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Local SEO Services

You’ve probably heard of local search optimization (SEO) services, but what exactly do they entail? How does local SEO help your business? If you want to get found online by local customers looking for products and services like yours, you need to be visible on Google, Bing, and other major search engines.

Figuring out the right strategies and methods to improve the online visibility of all of your business locations can be challenging. A knowledgeable enterprise local SEO company can help you to get the best return on investment and convert more search traffic to in-store foot traffic and online orders.

In this post, you’ll learn how local SEO services can help improve your brand’s visibility, how they work, the difference between local SEO and SEO, tips and insights, and how to get started with improving your SEO rankings.

What is a Local SEO Service?

Simply put, local SEO services help local businesses with SEO in a specific region (or, as is the case with multi-location brands, in a number of neighborhoods, cities, or markets).

These services can help companies rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) where it matters most, to drive motivated organic traffic to the website, a Google Business Profile, or other landing pages. The SEO company can help you develop an SEO strategy built for your brand’s unique needs, then execute it by augmenting your in-house skills,  tools, and technology, and team with their own.

Local SEO services can include optimizing your website, business listings on different sites and search engines, your Google Business Profile, and various marketing techniques. The goal of local SEO services is to help your business reach your target audience while building brand trust and authority in your community.

What’s the difference between local SEO and SEO?

SEO is an essential part of content marketing and marketing as a whole. It focuses on reaching audiences across the web nationally or globally, bringing in leads, and building brand awareness and trust from various communities. Agencies and freelancers offer services that can help optimize your website, social media, content, and marketing to make sure you’re getting valued leads and ranking well in relevant search results. While SEO and local SEO services may seem similar, the goal is different.

What is local SEO?

Local SEO focuses on strategies and services that specifically target the physical communities that the business occupies. The focus is on improving your online presence so that physical location is visible to consumers searching for your products or services when they are searching for things nearby to meet their needs.

A local SEO campaign can involve conducting keyword and topic research, monitoring local listings, creating and promoting local content across channels, measuring and reporting on local performance, and more. Local SEO services can augment the marketing resources you have in-house. They can provide experts to analyze your results and share back actionable insights. In addition, they can help create a scalable strategy and the technology infrastructure required to undertake local optimization and marketing across hundreds or thousands of locations. 

Why does my business need local SEO services?

Google understands that if people are looking for particular services or products, they are most often looking to find them in their local area – especially in the case of mobile searches. Therefore, Google aims to show businesses near where the consumer is searching to help them get what they need. If a business doesn’t appear prominently in local search, it’s unlikely that the company is being considered unless a customer is specifically seeking them out.

This goes to show that search ranking matters. In fact, Google states that 76% of local searches on a smartphone lead to a visit to a store within 24 hours, with 28% of those visits resulting in a purchase. This is also why knowledge about local SEO strategies and their application is valuable.

To truly optimize your local business, you want to make sure that you’re in the organic search results (businesses that show up because it’s relevant to someone’s search keywords) and the local map pack (Google’s selected local businesses based on someone’s search). Local SEO services can help ensure that. Therefore, it’s essential to prioritize your local SEO opportunities in your marketing campaign.

Since local SEO and SEO strategies are different, it’s crucial to get the most influential and effective methods and tools to help your local business thrive and grow. To fully utilize the available strategies, it’s critical to get the valuable insight only a subject matter expert can offer after years of researching and practice with local SEO.

Build your local links

Link building is one of the main ways to ensure your business is at the top of the SERPs. Link building is where you get links back to your website from other websites promoting your company in online content. But, these links should provide value to the reader. Only link to sites that relate to the content and flow naturally within the context of the copy.

One of the ways to build links is by creating content on your website that incorporates local keywords and provides helpful information that other local businesses, events, and those in your community can use as reference points on their own content. These site mentions would therefore link back to your website.

example of a local link
Example of a local link for Petco on a local news page

When it comes to ensuring backlinks help with your ranking, both the quantity and the quality of the backlinks matter. Your local SEO marketing strategy needs to create a good foundation of backlinks to help build trust and authority for your brand in your community.

Optimize for targeted keywords

Local SEO keyword targeting is another vital service to consider. It’s important to pinpoint and utilize keywords throughout your website, local listings, and content across your website and social media that real consumers may actually use in a relevant search query. Tactfully incorporating these keywords can help your business rank higher on SERPs, and local SEO services help you get the right keywords for visibility in your local community.

When evaluating the content and information on your website, especially your local landing page, it’ll be crucial to have a professional assess if you’re hitting all the marks. In addition to evaluating your content, it’s important to reclaim any local citations of your business that would have your business’s information, including your name, address, phone number (NAP), and website.

Business owners must consistently include and update your NAP and website information across your website, social media, and other sites. This information is relevant and important for Bing, Facebook Pages, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and more. Now let’s talk more about one of the essential services local SEO companies can offer: optimizing your Google Business Profiles. 

