Increased Foot Traffic in Stores with Local SEO

Maja Petek27.05.2022Marketing

First place on Google has long ago stopped being enough to achieve online “victory”. If you haven’t noticed – the majority of your screen in search is taken up by different types of organic results. But, how can your page appear among them (and attract the attention of potential customers)?

The solution is to optimise your website for local search. With local SEO, you can control where users see your results when they want to visit your store or contact you. And not only them. Local SEO attracts the attention of users, who don’t know you yet and are looking for your products or services in their vicinity.

And why is it so important that online users in your area can find you quickly and easily?

Because Google’s fresh data shows that 46% of all searches have a local intent. This means that users search for products or services in their vicinity (e.g. “Flower shops in Slovenska Bistrica”)!
Because 88% of all local searches on Google lead to a store visit.
Because users that search locally are already very interested in a specific product or service and are more likely to buy.

Source: https://www.topseos.com/blog/local-seo-tips

Statistical display of Local SEO searches.

Local SEO 101

Local SEO refers to optimising your online presence for local search. In other words: we analyse how or if users can find your results when they want to visit your store or contact you. But this does not pertain only to users, who already know you. With local SEO you can attract the attention of other users who don’t know you and are searching for your products or services in their vicinity.

It is important to know that local search goes hand in hand with mobile search. Worldwide, 61% of searches are performed on mobile devices, and 33% more users decide to visit a physical store, if they perform local search on a mobile device.

Why? Because they are probably already on the road while performing the search and have therefore already decided to visit your store. Additionally, Google will display the best results based on their current location.
By optimising your site for local search, you will alert users to your presence when they need you most.

Infographics - Google's display of results by location.

Be more visible among local search results

Local search results include local pages on your website, blog posts discussing local topics, mentions of your location on other domains (e.g. business directories) and your Google Business Profile or Google My Business (GMB) profile.

By optimising your website for local search, you will take up most space among all those search results and thus alert even more potential customers to your presence.

Exposure to local searches with the keyword "picerija".

Your local landing pages will rank among organic search results and your GMB profile will appear on the right side of the screen. The latter is by far the most visible element on the search result page and it is very important to optimise it. You need to update the data, add images and text etc. But more on that in the next chapter.

Your GMB profile will also show up in the so called Map Pack, which appears in almost 30% of all searches. The Map Pack is a smaller map displaying three search results that rank highest for a particular keyword. It is displayed immediately after paid ads and pushes other organic results even lower down the page.

Search results for the keyword "cvetličarna maribor" in Google maps.

The GMB profile is also displayed on Google Maps. Data shows that 77% of users perform local searches on Google Maps and in most cases, they decide to click on the highest ranking result at the top of the list. Optimising your GMB profile is thus non-negotiable.

Google Business Profile or Google My Business profile

Google My Business profile (GMB), which was recently renamed into Google Business Profile, is an online profile displaying the publicly available information of a company. It is meant for local entrepreneurs as well as larger companies with departments, branches and stores in several locations.

Managing and optimising your Google Business Profile is therefore extremely important.

Nowadays, your GMB profile is not only your business profile, but it has become your new homepage. It is the first contact the user has with your online presence and when it appears, users will immediately form their opinion of your company based on the data listed on the profile.

As a provider of products or services you can simply edit your basic data about your business which is then displayed on the profile and it gives users the option to express their satisfaction with the purchased product or the performed service.

Additionally, the GMB profile has become a substitute for your contact pages, as users see all necessary contact details at first glance. Therefore, they don’t waste time browsing your website, but can contact you immediately with all their questions and inquiries.

You can also communicate with your customers via the profile by answering their questions and responding to their reviews. This immediately shows your responsiveness.

At the same time, the company can excite their prospective customers for their products by presenting their offer on the profile. The profile also enables you to add short posts in which users learn about your new offers, various promotions or events. You can thus excite prospective customers about your products or services before they even visit your website.

Optimized Google My Business account for Optiweb d.o.o.

6 advantages of an optimised GMB profile

1: MORE VISIBILITY IN LOCAL SEARCH

Correct data about the area in which you perform your activity allows Google to show your results more frequently to users searching for a specific product or service in a particular area or town. Google shows local search results based on the town users include in their search phrase or based on their current known location.

2: EASY ACCESS TO BASIC COMPANY DATA

A correctly filled out Google My Business profile usually includes basic data about the company’s operations, such as the:

telephone number,
address,
e-mail,
working hours and
short company introduction.

Ideally, it also includes:

customer reviews,
direct links to social media profiles,
links to blog posts and latest news.

This allows the user to find all necessary information and basic data about your business even before visiting your website.

It is probably not necessary to stress that contact details and working hours need to be updated regularly as this ensures visitors don’t get an unwelcome surprise.

Easy access to Optiweb's basic data on Google.

