re in your hotel room when you crave a cheese pizza.
You pick up the phone and Google… what?
No, you’re probably going to Google a location-specific keyword, like [best pizza in Louisville].
When you get the results, you don’t say “good to know” and go to bed.
No. Instead, you take the action that drove the search in the first place. In other words, you pick up the phone and order the pizza.
Or you get up, take a taxi and eat out at the spectacular pizzeria.
And you’re not the only one who does this.
In fact, every month searchers visit 1.5 billion sites related to their searches.
And you’re not one in a million to do a local search either.
Nearly 46% of Google searches have local intent.
So the next time you think about skipping local SEO, think again.
It could actually be your ticket to getting that random vacationing guy to check out your pizza place. (Or beauty salon. Or hardware store – you get the point.)
Local SEO Ranks You Higher On Google
We are all well informed about the SEO KPIs you should track to rank on Google.
With local SEO, you kill both of these birds with one stone. Please note that it is based on the applicant’s location distance/relevance to the company.
City Pages: Good Or Bad For SEO?
Long ago, in the dark ages of SEO, city pages were used to fill in local keywords to achieve higher rankings on Google.
For example, you want to create a page and write content about flower delivery.
Then copy your content to several different pages, each with a different city in the keyword.
Then a page for [flower delivery in Louisville], [flower delivery in Newark] and [flower delivery in Shelbyville], each with exactly the same content.
As is usually the case, it didn’t take long for Google to notice this spam tactic.
When it rolled out the Panda update, it made sure to flag and penalize sites that did so.
So city pages can hurt SEO and penalize your site.
How Do I Optimize My Business For Multiple Locations On Google?
1. Use Google Business Profile
Remember that Google’s job is to organize and deliver the most relevant and reliable information available to web searchers.
The goal is to give people exactly what they are looking for.
This means that if they can verify your business, you will have a higher chance of ranking on the SERPs.
When you register on the Google Business Profile, you confirm to Google exactly what you offer and where you are located.
For its part, Google will be confident in sharing your content with searchers.
The good news is that Google Business Profile is free and easy to use.
Simply create an account, claim your business and fill in as much information as possible about it.
Photos and customer reviews (plus responses to reviews) can also help you optimize your Google Business Profile account.
2. Get Into Google’s Local Map Pack
Have you ever done a local search and got three featured suggestions from Google?
Screenshot from search for [plumbing near Florida], Google, November 2022
Yes, these companies are super lucky.
Chances are, applicants will choose one of them and look no further for their plumbing needs. Tough luck, everyone else.
Of course, this makes it extremely valuable to be one of the three listed in the Local Map Pack. And with the right techniques, you can be.
Here are three things you can do to increase your chances of landing one of the three coveted slots:
Sign up for your Google Business Profile
As discussed in the previous point, Google prioritizes websites it has verified.
Give Google all of your information, including your business name, address, phone number and hours of operation.
Photos and other media work great too. And remember that everyone loves pictures.
The better your reviews, the better your chances of being featured on Google’s local map pack.
3. Build Your Internal Linking Structure
Did you know that adjusting your internal linking structure will help boost your SEO?
Sure, external links pointing to your site are good.
But you don’t control them. And getting them takes some work. If you can’t get them yet, internal link will help you:
All of these will help you rank higher on Google and increase your chances of being discovered by someone doing a local search.
4. Build Your NAP Citations
NAP stands for name, address and telephone number.
Usually it stands for your business information online.
The first place you want to have your NAP is your website.
A good rule of thumb is to put this information at the bottom of your home page, which is where visitors expect to find it.
Screenshot from allweekplumbing.com, November 2022
It’s also great to list your business information on online data aggregators.
These aggregators provide data to top sites such as TripAdvisor, Yelp and Microsoft Bing.
Here are some of the big ones you shouldn’t miss.
Listing your site on all the top aggregators sounds tedious, but it’s worth it if you want a feature like this.
Screenshot from Trip Advisor, November 2022
Important Note: Make sure your NAPs are consistent across the web.
One mistake can seriously hurt your chances of being featured on Google’s local map package or on sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor.
5. Use Schema Markup
Sometimes called structured data or simply schema, schema markup on your website can significantly impact your local SEO results.
But if you’re not a developer, it can look daunting.
