Local search engine optimization - the TOP 6 steps to local optimization

 

Why local search engine optimization?

Optimize your website locally - and be found by customers looking for a business or service near them.

For one thing, many search queries on Google include regional components. Instead of a "builder", people who want to build a house are in many cases looking for a builder + city/region, for example "builder Karlsruhe". On the other hand, Google itself wants to offer its customers an optimal search result and is therefore refining its search function more and more.

For this reason, in addition to keywords, the search engine also includes data such as address and company directories as well as the company address noted in your imprint in the search process.

The Google algorithm has even become so refined that, especially when searching with mobile devices such as smartphones, the user's location is taken into account in the search even if the search query itself does not contain a local search term at all. In the meantime, however, this function has also been extended to searches with your laptop or desktop.

Take the test: type "veterinarian" into your smartphone and see from which region veterinarians are displayed.

As ingenious as this refined search function is - you have to keep a few things in mind when it comes to local search engine optimization. Nevertheless, you should spare no effort here. Because especially as a self-employed person or with a smaller company, with local SEO you have the opportunity to prevail against national or international companies, which often have a large SEO budget at their disposal.

Basically, local search engine optimization is based on similar principles as ordinary search engine optimization. So, in both cases, you need to find meaningful keywords for your website, create valuable content and generate solid backlinks.

In more ways than one, however, you should customize your site to make it especially relevant to regional inquiries.

 

 

Step 1: Include location information in your domains

Before you ask yourself how to optimize your website, you should sensibly create the basic structure of your domain(s). Several factors play into this: the structure of your business, the categorization of your services and products, and your budget. There is no one-size-fits-all solution here, but at least a few guidelines:

Large companies with regional offices should not limit themselves to local search engine optimization. This means: set up a subpage, subdomain or even a whole website for each service you offer (nationally/internationally).
In addition, you then build local domains.

With a strong main domain, however, it can also be sufficient if the local pages are created as subdomains. A cinema operator operating throughout Germany could therefore simply reserve a main domain (www.kinotraum.de) and then create corresponding subpages:

www.kinotraum.de/bremen
www.kinotraum.de/hamburg
www.kinotraum.de/kassel
www.kinotraum.de/münchen

If you work as a piano and violin teacher, it is best to set up a separate website for both. At the very least, however, both teaching offers should each get their own subpage on your homepage, which can be optimized specifically.

So either:
www.klavierlehrer-karlsruhe.de
www.geigenlehrer-karlsruhe.de

Or:
www.musiklehrer-karlsruhe.de
with the subpages:
www.musiklehrer-karlsruhe.de/klavierlehrer
www.musiklehrer-karlsruhe.de/geigenlehrer

If the budget is large, it may even be advisable to break it down twice by region and activity.

Let's illustrate this with a final example: an architecture firm that offers both building and interior design services in northern Germany. Whoever is now looking for an interior designer in Bremen will probably also enter "interior designer Bremen" in Google. And if you want to build an individual house, you will probably search for an "architect Bremen". With your domain structure you can adapt to the search behavior of your customers - Google will also thank you.

You could align your domains as follows:

 

 

However, keep in mind that all pages should have unique content. So you cannot replicate the same text found on www.architekt-hamburg.de on www.architekt-bremen.de. Google will recognize such a duplicate and give less value to your text content.

Moreover, each of the domains needs to be strengthened individually and generate voluntary backlinks through high-quality content. If you want to avoid this difficulty and save costs, you can switch to a smaller solution with subpages, for example:

www.seo-consulting.de
with the subpages
www.seo-consulting.de/suchmaschinenoptimierung-karlsruhe
www.seo-consulting.de/suchmaschinenoptimierung-frankfurt
www.seo-consulting.de/suchmaschinenoptimierung-mannheim

As well as

www.innenarchitekt.de
with the subdomains
www.innenarchitekt.de/bremen
www.innenarchitekt.de/hamburg
www.innenarchitekt.de/hannover
(again, however, you should offer unique content on each page)

All in all, one of the main goals of local search engine optimization is to ensure that Google can assign your service or product to a specific location - the place where you want to attract customers. Take this into account already in the choice of your domain(s).

 

Step 2: Tell Google the location of your business

Beyond the place name listed in your domain or subdomain, Google also crawls your site for address data.

So create a separate contact page on your website. On this page, you should list at least your address, an email address and a telephone number. Your address data should also be included in your imprint. You can also include your contact details (at least the phone number) in the footer of your page.

