What exactly is Local Search Engine Optimization and why is it so important?
Google has been open about a few key introductions to their algorithm updates that relate to optimizing your website for local search. In 2014, their algorithm update “Pigeon” confirmed that they were continuing to rank sites based on local attributes and signals. This confirmed the importance of having your business listed properly in Google Maps.
Let’s look at a pretty standard use case in 2018.
Juliette is a married woman with 4 kids. On Tuesdays, she has to take Sally, age 5 and the youngest of her children, to her karate class at 4:30 PM. Sally’s kindergarten ends at 3:00 PM so that means Juliette has exactly one and a half hours to pick up Sally from school, get her home, changed, fed, and back on the road to karate.
Only this Tuesday there was a problem. Juliette needed to pick up Sally’s friend Timmy and also take him to Karate, plus provide both of them with some sort of dinner before their final destination at the dojo. Juliette packed up Sally’s karate gear and collected Timmy’s gear from his house and then headed to their school to pick them up. She got them both dressed in the school change room. 30 minutes later (the reality for most parents) the children were dressed and in the car. It was now 3:45 PM and they had 45 minutes to get to the dojo for the karate lessons. There was no time to stop at home and feed them so Juliette pressed a button in her 2017 minivan and spoke to her phone via blue tooth. “Google Sandwich Restaurant”.
As the phone sat on a mounting device in the center dash, she watched it run her query and show the closest sandwich restaurants.
Google located a nice looking cafe that was close and had good reviews. With the click of two buttons via GPS, they were en route.
This is a perfect example of a business with localization in mind. They had a Google My Business Account\Listing set up, with enough signals back to google via SEO to rank high in the listings and obtain Juliette’s business.
As technology advances and consumers begin to search on demand, while in motion, localization is more important than ever. If you are interested in chatting with us about your company’s local search engine optimization, and any other aspects of your digital strategy contact us today.