Did you know local and organic searches account for 69% of digital traffic? Those searchers often contain the “near me” tag as searchers seek solutions nearby.
In this blog, VP of SEO, Jen Cornwell, will describe what “near me” searches are and how you rank for them.
What You’ll Learn
- What You Need to Know About “Near Me” Searches
- How to Rank for Local SEO “Near Me” Searches in 4 Steps
- FAQs About Local SEO “Near Me” Searches
My Expert Insights on Local SEO “Near Me” Searches,
Local searches are the biggest driver of traffic. Those searching often have higher purchase intent when they add ‘near me.’ Using these two words has grown in the past few years as buyers seek convenient, local solutions.
This SEO subset is unique, as it translates digital research into physical foot traffic or direct calls to service providers. Any local business should include local SEO “near me” as a pillar of their content strategy. When businesses optimize for this, they can expect a significant return on their investment.
As Google continuously refines its algorithm to deliver more relevant results for users, they have evolved the descriptor, now treating “near me” as a proximity indicator versus an exact keyword match. Capitalizing on this search trend requires a variety of optimization tactics. When executed effectively, local companies can improve their visibility in search rankings to get attention and clicks from audiences in their backyard.
What You Need to Know About “Near Me” Searches
“Near me” SEO allows businesses to get in front of people at the decision phase of the customer journey. They are critical for local companies with a physical location and interface with customers.
Generally, you’ll benefit from local SEO “near me” optimization if you own any type of business with a brick-and-mortar location that customers will visit. A few examples include retail, restaurants, entertainment, hotels, spas, and field service companies like HVAC, plumbers, or electricians. These organizations all target audiences that are nearby.
So, how do local SEO “near me” searches work? Google “near me” searches interpret the phrase as about proximity, not a keyword match. They are often very specific, signifying a micro-moment for buyers needing your product or service.
To rank for the words “near me” in your content, you’ll target specific locations with everything from city-specific search terms to unique business information for each location.
Just about any local business can use these strategies:
- Home Services: Remodelers, plumbers, electricians, landscapers, and more
- Automotive: Mechanics, auto body shops, car dealerships, and rental services.
- Hospitality: Motels, hotels, resorts, and villas.
- Financial Services: Businesses such as financial advisory companies and banks.
- Retail Stores: Nearly any type of retail location, including grocery stores, electronics outlets, and clothing stores.
- Food and Beverage: Diners, restaurants, bars, and breweries.
- Healthcare and Dental Offices: Everything from doctors and dental offices to hospitals and urgent care centers.
- Insurance: If your insurance company owns multiple offices
So, how does Google decide who gets the top organic spot?
Google’s Three Ranking Factors
Google uses three criteria to determine local ranking:
- Relevance: The search engine assesses how well a local Business Profile matches a request. To optimize this, ensure your business information is completed, detailed, and accurate. Relevant local keywords can also help your Business Profile rank better.
- Distance: This component considers how far the search result is from the location term in the query. With “near me,” users don’t specify a location like a city or ZIP code. Google calculates the distance based on what they know about your location.
- Prominence: This refers to how well-known a business is in the offline world. Google also uses information about a business in the digital landscape, from web links to articles to directories. Google will also figure in things like review counts and scores. Be sure to include your business’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) all over the internet to stay prominent, and encourage social media shares among your audience.
Why Do SEO “Near Me” Searches Matter?
The data behind these local search options illustrate its importance. Google relayed that searches for “shopping near me” on Google Maps alone increased by over 100% in 2022. It’s a trend with staying power. Since users add it more often these days and its connection to buying intent, you can win the SERP (search engine results page) competition.
Local search offers higher engagement and ROI than others, according to Milestone Research. It owns a 22% session share, more than referral, organic, and paid search.
By continuing to optimize for “near me” searches, you’re creating a direct link from Google to your front door.
How to Rank for Local SEO “Near Me” Searches in 4 Main Steps
Step 1: Claim & Complete Your Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile is one of the ways Google decides who gets top billing for “near me” searches. According to data from Statista, 77% of consumers use Google when looking for local businesses. This means potential customers are submitting queries right now to find you.
So, complete your signup for your Business Profile, share photos, videos, and social media posts, and get more customers to leave reviews on it to increase SEO “near me” rankings.
Local businesses can seize unique opportunities by creating engaging content in the form of high-quality photo albums showcasing their premises, team, and customer events.
By using tools to create photo albums online, such as personalized photobook services, it becomes easier for businesses to compile and organize these visuals beautifully
Once you’ve created your Google Business Profile and begin posting on it, it’s time to start collecting reviews.
Hearing directly from actual customers can greatly influence buyers when searching for local businesses. The majority of consumers (64%) said they are likely to do this on Google, per a ReviewTrackers report. Additionally, Google is the leading online review spot, with a 73% share.
While you may collect reviews on many channels, directing people to do so on Google can have the greatest impact. Google makes it easy for customers to write a review. Instructing customers to do this after they complete a purchase should be part of your customer lifecycle plan.