Why Google Business Profiles Are a Big Part of Local SEO

For local SEO, Google Business Profiles are generally the main point of reference to your business, besides your website, when potential customers look for a product or service within your area on Google. In addition, a Google Business Profile allows you to manage your business’s information for your Google Maps listing and can help you appear more prominently in mobile search results.

A Google Business Profile contains a business’s NAP, hours of operation, website link, online reviews, messaging, and post options. Therefore, it’s necessary to completely fill out all the categories with SEO in mind, including your business’s category. The location information is particularly important for local SEO ranking. It includes your business’s description, attributes that will answer common questions about the location and amenities, and special and more hour options to display your business hours accurately.

Additionally, Google is continuously evolving aspects of Google Business Profiles, including its attributes section, so it’s crucial to stay on top of those changes. While it may seem time-consuming, local SEO services can help you quickly optimize your Google Business Profile.

Why should you prioritize Google Business Profile SEO?

As stated earlier, Google Business Profiles hold valuable information that helps customers learn about your business, communicate with you, and book services or buy from you. They can also show posts that, if used correctly, can help you rank higher on Google and drive engaged traffic to a landing page of your choice. In addition, local online communities can reach you directly in real-time to ask questions, message, and leave reviews of your business on the Google listing. It’s crucial to respond to these customer interactions in a timely manner since it not only helps your business rank on Google but helps build brand awareness and trust and grows your audience.

Not only is prioritizing your Google Business Profile SEO important to get new customers and rank on Google, but it’s essential to fully optimize your Google Business Profile to confirm your business’s existence with its reliable information for search engines.

By having accurate information on your Google Business Profile, potential customers will have reliable information to contact you or visit you before making the decision to purchase. Nothing is worse than being excited to buy from a business verifying its hours, arriving, and then coming to find the business is closed or the services have changed. Through accurate information, consistent communication, and using Google Posts to promote deals and events, you can build trust in your community, boost engagement and increase your revenue.

Google Business Profile Target Example

What matters most for local SEO?

There are numerous factors to consider to improve a business’s local SEO. Here are the top five local SEO search ranking factors:

  1. Since Google Business Profiles signal ranking for the local map pack, it’s essential to make sure the information you have is up to date and thoroughly filled. Additionally, Google Business Profiles must include business categories and SEO keywords.
  2. On-page SEO creates signals for ranking in local organic results. Therefore, claiming local pages and ensuring that the information and NAP are correct and up to date can dimmish any consumer confusion of your business when they search for you on other prominent sites besides Google. It also builds the authenticity of your business online.
  3. Content is key. The quality and volume of content throughout your business website can help you rank on SERPs. In addition, creating a content strategy can help you reach your local community and build brand authority.
  4. The quality and authority of backlinks matter for local SEO strategy. Putting in the work to create valuable content and promoting yourself within your community can help you build the backlinks you need.
  5. Keywords are incredibly important for local SEO. Businesses must incorporate keywords across their website, using geographical keywords. Keywords must also be in the landing page title, meta description, in your content, and inbound link anchor text.

How do I find local SEO services?

Finding the right local SEO company is essential, as this is the partner who will help improve your digital footprint and ideally make real SEO improvements that will drive revenue directly to your bottom line.

You need to make sure they have the proven skills, tools, and experience to meet your specific local SEO service needs. So first, what are your needs? Assess what’s already happening in your organization and where a local SEO services partner could help improve your strategy and execution.

Next, you can look for a company that specializes in your industry. Some of the industries that Rio SEO focuses on are retail, service businesses, financial services, restaurants, hospitality, healthcare, and agencies. No matter your industry, we have the expertise to help your business thrive in your local community.

As an enterprise brand, you need a local search partner experienced in the nuances of working across many different markets and in various relationships such as franchises, corporate stores with local managers. You may also want to inquire about how your prospective partner’s SEO consultants, platforms, and processes can help you with:

  • Competitor analysis
  • SEO audits
  • Location-based keywords research
  • An all-in-one solution for local optimization and reporting campaign performance
  • Managing customer reviews
  • Improving search user experience
  • Internal linking strategy
  • Tracking keyword rankings
  • Citation building campaigns
  • Content optimization

Always ask for a list of services and look for case studies from current clients to get a real sense of what it’s like to work with that SEO provider.

Yelp Knowledge Partner by Rio SEO

Why choose Rio SEO as your local SEO services partner?

Rio SEO has the marketing strategies, SEO experts, and software solutions to impact and reach local communities and help brands create better customer engagement opportunities. We provide unparalleled support to get businesses the best return on investment with our local SEO efforts. Our local SEO and search experts have helped hundreds of enterprise-level, multi-location brands meet their local marketing and business goals while improving their digital presence, brand reputation, and customer service.

Rio SEO’s services include Local Listings, Local Reviews, Local Reporting, Local Pages, and Local Manager. We offer the best insight and solutions to help your customers see you first, whether on the web or mobile. In addition, we help brands like yours improve their visibility even in the most competitive markets.

Check out these case studies to learn more, and contact us today to see how we can help: