When it comes to driving organic traffic and providing inclusive digital experiences to local customers, local SEO is what you need. If you have a business in Sydney, you don’t want to waste your money to drive online traffic from people living in Melbourne or outside the country.
Local businesses can thrive in the online landscape with the help of an SEO agency in Sydney, having expertise in this domain. If you are having trouble wading through these unknown waters, follow this guide.
Why Do You Need Local SEO?
You have to assess the importance of this strategy before you hire an agency for optimising your local presence. Local SEO attracts customers through local searches and works on parameters like links, profile listings, local content, and social media promotions.
Google accounts for nearly 94.7% of market share in Australia. So, when a customer uses local searches with key terms like ‘cafes in Sydney,’ ‘bathroom renovations Sydney,’ or ‘dentist near me,’ you can catch their attention through local SEO.
A study says that nearly 50% of people doing a local search on their mobile phones visit a physical store within a day. Now imagine the sales that local searches can bring on the table.
Google also uses local intent to produce search engine results for these searches. It knows when a customer looks for local businesses by stating the city name or postcode. Instead of searching ‘dentists,’ they will type ‘dentists Sydney’ to trim their choices.
How to Target Local Customers with SEO?
If you want to dominate your local territory, make sure that potential customers can easily find you when searching for products or services similar to yours. That’s where local SEO chips in and weave its magic. It helps inform the buyers of your presence and create the buzz about your business.
With tools like Google Local Pack, the goal isn’t too far-fetched. Here are some proven ways to get noticed and get more business with the help of an SEO agency in Sydney.
- Leverage Google Local Pack
Have you noticed the boxed area at the top section of Google’s SERPs? Every time a customer does a local search, the Local Pack displays three topmost local business listings that match the search query.
For example, if you look for ‘kitchen renovations in Sydney,’ Google Local Pack will display the most relevant and highest-rated businesses near your area with their complete details. Here, you will get research results for kitchen renovation companies in Castle Hill, Seven Hills, Paddington, Kings Cross, or CBD, depending on your location.
According to a survey, nearly 33% of the clicks also go to the Google Local Pack results. So, it has a lot of promise for brick-and-mortar stores in Sydney and surrounding areas.
- Build Local SEO Strategies with Google My Business
When you want to put your online entity in the front and centre, you need Google My Business or GMB to manage your presence across Google’s properties. With this tool, you can rank on top for both organic results and local pack.
Since 46% of searches on Google are local, this isn’t surprising. But, a large per cent of small businesses have not realised the impact of GMB and are losing a lot of business.
A GMB profile creates a large display that includes your business details, services, address, opening times, and contact numbers. A customer looking for services similar to yours will find you easily with this information. But, don’t forget this profile after creating it.
Keep updating the information and accuracy to create a positive user experience. No matter what people say, do not create multiple business listings on GMB for a single address.
For example, if your business in Sydney has several branches across the CBD and suburban areas, you can create separate listings for each address. But, if you don’t operate from any of these locations, it makes no sense to create a listing.
Create Local Citations
Local citations take over the old-school phonebooks to serve as online directories. They contain an online reference to NAP or name, address, and phone number of local businesses. Here, citations may appear in a business directory or on an industry-specific platform.
GMB is just an extension of this term. Citations hold much significance in local SEO as they help the search engines to verify your online presence. Since the business gets mentions from credible sources, search engines index it as legitimate and relevant to local searches. Citations can be structured or unstructured, depending on your business listing.
Structured Citations provide the NAP of your business in directories like YellowPages, Sensis, The Sydney Local, SuperPages, or Local Search. For example, a structured citation for an electrician in Wollongong will appear with complete details on any of these directories.
Unstructured citation, on the other hand, comes from social media, blogs, or press. Here, the NAP is available, albeit in an unstructured format.
Display Online Reviews
A local search study from 2019 says that ratings and reviews can make or break your local pack results. If a business fails to respond to the reviews, its reputation and rankings may tank. Here, you have to optimise the reviews without chasing them just for the sake of algorithms. Your SEO agency in Sydney will help in this endeavour.
Remember, nearly 88% of your potential customers will trust online reviews more than other referrals. Mostly, buyers look for at least 40 online reviews before trusting the star rating of a business. And 86% of consumers prefer reviews for local companies before walking through their doors.
Hence, you can’t skip responding to reviews with a positive tone even if the message is negative. Thank your customers for writing the review and be specific to mention their names. Do not give canned responses as they hold no value. Even if you get negative reviews, own up to your faults and apologise with a touch of your marketing prowess.
Create local keywords like ‘dog wash Sydney’ and head over to Google Local Pack for winning over your domain.