Not all reviews will be positive. Responding to these and the positive ones could improve local search rankings. It also gives context and demonstrates the humanness of your brand.
Step 2: Refresh Your Website Content
Take the following steps to gear your content to rank for SEO “near me” terms.
Include Location-Based Keywords
As you learn more about how to rank for the words “near me” in your content, be sure to include various long-tail location-based keywords.
Research and compile a list of 10-15 keywords and place them in order of relevance to build keyword-focused web pages and content. Focus on keywords and variations that apply to your business and will drive conversions and promote your local ranking.
Use the location-based keywords within your content, title tags, meta descriptions, Google Business Page, images, header, and social media profiles. With the right keywords, you’ll generate higher conversions, whether online, physical store visits, or phone calls.
Create Location-Specific Content
Create content that’s specific to your location and your niche to attract customers with quality information by adding a blog. Use your keywords within your content to further boost your local ranking with valuable indexable content.
Not only will you attract new customers and maintain existing ones, but each post you publish with local keywords will give your site another local page for Google to index. However, remember to create content that brings value to your users first and makes use of keywords second.
Include Landmarks and Neighborhoods
Another way to “tell” Google where you’re located is to use the names of nearby landmarks and neighborhoods on your site. Think about any kind of proper nouns that identify your location and find a way to work those into your website.
We’ve used this strategy on our website with copy that includes specific neighborhoods in San Diego.
Step 3: Optimize On-Page SEO
To connect with people who are searching “near me” keywords in your locations, here are some best practices for on-page SEO for multiple locations.
Optimize Title Tags
Title tags are the clickable lines of text people see in Google search results. Optimize these with your locations to help them achieve SEO “near me” rankings, along with other relevant terms.
Write Meta Descriptions
Below the title tags are meta descriptions, which should encourage users to click the title tag and visit your page. They won’t directly affect SEO, but they can give your pages some credibility among those searching “near me” keywords.
Adhere to EEAT Guidelines
One major way to help optimize for local SEO “near me” terms is to ensure your content demonstrates experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (EEAT). These aspects signal to Google that people like your content and find it helpful as an authoritative source of information.
Build Internal Links
To further optimize SEO for multiple locations on your site, link to various pages from others on your site. High-ranking, valuable pages linking to others can serve as supports for those linked pages.
Use Geocode Images and Alt Text
Another way to outrank competitors with local search optimization is to geocode images. This practice allows you to associate images with your business location. Try one of the following ways:
- Use a photo-sharing app like Flickr. You simply upload images and geocode them with the location. Then, link back to your website from the Flickr description.
- Take pictures with a GPS-enabled camera. Doing so stores the geo-coordinates of the photo in the image EXIF (exchangeable image file format). Since it’s part of the metadata, uploading it to a photo-sharing site allows it to read this. It can be a good time saver for bulk uploads.
- Rely on schema markup. In this case, you’ll use the ImageObject markup. Whenever you add an image to your site, create more details about it with that markup. Be sure to enable the ContentLocation attribute to specify the location. Google will be more likely to recognize you in location-based searches with this workflow.
Include Schema Markup
Another big factor to think about for multi-location SEO is schema markup, or structured data.
According to Google, structured data offers “a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying the page content.” Adding Local Business Schema allows you to provide the search engine with more information about your website.
Google offers several options for making your website, content, and location information available for search results, Google Maps listings, and Knowledge Panel. Before you can start marking up the page, make sure that your Google Business Profile and Google Search Console accounts are set up and verified.
From there, you’ll want to add in the “basics” including:
- Business Contact Markup
- Site Logo
- Social Profiles
Make Your Website Responsive & User Friendly
One of the reasons that “near me” SEO searches have kicked up so much recently is because of mobile technology. People on the go just whip out their smartphones and perform searches like “restaurants near me.”
Mobile is now the leading device for Google searches at 63%. Further, Google confirmed that it transitioned to mobile-first indexing in October 2023.
Be sure to implement the following mobile-first best practices:
- Simplify navigation to make it intuitive.
- Embrace white space to avoid overwhelming pages of images and text.
- Employ mobile-first design techniques that account for micro-interactions, user flows, and checkout to eliminate friction.
- Design for taps and swipes, not mouse clicks. Buttons and navigation must be thumb-friendly.
- Make layouts adaptable by default rather than fixed for consistent user experiences across devices and browsers.
- Make typography responsive with em units for font sizes.
- Hide elements not needed for the mobile experience and leverage conditional loading so they don’t bog down the loading speed
- Export all resolutions of images for each device type.
- Optimize your site for stickiness, meaning visitors will stay a while and not bounce. Content should be compelling and relevant and nudge people toward a conversion. Use powerful and engaging words and make alterations to the sentence structure. To do it quickly and efficiently, a paraphrasing tool can be a good option.
Streamline Site Navigation
Site navigation allows you to highlight different sections of your site—and takes up more real estate in the SERPs than your average listing.
For multi-location businesses, site navigation is a great way to ensure searchers find the right location without having to explore the entire sitemap.
