What is Local SEO?

Local SEO is a process of optimizing your local Brick-and-mortar business for location-based keywords to rank higher in Google so that it can attract more customers to the store or the website.

Are you a business owner in Ireland and want to get your website ranked in Google Local search results?

Do you know that as per a study from Google,

46% of the total searches done on google have local intent.

And 29% of all Google search results contain a local pack in the results.

So, if you can bring your business in front of these people, then there are good chances that they will buy or visit your store.

The good thing is that even small website owners can outrank big business websites in google on local listing results with the right approach.

So what’s in this post for you.

With this guide, you will learn six critical things about local SEO.

• How local SEO works?
• The local ranking factors.
• Optimizing Google My Business ( GMB ) for optimal results.
• How to build NAP citations.
• Local Link Building.
• Advance Tips, Tools, and Strategies for Local SEO.

Go through all the steps mentioned in this guide, and definitely, this will help you to rank your website in local SEO results.

How Local SEO Works?

If you search something in google with a location intent in the search query, you will see three results with a map.

Like the one below,

so what exactly fuels this pack or how google algorithm works behind this.

There are various factors behind this, but three core factors deciding the google local search results are:

• Proximity
• Prominence
• Relevance

Proximity: It is defined as your location where you conduct the search from or where google thinks you are located.

While searching from desktop, google use ZIP codes of your location and shows the results to users.

But, while you are on a mobile device it even use “geo-coordinates” to display the search results in front of you.

This factor of proximity really influences the search results you see.

But, while you are on a mobile device, it even use “geo-coordinates” to display the search results in front of you.

This factor of proximity influences the search results you see and that is the reason why you and your clients have different SERP while searching the same query.

Pro tip: Use this free google extension ( geolocation changer ) to see the search results in any particular geo-location by simply using the coordinates for that location.

Prominence: It refers to how well-known a business is. Backlinks to your local business, online reviews, people visiting your store and number of citations.

This is what google’s official blog described about how local seo works.