When people look for something, they no longer look at phonebooks. They no longer ask people where to buy this or that. They don’t even have to ask anyone how to do a certain task. All they have to do is ask Google.
Google is a search engine and as a lot of you already know, it answers almost everything you wonder about. Say, for example, you want to know where the nearest dentist can be found. All you have to do is type in the words ‘dentist near me’ and Google will display a list of clinics in your area.
The results you get in the search engine results page (SERP) are ranked using certain algorithms and criteria that determine relevance, location, and credibility among other things. Business owners and SEO firms compete to get the top spots in the first page of the SERP because most of the time, these are the results that people only care about.
What is local maps optimization?
Local Maps Optimization refers to strategies that help you become more relevant to online users by taking advantage of their location and yours. Notice the search words used above. It says ‘dentist near me’ which means that if your business is within the area of the user, then your business can end up higher in the SERP.
This SEO strategy can be executed using several actions. First, is if your online user has turned on the location service in their device, then the search engine can match your business and the user. Second, you can use keywords like zip codes, the state your business is in, or even the city. And third, you can register your website with your local address on search engines.
Why use local maps optimization?
If you think that having relevant content and the right keywords are enough, then you’re missing out on the potential for your rankings to be higher. Local maps optimization has a number of advantages that will convince you to start considering taking advantage of your location services.
- It prevents users from going to your competitors
Imagine searching for a dentist in your local area. If your website doesn’t show in the top three results, then you were just beaten by your competition. There’s no doubt that for your competition to land in the top spots, they have been using local maps to boost their SERP rankings.
Once you make use of your location, there is a chance that you can end up higher or lower than your competition, but hey, at least you are not out of the radar of your target customers.
- It targets you to your customers
When people look for services near them, chances are that they need to get something serviced. This helps you become closer to leads that can immediately turn into sales. In other words, you are brought closer to customers in your area who have an intent to purchase your product or service.
- It increases your local traffic
Of course, any form of SEO will increase the traffic on your website. However, this traffic no longer becomes random people browsing the web. With the help of local optimization, you can have quality traffic. This means that the traffic that goes to your website has a higher chance of becoming your potential customers. Think about it this way – if they have searched for a specific area and they land on your website, then they are definitely interested in what your company has to offer.
- It’s fairly simple
Unlike other SEO strategies, local SEO is simpler. Sometimes, it can be as simple as sprinkling state keywords or area keywords to help increase your relevance to users. Moreover, local SEO can help narrow down search results. This cuts down competition and rules out the other irrelevant websites even if they offer the same product or service.
Local SEO optimization is a useful tool to increasing your rankings on Google. But you also have to remember that just because you have local keywords all over your content does not guarantee you the top spot in the SERPs. Instead, use local optimization to complement your other SEO strategies to fully maximize search engines.
