Improving local search visibility in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) unequivocally remains a challenge for the majority of businesses. To start, building a robust online presence requires persistence, patience, and continous dedication. The challenge grows ten-fold when managing hundreds or thousands of locations globally, or operating with lean digital marketing teams.
We regularly participate in and host monthly webinars around myriad marketing topics. Topics range from Google local search best practices, content strategy, industry news, and much more. We had the opportunity to participate in the Local Search Association’s webinar, How to Use Organic SEO to Rank in Google’s Local 3-Pack. Co-host Joy Hawkins, founder of Sterling Sky, Inc., joined us as well.
Together, we explored tactics for improving local search engine visibility and rankings across large, multi-locations businesses.
We also discussed key organic ranking factors with actionable steps to help you rank in Google’s Local 3-Pack. We talked about the different ways marketers can reach consumers in their moments of need across different platforms and devices.
In this post, we will share the key highlights from our webinar and actionable tips to surface your business higher in the SERPs for local-driven keyword terms.
Organic SEO still matters
Brands are no longer competing with other companies in their respective categories. You’re competing with the best digital experiences a user has ever had. Certainly, consumers have incredibly high expectations. Moreover, those moments to transaction are growing.
You might be surprised to learn this: 85% of all multi-location brand-consumer engagement happens on local pages, not corporate. Research shows us that 80% of consumers also want search ads customized to their city, zip code or ‘Near Me’ surroundings.
Furthermore, smartphone users are significantly more likely to buy when mobile apps are customized to their location.
These findings point towards the desire for personalization. Business owners benefit too from local search engine optimization (SEO). These potential customers are seeking solutions nearby and looking to make a transaction quickly. From our own research we’ve found that over half of customers are looking to make a purchase within 72 hours.
The local opportunity is largely mobile
Consumers increasingly use their smartphones to discover and navigate the world around them. This presents an opportunity for individual locations to improve its search engine ranking and engagement on this device. However, if that experience on mobile is negative, consumers are 62% less likely to purchase from your brand in future. Google’s mobile first indexing also tells us as much with the importance of optimizing for mobile users.
Backlinks remain a priority for driving organic search traffic
Well-optimized websites with strong backlink profiles are more likely to rank highly in relevant local searches. In fact, Whitespark’s annual Local Search Ranking Factors research tells us that the quality/authority of inbound links to a domain and quality of inbound links to domain from locally-relevant domains are amoung the top organic factors.
While it has been implied that there is correlation between local and organic rankings, Rio wanted to see if there is a statistical relationship by analyzing hard data.
We analyzed over 50,000 locations across major brands, and here’s what we found:
You’re always going to see fluctuations in ranking, but you can see that when the locations were positioned well organically, they did well at the local level, as well.
In short, traditional SEO tactics are still going to have a major impact on your ability to rank locally. Follow SEO best practices across your brand presence and all locations.
Search intent drives search results
Keywords without a geo-phrase modifier rely more heavily on traditional organic SEO signals. For example, if someone searches for “handyman” while in Tampa, they’re likely to see different results than someone searching for “handyman Tampa.”
This is because keywords with a geo-related phrase or explicit location (e.g. “handyman Tampa”) rely more heavily on local SEO signals like proximity, business category and NAPs.
Below, this same business ranks high both organically and locally for an implied local phrase.
Organic SEO is very important for implicit local search queries. However, proximity is still the number one ranking factor for explicit local search queries.
Takeaways
- Having high organic rankings increases the probability of getting into the Google Local Pack.
- Organic positioning does impact local rankings.
- A well-optimized locator on your website will improve visibility locally.
Avoid duplicate Google Business Profile information
A filter to remove “similar” listings from the local pack results has existed since 2016 as a result of Google’s Possum update. Here is what’s filtered:
- Local listings that share the same phone number or website
- Local listings that have addresses near each other (proximity)
For example, when we search for “orthodontist Minneapolis,” we find that he’s in the same building as another orthodontist. They’re separate companies and have different phone numbers and names.
