Going Local in 2021

Remember those times when every shop’s address used to remain on the tip of the driver of an auto rickshaw?

Well now, times have changed.  Not every shop is on a local’s radar. In Fact, shops find it hard to find any foot traffic due to the introduction of online stores. 

It is 2021 and all major businesses are online and in order to compete with these businesses & to find that footing back, local shops have also reverted to making websites and being visible online. Due to millions of websites and thousands of addresses added online, it is difficult to make the presence felt.

What is Local SEO?

Enter Local SEO. Local Search Engine Optimization is a feature enabling the optimization of a website on the basis of your geographic location.

It filters websites that have listed physical location inside a considerable radius from your location. That helps both the company owner and the potential customer. This helps in a targeted customer base on the basis of interests and searches.

What does Local SEO need to work?

Local SEO’s require 3 major things; NAP (Name, Address and Phone Number). For Local SEO, these three things should be identical everywhere.

It won’t work if at one place it lists ‘Society’ and at other it states ‘Soc.’. Things like these, or errors or typos hurt your standings in local SEO and lower your rankings.

Search engines realize these errors and penalize your listings. Enforcing consistency.

How Local Seo Can Work Effectively

Mentioning your social profiles and website address on brochures will help increase traffic on your website leading to better online visibility.

Improving every aspect of your online presence helps in Local SEO. Publishing blogs, creating interactive platforms, and making aesthetic graphics, all helps in optimizing search engine results.

Adding Google Maps or any other guided direction repository will greatly help in increasing visibility.

How does the Local SEO algorithm work?

The algorithm works on majorly 3 things: Relevance, Proximity & Prominence.

Relevance: Relevance isn’t just local specific. It is heavily involved in all algorithms of SEO. Relevance is measured by the use of targeted keywords, or specific hashtags. The relevance can also be increased by targeting potential topics that your customers might be interested in.

Proximity: There is no use of showing matching search results in Antarctica if you live in the Arctic, right? It isn’t feasible even if the matching search result is beyond a certain kilometer radius from your current location.

Algorithms now gain access to your phone’s GPS to pin down the accurate location and then filter in your search to find the closest entity matching your search. This increases the customers inconvenience and subsequently increases local footfall.

Prominence: Prominence differentiates between your company and your competition on the basis of your brand identity, reputation, strong customer profile, being recognized by locally reputable newspapers or magazines. Building local links and having a positive and strong word-of-mouth would also help.

Hence Local SEO in 2021 would highly depend on both online presence and strong local foothold. Strategizing and implementing marketing techniques would greatly help in ranking well in Local SEOs.

Local SEO in 2021 would lead to stronger business connections, higher footfall in physical locations, and more website traffic if that is what you are aiming for your businesses in this virtual world.