3: BUILDING TRUST

Google users can use your Google Business Profile to post their ratings or reviews about your products or services and they can ask for additional information in the questions section.

It is therefore advisable to regularly check your profile and respond to comments: in case of negative feedback you can apologise to customers and explain the situation, and in case of positive feedback you can thank customers for posting it. If they have any questions, try to answer them in as much detail as possible.

This shows users that you care about customer relations and you also build a good reputation via the ratings and reviews, which helps you in gaining the customers’ trust.

Favourable opinions of satisfied customers serve as your reference and they indicate to Google that your company is trustworthy. Google will surely “reward” your profile by ranking it higher among search results and displaying it to more customers.

Top 3 search positions of florists in Maribor.

4: INCREASED RECOGNISABILITY

Images on your GMB profile that contain keywords in their description can lead users to your website via image search. Latest data shows that users are very interested in looking at the company’s images. Therefore, it is very important to add photographs of office or production spaces, your team and products to your profile.

View photos in Optiweb's Google My Business account.

5: GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION

Searchers use your GMB profile to look at your images, logo, company rating, customer reviews and your response to them, your highlighted products and posts. Based on all this they form their first opinion about you and if you manage to make a good first impression (e.g. make it easy to find information, amuse them with funny posts, impress them with your product variety …) you will provide an excellent user experience and convince them to visit your website or physical store.

6: ADDITIONAL COMMUNICATION CHANNEL

By posting about your products, promotions and events you draw the user’s attention even before they visit your website or physical store. Therefore, you are not solely dependent on social media or paid ads to promote your products or events, but can also use your optimised GMB profile to do so.

Infographics: Additional communication channel - messages, video, pictures, purchases, sharing ...

Which metrics are key for ranking with your GMB profile and local pages?

While local pages are ranked using the standard search algorithm, Google uses different criteria for displaying the GMB profile. Therefore, it is key to optimise all available elements of the profile as this gives you the best option to attract the user’s attention.

To display the GMB profile, Google uses three main criteria:

Relevance of the profile in relation to the search phrase
Distance between the company and the user
Credibility of the business information

Besides all that, the ranking of your GMB profile depends on numerous other metrics, which are also very important and require you to review your company’s entire digital ecosystem.

Our dedicated team of SEO and content marketing experts diligently monitors all changes of Google’s algorithm and the market which allows them to adapt their strategies and give our clients concrete advice to achieve the best possible results. We are always in tune with the times and can suggest which elements you need to focus on first to make your profile as effective as possible.

Monitoring the effectiveness of the GMB profile

You can monitor the effectiveness of your GMB profile in a separate Google tool, called Google Business Profile Insights.

It allows you to manage the profiles for all your company branches or review the company contact data and working hours for each branch. You can create posts and product or service descriptions and it also allows you to set up notifications so you are always alerted when users ask questions or post a review on a particular profile.

The simple UI allows for a quick review of the profile’s effectiveness, as it displays all important metrics on a single page:

Profile views
Display location (in Google Maps or among search results)
Customer actions on the profile (website visit, click on the directions button, click on the call button)
Image views
Post views

Google Business Profile Insights will show you how many users see your profile and how many of those decide to visit your website or physical store.

A small number of views is a sign that the profile is not optimised for search engines and a poor click-through-rate to your website indicates that the profile did not convince users to explore your offer.
In both cases, optimising the profile for local search is your best bet.

Optimisation for local search

How do we approach local SEO? At Optiweb, local SEO pertains to three main areas:

On-site optimisation of local pages
Off-site optimisation by obtaining local backlinks
Analysis and optimisation of the GMB profile

Our team of experts is specialised for local SEO. They diligently review all local content on your website, give specific advice on how to optimise it and offer support when you prepare new content. Additionally, they review the technical health of your local pages and analyse the user experience.

As for all other types of search, local search also requires off-site optimisation, where we use the most effective approaches to obtain local backlinks.

Our SEO team prepares a clearly structured and manageable strategy for obtaining local backlinks, while the content marketing team helps you prepare the best local content.

Infographics: Track important updates to Google's algorithms.

Because your GMB profile is extremely important in local search, it mustn’t be forgotten during the optimisation process. At Optiweb, we offer a detailed analysis of local landing pages and the GMB profile, where we give our clients the best possible advice to improve their online presence.

We also monitor all Google algorithm updates, which is why we can immediately alert our clients about the upcoming changes that could potentially affect their local online presence.
This means that you will never be surprised by Google’s updates and the activity of your competitors.

Is your website optimised for local search?

Have you feverishly opened your browser and checked how your website ranks for local search phrases?

If you were surprised by the result or you couldn’t even find your GMB profile, you need not worry. Our team is only a click away and we are happy to offer our support.

Maja Petek

SEO and Content Marketing Strategist

I have several skills but only one mission: to help Optiweb’s clients reach the top of search results.