However, Ziman Orthodontics is not in the organic top 100. They filter out because they share the same location (in Google’s eyes) as Dr. Colby’s office.
So who avoids the filter? The business listing with the highest organic presence. In the image above, you can see that Colby is in the third organic position, whereas Ziman doesn’t appear at all.
Takeaways
- Organic ranking mainly factors who gets filtered.
- Local SEO and organic SEO are not separate things.
For more, Joy goes more in-depth in her post 9 common SEO myths at Moz.
Create local landing pages
So how do we pull this all together, increasing organic signals that have local influence? Start by creating local landing pages for each store or service area. This:
- Enables you to quickly and easily publish highly relevant pages for each location.
- Ensures rankings that get your locations found in search.
- Creates interactions that convert searches to customers.
If you do create a locator, apply these strategies for optimal results:
- Carefully optimize the title, meta description and H1 tags for each landing page.
- Apply hyperlocal custom content for each landing page.
- Search for backlink opportunities. For internal link equity make sure to utilize breadcrumb navigation. For external link equity search for relevant local websites that may provide backlinks to your locator pages.
- Make sure your locator is mobile compatible.
- Pay attention to download speeds using Google PageSpeed Insights.
Landing page details matter
To create an optimal local landing page:
- Incorporate local details like landmarks, events, services, products and coupons.
- Showcase local attractions and nearby information for travelers on local pages.
- Highlight additional services that your company offers.
- Incorporate hyper-local events and social media to engage visitors.
- Add in-store inventory and products to drive conversions.
You need store locators for each of your locations. Moreover, depending on your offerings, may want to add localized specialty pages, as well. Here’s an example where Guild Mortgage has not only a locator page but also a localized page for each of their employees in theparticular city:
Each of your store locator or specialty pages needs to have:
- Page authority to push to local pages
- An easy to use interface
- Logical hierarchy and structure
- Plenty of internal text links
- XML sitemaps
- Schema markup
- Meta tag & content optimization
You can further improve the consumer experience by using an extremely flat, location rich, crawlable URL architecture. Feature city and state-specific local content. Manage it all in a scalable content management platform that’s tuned to be in-line with your marketing strategies.
Takeaways
- Prioritize mobile vs. desktop content. Include key information upfront for mobile and more in-depth optional content for desktop users.
- Avoid collapsed content when you’re optimizing for desktop.
- There’s no penalty for duplicate content, but it gets filtered out of search results. Hyperlocal content helps you avoid being filtered on relevant local queries.
- Add photos to your Google Business Profiles for higher online customer engagement like click-through rates.
How Local SEO works without locations
If your brand or product has a service area but no physical locations, or you’re selling high consideration and/or higher cost items, you face the challenge of needing to optimize locally without actually having a location.
So, how do you tackle this unique challenge? Here are a few must-do tips:
- Develop “where to buy it” locators & local landing pages for all individual stores selling your product.
- Focus primarily on “where to buy” keyword queries.
- “Digital Endcap” – Give retail partners preferential treatment with incentives like cost splitting.
- Integrate local reviews for crucial first-party data.
You can avoid competing against resellers or retailers in organic results by making sure your content is different and unique. Don’t simply use copy and pasted manufacturer content, for example. On the flip side, offer an engaging experience by integrating local reviews, as well.
Remember, marketers can control brand exposure through locally optimized mobile content.
Finally, design your mobile presence to capture branded local searches. For physical retailers, their only differentiator is the claiming of map locations. Optimize for relevant consumer searches to create a good user experience.
Organic mobile search certainly serves as a long-term strategy with local as a key factor.
View the webinar recording
View the slides
Ready to drive more foot traffic and revenue for each of your locations? Get a FREE local presence audit to discover new organic SEO opportunities. See how your business locations are represented and ranking across Google, Bing, Yahoo and other popular online search engines and directories.
