What is Local Search Engine Optimization & Citations?

By February 15, 2017 Directory Listings, Local SEO, SEO

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Local Search Engine Optimization

For local business owners, it is important to understand why you need to combine BOTH Geotargeting/Citations and Organic Local SEO, in order to get ahead of the competition.

People are LOCAL! They shop local, eat local, and live local. No matter how big the world is, LOCAL will continue to be the most important strategy when it comes to your online marketing plan.

Consider the following facts…Google runs over 12 BILLION searches per month and 28% of all web traffic are on mobile devices. This means that depending on where they search from, local results will dominate that device. Not all search results are created equal. For geomarketing, it is important to understand how search results vary across platforms. Search queries that used to be uniform nationwide, now vary based on the location of the searcher.

It’s not easy to see the difference between LOCAL and ORGANIC SEO. Search engines have been pushing LOCAL search to the forefront. This means that information you are optimizing should be tied to “one location”. By doing this, you increase the odds of being found in that location. By creating multiple City Pages, you can increase the areas in which you are found. Dominate your local search area by utilizing the practice of building signals of reliability around a location, or series of locations. By creating city pages, your creating a landing page geared towards a specific city.

On top of that, it is important to note that Local SEO also lives and dies by citations. There are over 100 local SEO ranking factors, but many center around the citation. When a search engine returns local results, what powers those is the frequency and consistency of citations. The search algorithm works by checking any one citation against all others. The more consistent the information, the more trustworthy search engines such as Google believes that information to be. Let’s say you recently moved offices or changed phone numbers, and you change your Google+ page and maybe a couple other places, but neglect all of the other directories around the web. Google starts to get conflicting signals as to your true location or information. Since they don’t know exactly where you’re located, they hold your listing back from appearing prominently in local search.

Of course, consistent citations aren’t the entire local story. Other issues like your site build, reviews, content, link profiles, domain authority, and more, all factor into the success of local SEO campaigns. Please contact us today to discuss the best plan of action for your SEO marketing plan.

Summary

Local SEO

Local SEO is influenced by citations, which are snippets of information Google gathers in order to get a read on your business location. Citations can be built by utilizing our Geotargeting & Directory Listings Program.

Organic SEO

Organic pages can rank independent of the underlying location of the publisher, by creating localized content. In traditional organic SEO, Google is looking for trusted content, rather than a trusted location.