What is Local SEO?
Local SEO is the practice of optimizing a website in order to increase traffic, leads, and brand awareness from local search. Common tasks associated with local SEO include finding local keywords, optimizing a business’s Google My Business profile.
Why is Local SEO Important for Your Business in Bangladesh?
SEO is very important for local business.
It is critical for businesses to rank for local search terms when customers are searching for them. If you are not in front of your potential customers, your competition will be.
Think of the reasons people search for local businesses. Some may know your business or brand, but simply need more information about you.
Even as a customer I usually search for the outlet details or location, closing hour, reviews before visiting or shopping from a brand.
Now, what happens when the searcher does not know your business? They are probably searching for businesses that sell similar products and services to yours. How is your business going to stand out in that case? If you do not have a solid Local SEO strategy, you are most likely not ranking in the Local 3 Pack.
So it’s clear that local searches make up a huge chunk of the SEO world. And if you can get your local business in front of these searches, there’s a good chance they’ll be walking through your door a few minutes later.
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How Does Local SEO Work?
Local SEO works like “normal” Google search.
When someone does a search, Google scans through its index to provide the best results for that person’s query.
When you type a search phrase into Google, it checks the pattern of various website signals, or ranking factors, such as how relevant your site is, to return a list of sites that match your search.
Most people don’t realize that Google isn’t doing a live search of the entire internet every time someone types something into the search bar. It’s actually searching for a copy of all of the sites that Google has discovered. This copy is called the Google Index.
For example, if you’re at work and want to get a pizza delivered for lunch, Googling “pizza delivery” shows a list of locations near your office.
But if you try that same search at home, you’ll get an entirely different set of results. This makes sense, considering you need a pizza delivered from somewhere nearby.
Local search has been around for years, but it was limited due to people only using their desktop computers. With the recent growth in mobile internet access, however, mobile search has exploded, so local SEO has become hugely important for the success of any business offering local products or services.
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The Map Pack: What Is It?
The Map Pack (also known as “The Local Pack”) is a set of 3 local business results with a map of their locations pulled from Google Maps.
For example, when you search for “Pizza Banani (Bangladesh)” Google has a Map Pack at the very top of the results.
One thing that you should know is:
Google doesn’t only show local results for keywords that contain a specific city or state. If Google thinks that your search needs a set of local results, they’ll show it to you even if the keyword isn’t obviously local.
This is important to keep in mind as you do keyword research for your local business. Yes, you want to optimize for “store + city” keywords.
In many cases, the generic “store” keyword without a location gets more search volume than the “store + city” version.
With that out of the way, let’s see how to track your local SEO rankings.
How To Track Map Pack Rankings
One of the first steps in any local SEO campaign is to benchmark where you’re at.
Specifically, you want to see where you rank in The Map Pack. And track your Map Pack rankings over time.
Pretty much every rank tracker on the planet has Map Pack tracking.
The issue is that, with local SEO, where you’re searching from is HUGE. In fact, the Map Pack results can be completely different from one mile to the next.
Those results are going to be super tailored to where that person’s standing.
In fact, that same search performed a few blocks away can bring up a completely different site of Map Pack results (or the same results in a different order).
You can use Local Falcon for this kind of detailed Map tracking.
But there are others, like Local Viking, that do pretty much the same thing.
Anyway, having said that the first step is to choose your business name
Then, choose a keyword you want to check your rankings for.
Finally, choose how specific or broad you want your rank tracking to be.
Local Organic Rankings
If you’re a local business, The Map Pack is the place to be.
That said:
You don’t want to completely ignore the traditional local results.
Yes, the local organic results usually show up BELOW the local pack.
But don’t let that fool you into thinking that it’s “Map Pack or nothing”. Because most local searches have an insanely strong commercial intent, it’s totally worth ranking in the local SERPs too.
And, unlike Map Pack results, the local results are basically the same for any Google SERP.
So to optimize your site for local organic rankings, you want to use your keyword in your title tag, in your URL, and all the traditional on-page SEO stuff.
You can watch this video by Brian Dean for better understanding.
Actually, the only unique thing about local organic rankings is how you track them. Remember: “store + city” only make up a fraction of all local searches.
Local SEO Ranking Factors
Google My Business Profile > Your Website
Last year Moz ran its annual “Local Search Ranking Factors Study”.
And they found that the #1 ranking factor for ranking in the map pack was your Google My Business Profile.
Your local business website is still important. The content on your page and the links pointing to your site play a role in your Map Pack rankings.
But for your business to rank #1 in The Map Pack, your GMB profile needs to be on point.
NAPs are HUGE
NAP (Name, Address, and Phone number) citations are another key local SEO ranking signal.
NAP citations are places where your name, address, and phone number are all listed out.
Why is this important for a business in Bangladesh?
Well, Google uses NAPs to confirm that all of your business info is correct. And the more often they see NAP citations for your business, the more confident they are that your address is where you say it is and that your phone number is correct.
This is why you want to get consistent NAP citations on as many reputable websites as you can.
Online Reviews
Moz’s local ranking factors study also found that “Review Signals” played an important role.
Specifically, they state that negative reviews on your GMB profile can hurt you. And that Google probably also uses reviews on 3rd party sites too.
So yeah, getting positive reviews can help you And negative reviews can hurt you.
According to one panelist that participated in the study: “ Reviews (along with an owner’s response) show that consumers trust a business, and trust is a foundational factor in ranking.”.
This means that replying to reviews, even negative ones, can help your local SEO efforts in Bangladesh.
“Normal” SEO Still Applies
With all that said:
Google’s traditional ranking factors still 100% apply to local.
In fact, Google confirmed that your rankings in the organic SERPs impact your local rankings:
“Your position in web results is also a factor, so SEO best practices also apply to local search optimization.”
Which means: the higher you rank in the organic results, the higher you’ll rank in The Map Pack.
This is why creating content, optimizing your pages and building backlinks is still SUPER important for local SEO rankings. Especially for competitive industries (legal, dentistry, etc).
When it comes to getting reviews, there are two things to keep in mind:
- You need to ask customers to leave reviews (most happy customers won’t without a little prodding)
- You need to make it SUPER easy for them
And one of the best ways to do both?
Send customers an email with a review link.
So they can post their honest review easily.
Local SEO Tips and Strategies
Let’s finish this with a bunch of advanced local SEO tips, strategies, and tactics.
But none of these tactics will replace good old fashioned NAP building or GMB optimization.
Maybe they can give you a nice little rankings bump.
Embed a Google Map on Your About Page
This is a great way to really emphasize to Google that you’re located in a specific place.
All you need to do is find your business in Google Maps.
Then, hit the little dropdown menu in the top left corner of the screen. And click “Share or embed map”.
This will give you an embed code.
Finally, embed that map on your site’s contact or directions page.
Use Your Location-Focused Keyword Above The Fold
In our experience, this single tip can HELP a lot with local organic rankings.
All you need to do is make sure your local-focused keyword shows up at the very top of your page in a headline.
The Title Tag Double Dip
This is an old-school SEO approach that still works really well for local businesses.
All you need to do is optimize your homepage title tag around 2-3 keywords.
This works in the local world because most local businesses get VERY few links to internal pages.
You need to squeeze the most value out of your homepage. And optimizing it around several different related keywords is one of the best ways to do that.
Optimize Meta Descriptions for Local Searchers
It’s no secret that your description is a GREAT way to improve your organic CTR.
Put your call-to-action keywords in a relevant way in the meta description to drive action from the audience. It works better than just stuffing keywords in the description randomly.
So, now that you know about it start working on your SEO optimization or if you want we can take care of it too. Contact us right now!