Don’t worry – it’s not as difficult to use as you might think.
A collaboration between Google, Yahoo, Yandex and Microsoft, Schema.org was established in 2011 to establish a common vocabulary between search engines.
Although it can be used to improve the appearance of your search result, help you appear for relevant searches and increase the time spent on a page, Google has been very clear that it does not affect search rankings.
So why are we talking about it here? Because it improves the chances of your content being used for rich results, making you stand out and improving click-through rates.
On top of that, the form provides several different property options relevant to local SEO, allowing you to select relevant form categories.
By choosing Schema.org/bakery for your cupcake shop, you help search engines better understand the topic of your website.
After selecting the correct category, you must select the subproperties to ensure validation. This includes company name, opening hours, area served, etc.
Schema.org/areaServed on the local landing page should always match the service areas set up in a Google Business Profile AND your local landing page should mention the same cities in the page content.
For a complete list of required and recommended schema properties and information about structured data validation, read this article. Using a plugin, you can also find more information about Schema markup for WordPress.
6. Optimize Your Site For Mobile
If you wake up in the middle of the night to find your bathroom flooded with water from an exploded faucet, do the following:
If it’s 3 a.m., chances are you’ll pick #2.
People don’t just choose their smartphone over their computer at 3am.
Almost 59% of all website traffic comes from a mobile device.
Screenshot from Statista, November 2022
As usual, Google noticed and moved to mobile-first indexing.
All of this means that your website needs to be optimized for mobile if you want to rank well on Google, especially for local SEO.
Here are six tips to make your website mobile-friendly:
Bonus Tip: Make Your Most Important City Pages Unique
If you want to name all the cities in a region you serve, just list them on the page – you don’t need an individual page for each city to rank in most cases.
To make the pages different, write original content for each area or city.
You can simply list all the cities you serve on one page.
Or you can go ahead and create individual pages for each city.
When taking this step, make sure each page’s content is unique.
And no, I don’t just mean changing the word “arm wrestling” to “arm wrestling.”
You need to do extra research on your targeted niche and then write specific and useful information for readers in the area.
Here is an excellent example from 7th State Builders.
Adding information about a town or city is also a great way to build customer trust.
A OnePoll survey conducted on behalf of CG Roxane found that 67% of people trust local businesses – by identifying your understanding of the situations and issues in an area, you insinuate that you are local – even if you have multiple locations spread across the area. country.
They want to see how much you know their area and trust you to solve their area-specific problems.
Important note: Make sure this information applies to all variants of your website.
With Google’s mobile-first index in place, you won’t fall in the rankings just because you failed to optimize for mobile.
5 Tools To Scale Your Local SEO
What if you have hundreds of locations? How do you manage listings for them?
Here are some tools to help you scale your local SEO efforts.
Ready To Target Local SEO?
Hopefully I’ve made it very clear at this point – local SEO is important. And just because you run multiple locations in different cities doesn’t mean you can’t make it work for you.
How you proceed is up to you. Want to create one landing page for each location? Or do you want to list all your locations on the same page?
Whatever you choose, be aware of the power of local SEO to attract customers to your neighborhood.
Just make sure you do it right. If, after reading this piece, you’re still unsure about what steps to take, just imagine you’re a customer.
What kind of information do you want to look for?
What will convince you that your company is perfect for their needs?
There’s a good chance that location will be one of the driving factors, and the best way to take advantage of that is with local SEO.
Featured image: New Africa/Shutterstock
What are the 7 types of SEO?
12 types of SEO
- White-Hat SEO. When you hear someone say white-hat SEO, it means the SEO practices that are in line with the terms and conditions of the major search engines, including Google. …
- Black-Hat SEO. …
- Gray hat SEO. …
- On-Page SEO. …
- Off-Page SEO. …
- Technical SEO. …
- International SEO. …
- Local SEO.
Qu’est-ce qu’un site doit contenir ? Generally, pour une entreprise lambda, un site internet doit avant tout présenter votre société et son histoire, vos services, activités ou produits, mais aussi les coordinantes de contact. Ce sont là les trois types of information principales qui peuvent internaute un internaute qui visite votre site web.
Pourquoi il est indispensable d’avoir un site internet ?