The following should be noted:

• The address should be an address that can be decisively assigned to your business. If you share an address with several businesses, be sure to include an address suffix, for example, "Parkstraße 34b". The address data should also include the postal code that corresponds to your location. Do not note any P.O. boxes or virtual offices here, but your physical address!
• If you have multiple locations and thus addresses, be sure to list them on the appropriate subpages for the corresponding location!
• Choose a local phone number for your business that has an appropriate area code. It is therefore advisable not to use 0800 or similar numbers. Cell phone numbers should also be listed as a supplement at best.
• The address data on your page should literally correspond. If your address is noted in the imprint as "Parkstrasse 34b", the contact page should not say "Parkstr. 34".

Your email address does not necessarily reveal local data - nevertheless, quality standards apply here as well. Make sure that your company and not an email provider is named after the @, i.e.: jwinter@meinbusiness.de and not jwinter@gmx.de.

However, you may also be able to leave a place name in here, e.g. k.schulze@architekt-bremen.de. However, such an approach is only recommended if the email address does not become unnaturally long or complicated in this way. Even if you want to optimize your page for search engines, user-friendliness should always be in the foreground.

 

Step 3: List your business in directories and get reviews

To confirm the address data on your website, Google will use data from other directories. At the same time, listing your business in industry and similar directories increases the authority of your online presence.

Therefore, be sure to list your company in various directories such as the Yellow Pages, Das Örtliche and Yelp. A good overview of important German platforms for local search engine optimization can be found here:

https://moz.com/learn/local/local-search-data-europe

Also in step 3, make sure that your address data is consistent. So they should use the exact same address on all platforms. This address should then in turn literally correspond to the information you provide on your homepage.

In addition, you should provide your business data directly to Google via Google My Business (https://www.google.com/business/). Make sure that your data is always up-to-date and fill out your profile as completely as possible.

Even before the actual search results, Google displays a map for local searches on which several companies are listed (see infographic for example "Cleaning Karlsruhe"). The more information about you that can be found here, the better for you! If you also receive positive reviews here, you will not only be able to convince Google that you are the authority in your city in your field of activity.

 

 

Step 4: Optimize your site for local keywords (OnPage optimization)

If you own a dry cleaning business in Karlsruhe, then optimize your page not for the keyword "cleaning" but for the keyword "cleaning Karlsruhe". Of course, you should determine in advance via Google Adwords or other tools which keywords with a local component are particularly in demand in connection with your business.

 

Step 5: Build local links too

Like classic SEO, local search engine optimization is also based on structured link building. A few principles apply in both cases:

• It is best not to build links manually. Manually built links should, if, then come from very few, manually selected press portals, or from the above-mentioned business directories.
• Instead, you should acquire links primarily through high-quality content. In other words, you provide such high-quality information and other content on your site that people link to you voluntarily.
• Watch out: Google also recognizes if you are overzealous here and build many links manually in a short time - and will penalize your website for it. On the other hand, however, there is nothing to be said against a solid growth of links that occurs slowly. Basically: refrain from spam and do not scatter links indiscriminately on the Internet. Provide high-quality content that invites others to link to it.

For local search engine optimization you should additionally local link building or enrich your link mix with local links. What does that mean in concrete terms?

Try to get backlinks from sites that are also listed in your region or city. For example, as a contractor, you can give an interview on a local blog about the specific construction situation in your city. Or you inform on a local press portal about innovations in your company.

Ideally, you will even succeed in combining local and topic-relevant SEO here. If you are a martial arts instructor, a link from an established blog about sports in your region would be worth its weight in gold - you could possibly get that too via an interview or a guest post if you actually provide valuable content for the sports blog.

 

Step 6: Create unique content

Websites are listed higher by Google if they have unique content. So don't copy from other sites, but write text that is unique to your site.

Also, the content should not be too superficial. What can you write? If you have employees, you can present them individually for each of your branches. Or you can even keep a small "corporate blog".

By the way: videos or images are also recognized by Google as content if they are provided with corresponding attributes ("alt="") and described.

You increase your chances of being listed high up in local search if your content also sometimes refers to your locality. If this content provides added value for other people, you may even receive the above-mentioned backlinks from other local sites voluntarily and thus kill two birds with one stone.

 

Conclusion: Give Google the data it needs - and they'll thank you for it

Google brings together a lot of data to check if your website is also relevant for local search: Your domain names and URLs, your address data noted in external directories, the keywords on your page, and the origin of your links.

However, even professional SEO agencies do not know the Google algorithm in detail. And yet, if you help Google determine the data cited in this post, it will be reflected in the search results.

By the way: another factor for Google is also the locality of the accesses to your page. So if you want to optimize your website locally for the city of Karlsruhe, it helps if mainly users from the Karlsruhe area access your website.

Thus, you can get into a positive cycle: once your site is optimized for a locality, users from that city in particular will access your site. This in turn strengthens your position in local search.