Imagine your local business in the Google Maps Local 3-Pack for multiple keywords in less than three weeks. And while we have been able to achieve these results, I wouldn’t call them typical. However, I mention this to illustrate the point that local SEO is different from Organic SEO, which typically takes at least two to three months to see any significant results. Local SEO requires specialized knowledge, tactics and procedures. And while implementing the standard SEO process used for organic SEO may eventually get a local business into the Google Maps Local 3-Pack, there are much better ways to achieve this goal.
Since the main goal of local SEO is to get your business listed highly in Google Maps, with the ultimate goal of being listed in the Google Maps Local 3-Pack and preferably for multiple keywords. There are a number of reasons for this, mainly that 3-Pack listings are very prominently displayed in search results. visible. And that local searches are highly likely to turn into a visit to your local business or website, resulting in a sale and revenue in a short period of time.
For this blog entry we are going to focus on Google. However, the techniques discussed will generally work for other search engines such as Bing, Yahoo and YouTube.
First, you need to understand goals, with Proximity, Relevance and Prominence being the three primary ranking factors that Google uses when determining how highly to rank a local business in a search:
