This is how to become findable locally!

Lokaal vindbaar worden doe je zo!

Find a pizzeria, petrol station or a hairdresser near you? We all know it: we are in a city or on the road in the car and we need to find something nearby quickly. Searching for local businesses is called local search and nowadays 46% of all searches are already local searches1. Of course, this is how you want to be found! How? We'll tell you in this blog.

 

What is local search?

Local searches are searches that specifically target local businesses and industries or when searching for a physical business. This can be any type of business, so it does not matter whether you offer products or services. Google (but also other search engines!) automatically shows the businesses closest to the searcher, so they can easily visit the company. 

 

The growth of local search

The growth of mobile and voice search have contributed, among other things, to the popularity of local search. Indeed, voice search is mainly used when people are on the road and quickly want to find something nearby. Do you want to be found better (locally)? Then it is definitely important to apply local SEO using the following tips!

 

Optimise with local SEO

You can optimise in various ways to be found locally, but before you start optimising there is one important step that should not be skipped: adding your business location.

If you do add your location, don't forget to include your contact details so that people can contact you quickly. Keep in mind that these details should be the same on all different channels to score even better.

If you have taken these initial steps, it is time for the real thing: Local SEO. This is where we have the following tips:

 

Be found locally with Google My Business

One of the ways to get better noticed locally is Google My Business or, as it is called in the Netherlands, Google My Business. With Google My Business, you can create your Google business profile to become even more visible online when people search for your business or similar businesses in the nearby area. In addition, this search result is to the right of all other search results (in between on mobile), so people see it immediately. So get your business verified for Google My Business soon and after adding all the important business information, also check out the following cool features Google offers with it:

 

Google Review

Reviews are incredibly important, because let's face it, it makes a company or product a lot more trustworthy. Google, too, has realised the value of online reviews and therefore clearly shows them in the Google My Business map. Anyone can give a Google Review, but what is important is how you use it to make your company more visible. 

For example, let all your employees or customers write a review and simplify this reviewing by pointing to the review page with a shortened link. Perhaps even better, let people go to your Google Review page in one scan or tap using QR and NFC. These two scanning methods are also starting to rise again and can really be used for anything. Want to know more about them? Then read our blog about QR vs NFC!

https://sterc.com/nl/kennis/bl..." rel="noopener">blog about QR vs NFC!

In addition to lots of reviews, you can also stand out by using keywords. You can let your employees take this into account, but you can also reply to reviews and use keywords in them to make your business even more visible!

 

Google Post

Google Post is another feature, which you may have already seen passing by other businesses. With Google Post, you can display a particular article, event or discount code in a short post to make it even easier for people to convert. Just be aware that these posts are only directly visible to online users for a week, so make choices about what to put in Google Posts and what not.

 

More about Google My Business? Download our mobile report and get even more tips & tricks!

 

Website optimisation

In addition to creating your business profile, you can also optimise various points of your website to improve your local ranking:

 

Speed

Because most local searches are done on mobile, mobile speed is also incredibly important for local SEO. 53% of visitors leave a website when loading takes longer than 3 seconds2. Therefore, make sure that when you are found that your website is displayed quickly to your visitors. 

With the MODX CMS, you are pretty much guaranteed a fast-loading website. This is due to the lightweight code, but also to our optimisations like image optimisation and lazy load. Want to know how fast your website is? Then go to: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/ or https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/feature/testmysite

 

Mobile friendliness

If your website loads quickly, of course you also want it to be usable by your mobile visitors. Mobile friendliness is also very important to Google and is strictly taken into account in its ranking. To check whether your website displays well for mobile users, you can use this site, among others: https://www.experte.com/mobile-friendly.

 

To be found locally on socials

Although social media has little to no impact on your local ranking within Google, social media platform Facebook has also realised the value of local businesses. Facebook allows businesses to promote their business locally and even gives it a reminder when more people than usual are near your business based on events organised in the area. This way, you can create an ad for your business that only people who are close by get to see and see and immediately gives the route description to get to your business.

Although social media like Facebook does offer better and better options for businesses to become more visible locally, it has so far been little considered as a ranking factor. For now, therefore, use social media mainly for brand awareness and engagement.

 

Local SEO also for recruitment

Do you want to stand out for job applicants in the region? Then you can also use local SEO tips. Show vacancies in Google posts, let your employees write a positive review about your company and let searchers go to a work at area. 

Then you can also use local SEO tips.

 

More on recruitment? Discover it in our blog!

 

How to become more findable locally?

Do you want to be better found locally by your target audience and/or job applicants? Then follow these tips:

  • Mention company location and contact details on your website and socials;

  • Verify your business on Google My Business and get started with Google Reviews and Google Posts

  • Optimise your website for mobile

  • Include socials (even though this does not directly help your local search ranking)