Techacs is a client-focused local search engine marketing company in Long Island. Our experts work closely with our clients to develop personalized strategies that drive long-term profitability. By using a proven, efficient and effective methodology, we are able to create high-quality, measurable results.

What exactly is Local Search Marketing?

Local search marketing, also known as Local SEO (local search engine optimization), is a form of digital marketing service that businesses use to reach local markets by appearing in local results when their target clients search for things online.

Local SEO is all about getting your business to appear on maps in the local pack, ordinary Google Maps, and localized standard organic results.

Is SEO Beneficial for Local Businesses?

Yes, SEO is beneficial to local businesses. It allows a company to rank higher in search results, increasing the chances that the searcher will contact them to do business.

A local SEO strategy can be used by a variety of enterprises to reach their target demographic.

• Businesses with a physical location that serve consumers in a certain service area (for example, a roofing company).
• Businesses that do not have a traditional physical location but nonetheless service a local market.
• Businesses with franchises or chains in multiple local marketplaces (multi-location businesses).

The Core Concepts of Local SEO

Search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo drive the majority of traffic to websites all over the world. You can surely optimize for them if you use the appropriate tactics.

If you’re doubtful about the effectiveness of SEO in general (as many business owners are), you might be one of the rare individuals who don’t use Google to find things online – otherwise, you’re disregarding how people, including yourself, find information and businesses these days.

Observing the Google My Business Guidelines

There are several search engines for which you may optimize, but let’s face it: Google owns over 90% of the market, so when we talk about local SEO, we’re mostly talking about optimizing for Google.

One of the most important aspects of local SEO is your Google My Business listing. If your company does not have a presence in Google’s directory, it will not appear in the local search results (also known as the “map pack” or “local pack”) or on Google Maps when people search for your company or the services you offer.

Anyone can add your company to Google’s directory; however, they may not be able to claim and manage the listing as the owner.

Most people already have their businesses on Google and are reaping the rewards.

Failure to comply with the Guidelines for Representing Your Business on Google, on the other hand, might result in your business being filtered out of map results or possibly having your listing suspended and removed from search engine results pages entirely.

This implies fewer phone calls, requests for directions to your location, visitors to your website, and other benefits.

However, not all small businesses benefit from focusing on their map rankings. If your company offers a high-value service, such as legal representation or remodeling, you are often better off focusing your efforts on ranking in traditional organic search results.

This was especially true when we were performing SEO for lawyers. We immediately discovered that many individuals prefer to look around for a few different attorneys before settling on one by separating the organic traffic between standard organic results and clicks on your local listing.

Keep in mind that if you’re doing keyword research for law firms or other expensive services, you might be better off focusing on top-level terms.

Boost Authority by Using High-Quality Links

On average, newly registered domains have less authority than existing older domains. So think twice before rebranding your company’s website with a new domain.

This is a common blunder in the transportation industry. Every time a trucking company hires a new ad agency, they end up building a new recruiting website instead of just building off of the pre-existing website, causing them to stay on the constant hamster-wheel of buying paid advertising (which conveniently benefits the advertising agency).

To enhance the authority of your site, you must first establish your brand. One of the finest ways to do so is to obtain recommendations from other websites on the internet.

Citations in online directories (e.g., Yelp, Yellow Pages, Angie’s List, Home Advisor, etc.) and links from other recognized, high-quality sites can provide these.

The importance of the websites from which you obtain links cannot be overstated. Consider this: when a website links to your website, it is identifying itself with you.

Would you rather be connected with reliable sources of information or suspect, even spammy, sources of information?

Provide a positive user experience while maintaining high site quality.

Simple actions can be taken to guarantee that your website provides a decent user experience for visitors by adhering to some fundamental best practices.

Page Load Time

The faster your website loads, the better. There is a threshold of diminishing return here, but on smartphones, anything in the 2-5 second range is fine (it should be much faster on PCs).

Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals will be a ranking element in May 2021, according to Google.

We’re excited to announce that Google Search page experience ranking signals will be available in May 2021. This will incorporate prior UX-related signals as well as Core Web Vitals.

The three key metrics in Core Web Vitals are Largest Contentful Pain (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

• Loading performance is measured by the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). LCP should occur within 2.5 seconds of the page begins loading to give a pleasant user experience.
• Interactivity is measured by the First Input Delay (FID). Pages should have a FID of less than 100 milliseconds to give a decent user experience.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): This metric assesses visual stability. Pages should have a CLS of less than 0.1 to give a decent user experience.

Site structure and navigation are intuitive.

People, don’t try to reinvent the wheel here. You’re a small-town company, not Apple. You’ll only please yourself (but not your money account) if you strive to be nice with the layout of your site.

This is where Jakob’s Law comes into play, which states that users spend the majority of their time on sites other than yours. As a result, users will anticipate your site to function similarly to other sites.

Consider your mobile experience. What do you think the navigation menu will look like? What color do you anticipate hyperlinks to other websites to be?

Where would you generally expect to see a company’s address or phone number if you were on their website?

Free of Malware

This should go without saying, but if your website is hacked or has malware inserted into it without your knowledge, you will eventually suffer as a result.

If Google discovers that your site contains malware or has been hacked, it will notify users in the search results.

Everything that would normally be included in organic search results is localized using local SEO. As a result, when you search for terms like “leaky roof” vs. “leaky roof chicago” or “leaky roof repair,” you’ll get different results.

Your website’s local search rankings can be raised through optimization, which will drive more traffic to it. It’s important to note that, on mobile, the top three results receive more than 47.6% of all clicks (57% on desktop).