Tips and Tricks: Am I on the local 3-pack? 

How can you master local SEO?

Local SEO is all about increasing search visibility for businesses that serve their communities face-to-face. While every local business is unique, nearly all of them need to be discoverable online. Yet, you’ll find Google at the core of most local SEO discussions. This is because, by mid-2020, Google’s global search engine market share was 92.06%. It’s currently estimated that Google processes 2 trillion searches per year globally. A force to be reckoned with.

Here are some typical scenarios of daily life where local SEO affects you; you may need a chiropractor close to your office and go there on your lunch break, or you might be looking for a specific vegan bakery for a vegan friend. What about going for a  short city trip and want to find the best restaurant close to your neighbourhood, the local supermarket, an open club or bar to go out to. Whatever it is that you require, you are always searching online for the spot is local SEO. These examples all show the three pillars of local search: proximity, prominence, and relevance. These pillars together make up the Local 3-pack. 

Local SEO employs a wide array of technical and creative efforts to convince search engines that a business should be prominent in their results as a relevant answer to online searchers in close proximity to each business location. So if you were on a city trip, looking for top-rated restaurants, you wouldn’t even need to type “near me”. Google already understands this. 

Once you type what you are looking for, on the first results you will probably see the 3best restaurants. This is called the “Local 3-Pack”, Which includes the three most relevant results for the local search. This is the prime position every local business wants to be in.

To be included in the “Local 3-Pack” is, unfortunately, not always easy to accomplish. It’s not one thing that will help you rank higher,  it’s a combination of strategies. 

Here are the top 10 local ranking factors that can lead to higher rankings. 

1. Google My Business or GMB. Your GMB listing contains your company’s name, address, phone number, website URL, business hours, amongst other things. This is fundamental to put you literally on the map. 

2. Your business’s physical location. If your business is closer to where the searcher is physically located when they are doing the search, your business is more likely to show up in search results than further away businesses. 

3. Your business’ online prominence. Prominence is based on Google’s information about your business from across the web: links to your business from authoritative sites, articles that mention your business or website, directories, and other online resources. 

4. (Five-star) reviews not only help build trust with potential customers, but they also help your rankings. More reviews and positive ratings can improve your business’s local rankings. Google and other search engines want to give the best result to their users, the reviews play a very important role in this. 

5. Content on your website. The content on your website is a significant ranking factor. For years, Google has said that you should write content for your audience, not for the search engines. Think about the information your customers and potential customers find helpful and write content about those topics.

6. Backlinks can help with your rankings. Backlinks are hyperlinks from one website to another. 

9. Online directories. Another way to help rankings is to have your website and company listed on trusted online directories. These directories are the modern equivalent of the old Yellow Pages. These citation sites can show up high in local search results, so it is important to have your business’ information accurately listed on these sites. 

10. NAP is an acronym for Name, Address, and Phone number. Optimizing your business for local SEO has a lot to do with location; or proximity to the user, the prominence, and how relevant it is. 

To help you even further you can find free citation report tools like MOZ Local, where you can enter the business information to check and see how consistent across all platforms your NAP information is. 

How can SO Connect help you improve your local SEO? 

In regards to location/proximity:

Search engines need to know exactly where your business is located so that when someone searches for a location, the search engine can find the most relevant businesses that are located there. 

You want to make sure your business’ name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent across local listing directories as well as your website. That means updating and maintaining your listings profiles. 

This can be time-consuming; luckily SO Connect has the tools to help you with this. The Product Listings is able to ensure that your NAP is accurate and consistent so your business citation is on every search engine that the SO Connect tools use. Website optimizer tool can help you improve your backlinks and Reviews is designed to help you get (five star) reviews. 

Keep all your online directories up to date with SO Connect’s online visibility tools; every contribution brings you closer to being part of the “Local 3-Pack”. 

Businesses across the globe want to ensure that they are found and chosen online. As there are always many great places for customers to choose from every local business need to rely upon local SEO to give them the advantage. Using the information in this article will help you to get more customers through the doors and boost your business’ profit. Giving you, as a business owner, everything you need to succeed.