Use a website, you can use a room for communication personnel and limited! En effet, vous disposez d’un nombre de illimité pour dire ce que vous avez à dire. You can also use the numerous contents, such as photos, videos, pdfs, articles…
Pourquoi avoir un site internet en 2022 ?
Avoir un site web qui genere des clients c’est moins de 3,000 ⬠en 3 semaines 2022. Avoir un site internet reinforce votre crédibilité & develope vos ventes grâce à Google. Your site clearly presents your offers and instant communication.
Quel est l’objectif de votre site internet ?
The objective of the base of your internet site is to give precise and up-to-date information on the subject of your company. An enormous advantage of your web site, compared to other communication tools, is that it can be easily updated in real time.
What are the 3 targeting strategies?
There are three different targeting strategies: (1) undifferentiated, (2) concentrated, and (3) differentiated.
What are the targeting strategies? The range of potential customers to whom a company wants to sell products or services. The targeting strategy involves segmenting the market, choosing which segments of the market are appropriate, and determining the products to be offered in each segment.
How do you target multiple countries?
Click on Products in the navigation menu, then click on Feeder. Click on. icon to add a new feed. Click Add under “Target country” to add the countries in which you want your product data to appear.
Will SEO exist in 10 years?
However, one thing is certain: SEO will be around for a long time. As long as search engines exist and internet users continue to use search terms and phrases to find what they are looking for, the search engine business will continue.
Does SEO have a future? Some of the prominent ways AI tools have proven their effectiveness are SEO keyword research, content creation, traffic and site growth analysis, voice search, and SEO workflows. These applications have made it clear that the future of SEO is in artificial intelligence.
What is the future of SEO in 2030?
Mining Social Knowledge: The SEO specialist of the 2030s will spend more time on social media, mining platforms for trends in conversations in your industry and among the public. You will gain insight into pain points, even minor annoyances that will help you develop your SEO strategy.
Will SEO exist in 5 years?
SEO will not be eliminated in the next five years because social media and search engines will more than likely merge. Facebook has already started doing this: they average over 1.5 billion searches every day. Twitter has done the same; they joined in partnership with Google.
What does the future of SEO look like?
So focus on providing the BEST user experience if you want to win the SEO game. SEO is only going to grow rapidly in the future. Just make sure to follow SEO best practices like creating useful content, having a faster website, and following Google’s guidelines to get better rankings.
Will SEO exist in 10 years?
As long as searches are still being done, in whatever form they are, search engines will still exist and so will SEO. In fact, SEO may become more important over the next 10 years as more companies vie for the top spot in search results.
Is SEO a long term investment?
SEO is a long-term investment The SEO (search engine optimization) process is a long-term investment because, like any worthwhile investment, it takes time to grow. If your company invests in traditional marketing campaigns, it is important to invest accordingly in SEO and digital campaigns.
Will SEO exist in 10 years?
As long as searches are still being done, in whatever form they are, search engines will still exist and so will SEO. In fact, SEO may become more important over the next 10 years as more companies vie for the top spot in search results.
Why SEO is a long term investment?
Long term investment in SEO is one of the best marketing choices you can make for your business growth. This form of digital marketing will help your potential customers find your website with ease, resulting in targeted organic traffic, higher sales and better ROI.
Is SEO short term or long term?
SEO is usually sold as a long-term investment and as a digital marketing strategy that requires time to see results. This drives some companies, who are focused on quick results, to be deterred from investing in SEO, believing that they can only achieve quick wins through channels such as PPC.
How long will SEO last?
Most professionals expect to see results in as little as 2 months, but SEO can take as much as 12 months to work. While every company’s SEO strategy is different, most businesses can expect to see significant results within 6 to 12 months.
Does SEO have a future?
The future of SEO in 2023 also includes creating evergreen content. Content is a critical component if you want to be successful with SEO in 2023. If you don’t create content, you have nothing to rank in the search results. If you want your content to rank in search results, you need to optimize it for search engines.
Is SEO still relevant in 2022?
The fact that SEO works just fine even in 2022 as a method of delivering improved commercial results for business websites and their owners, combined with the need for continuous research into what works, makes it still relevant as a digital marketing method, but even more so as a valuable service and a rewarding…
Will SEO exist in 5 years?
SEO will have its future in not only the next 5 years, but in each coming year its use will increase. Because SEO is the only medium used by every company to make their content different and it will also help them to rank their website content.