Reading Time: 4 minutes Local SEO for SMBs is important because many people do a local search on their cell phone before visiting the physical store.
Local SEO for SMBs
What is local SEO?
Local search engine optimization is a branch of SEO that focuses on optimizing a website to be found in local search results.
Local search includes search terms such as:
veterinarian near me
So local SEO is a strategic process with the goal of getting more exposure and more nearby customers to your business.
As an SMB you need local SEO
How important local SEO is for SMBs is shown by the fact that the majority of people do a local search on their cell phones before visiting – often the same day – the physical store.
People often do such a search because they want to know:
Whether a particular product or service is offered nearby;
At what address the business is located and what the opening hours are;
What the reviews tell about other people’s experiences;
What the phone number is to call for information.
For whom is local SEO not absolutely necessary?
Businesses that don’t have a physical store, but have an online shop or offer an online service, don’t necessarily need local SEO. It doesn’t make much sense to do local SEO if you have a webshop that people can’t physically visit. Still, with an (inter)national business, you can use local search throughout the Netherlands and any other country.
Your website’s content focused on local search
Local SEO is not that different from organic SEO. Again, you need keyword research, relevant content, links and technical SEO for your website. Keyword optimization in a particular region will have a more local focus.
This doesn’t mean that you should keep repeating “cleaning company in Amsterdam” or “lawyer in Utrecht” throughout the copy. It is important that the text is attractive to read, otherwise you will lose your audience very quickly. Your copy should be written to inform your customers and provide them with news. Not just because you want to rank in Google.
For Google it is important that the visitors to your site can either immediately find the information they are looking for, or read through as many pages of your site as possible.
Tips to make your website and business locally visible
Try using alternative words in your texts, instead of repeating the same place name over and over again (such as “Amsterdam”, “near …”, “capital”, “10 minutes’ walk from Kalverstraat”, etc.).
Take into account that people can do voice searches with their cell phones (such as “find a plumber near me”).
Make sure your website is mobile-friendly: that it displays well on mobiles and easy to use even on a small screen.
Fill in the details for rich snippets (schema markup). This ensures that the Google search engine can properly read and display the information about your company, including names and address, photos, etc. on the Google results page that people get to see when they search for your company or product.
Provide quality and relevant links on your site (obtained according to Google’s guidelines).
Fill out Google My Business as completely as possible and provide it with photos of your company and/or your employees and if possible, an informative video about your product or service.
Make sure your business can be found in Google Maps.
Connect your website to social media platforms, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and/or Twitter.
If you have multiple locations, apply the above for each location.
Link building and local search
In local SEO, there are several link categories that make up a quality SEO link profile:
Directory sites, such as Yellowpages.com.
Local directory websites.
Industry-related local sites.
Local partner sites.
Local Chamber of Commerce site.
Local SME sites.
Local news sites.
You can read more about local SEO in our article “Local SEO solutions for businesses “.
Haven’t you got a website for your business and you are not sure if you need one? Then read our article “Get your business online” for reasons why it might be important. Have you already got a webshop but wonder how you can get more visitors? Then read ‘Get more visitors to your web shop – 9 tips’.
We can set up the local SEO for your business and fully provide you with all the information required for this. You can then keep it up with the tips we’ve posted in this article.
Does that sound like a good idea to you? Then contact us and we will take care of your local findability according to Google’s best practices!