Include Driving Directions
Most of us don’t need directions anymore, as we rely on GPS technology. Search bots, however, find them important.
On your contact or location pages, add directions with several options, depending on where the person may be driving from. It’s another clue for Google to consume about your location and improve your local SEO strategy.
Step 4: Incorporate Off-Page SEO
Multi-location SEO will also need certain off-page elements, including:
List Local Events
Another way to signal to Google that you’re in the neighborhood is to include local events you sponsor on your website. Schema markup, once again, is your ally here.
With the Event markup, you’ll tell the search engine the details. They’ll also need to be part of that website page for visitors. Location attribution in the markup is vital here to support local search SEO.
Here’s a quick example.
You sponsor an annual craft market in your city that features local artisans. You’ll optimize the Event markup schema using the location attribute. On your website, you’ll add more information about what it is, where it is, your sponsorship, and other descriptors.
By searching “craft fair near me,” these are the local results.
Build Your Backlink Profile
Building a healthy backlink profile is essential for SEO. A SEMRush study found that 92.3% of the top-ranking domains for a term had these. These act as a referrer, which Google likens to credibility. You can have a clear advantage over competitors with this plan, as most pages have zero backlinks, according to Backlinko.
In the context of local SEO “near me” searches, you want to focus on geographic anchor text, which could include your business city and state.
For example: “Advantage Dental Services in Kalamazoo, Michigan.” Leveraging this is one more way Google identifies your business location.
Before you try these strategies out, use these link-building strategies:
- Niche-relevant backlinks help search engines understand your website’s context better, improving the indexing and ranking of your web pages.
- When gaining high authority links, identify a keyword with decent search volume. This keyword research is a critical first step in the process.
- Local media and community resource websites are a good place to start for backlinks. Many organizations have sections on their websites dedicated to giving local businesses more visibility.
- When aiming to generate backlinks, remember it’s about the quality, not just quantity. Google considers the quality of your backlinks in their SEO algorithm, not how many.
- Always stick to proper SEO by following search engine guidelines. Get creative with strategies like guest posting, infographics, and producing high-quality content that others want to link to.
Include Your NAP Everywhere
Local SEO NAP (name, address, phone number) describes putting these descriptors throughout your website. Doing so delivers more information to search engines, improving your local SEO “near me” rankings.
You’ll want to use Schema Markup, specifically the LocalBusiness markup. Another pro tip is to be consistent in how you present your address. It should be the same across all digital spaces.
FAQs:
1. What percentage of Google searches are local?
The official percentage, according to Google, hovers between 30%-50% of all searches, with the overall number on the rise as more people enter local search terms on various platforms.
2. What types of businesses will benefit from a “near me” SEO strategy?
Local SEO offers a great opportunity for businesses that interface directly with customers, clients, or patients in person. If your business has a physical location that you want people to visit, targeting local “near me” searches will help.
3. What are some stats about “near me” searches?
- 98% of consumers used the Internet to find information about local businesses in 2022, up 8% from the year prior.
- 42% of millennials who perform a local search will visit a business most of the time.
- Local and organic searches account for 69% of overall digital traffic.
- 80% is the average conversion rate of local searches.
4. How do “near me” searches work?
Users enter a query for a type of business with “near me.” Based on Google’s ranking criteria and the location of the business, people see the most relevant results. Optimizing your Google Business profile and website with the tips above can improve your place.
5. How can you improve a business’s visibility to people located near you geographically?
The three pillars to making sure your business is visible to people located near you geographically are to make sure the following three things are clear and up to date:
1. Your phone number
2. Address
3. Business Hours
6. Why are “near me” searches important for businesses?
Ranking well for “near me” searches capitalize on the search trend. These searchers often have high buying intent and are ready to purchase products or services. Being a top result increases the chance that people will be more likely to visit your business, go to your website, or contact you by phone. Since most of these occur on mobile devices, potential customers could be steps away.
7. How often should a business update its Google Business Profile for optimum local SEO?
Your profile is your business’s digital storefront. When you update depends on changes you make to operations, new products or service offerings, expanding into additional locations, or anything else major. You can also use Google Business to create posts that are visible in the Knowledge Panel. Adding new images keeps it fresh, as well.
8. How do I measure the success of my “near me” SEO strategy?
These metrics are a good start for performance:
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- Website views from organic keyword terms.
- Google Business Profile Insights offers data on how your profile is performing relating to actions people take.
- “Near me” keyword rankings improvements, which you can measure with SEO tools.
- Mobile traffic numbers provide information on the engagement of your mobile site.
Start Ranking Higher in Local SEO “Near Me” Searches
Hundreds of services utilize local search tactics to improve their traffic. It can be challenging to manage for any business, but we can help. Our local SEO experts and proven strategies help organizations improve their rankings and convert more customers.
Whether you’re looking for a few quick wins or building up your local search strategy, Ignite Visibility can help you:
- Increase your local traffic
- Boost overall sales
- Build a stronger backlink profile
- And more
Ready to test out some of these strategies? Contact us now to get started.
