Near Me SEO: Top Local SEO Tips

Search engine optimization has matured over the last several years to include near me SEO or local SEO. This is specifically for businesses that service a smaller geographic area than a whole country or multiple countries. It could be as small as one town to a state or two.

There are additional SEO steps that need to be taken in addition to traditional SEO to optimize your business for near me SEO:

-Completely setting up your Google My Business Listing
-Use location-based keyword phrases in multiple places on your website
-Use the location-based keyword phrases in your H1, Title, and Meta descriptions
-Write blog articles for your local audience – include topics specific to your region
-Get listed on local directories
-Keep your location information consistent everywhere it is listed
-Use Rankmath’s local schema feature to optimize the backend of your website.

Links Mentioned In This Episode

Rank Math

Social Pilot 

Episodes Mentioned in the Podcast

Episode 22- A Simple Seo Strategy For Your Website

Episode 40 – Tool Evaluation: Rank Math For Easy SEO

Episode 58 –Google  My Business Review

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What we discussed:

Near Me SEO: Top Local SEO Tips Transcript

*Not ready to give this episode a listen or watch just yet? Below is a rough transcript of today’s episode.*

Near me, SEO versus traditional SEO. If you’re a business that services a geographic location, then this topic is really for you. There are two different types of SEO to support your business, and if you are not optimizing your business for both as a local service provider, you may be missing out on customers, and we don’t want that.

So today I’m gonna talk about what you need to do for near me or local search engine optimization. So before I get started on the topic, just a little bit of housekeeping stuff. If you’re new to the podcast, welcome if you are, and if you’re turning so glad you’re back. so in the show notes on the website@inma.com, We will have product recommendations, we will have links to articles, references back to other podcast episodes and of the rough transcript of the entire episode as well.

So if you wanna go back and listen or read something specific, you can, So we are partners with a lot of the products that I talk about. Us having partner programs is advantageous to us and to my clients. because they’re products that we use every single day. so using those links in the show notes, we do get a small commission.

It really helps us out so that we can keep funding and creating all this free content that we’re, making for you. So if you decide, Yeah, I wanna try that product, Please use our links. Okay, so let’s talk about traditional SEO versus near me. seo. So back when Google first came about is when search engine optimization and us paying attention to it really kind of started within those first couple of years because before that, if you were using things like AOL or other searches, it was difficult to find what you were looking.

It most of the time you had to know it already existed, and go specifically to it. So links and URLs and that guidance was really important. And then Google came along and made search so much more intuitive. You put a name in, you put a word in and the information that came back was actually really relevant.

And so traditional search began by us keywording and specifying things. To make sure that we showed up when people were searching for something that we could provide. And so now it’s evolved to where. You know, you may want something specific that’s local to you. So if you’re looking for a restaurant, you don’t wanna see a restaurant three states away.

You wanna see something within, as close as possible. So that’s how I’m gonna define these is traditional SEO is content served up in search that doesn’t include any kind of a local or near me. That’s for things like, if you’re looking for a recipe, you don’t care if the author lives in the same town that you do.

You just want the right recipe. e-commerce products, if you’re shopping for clothes online or specific things, you don’t care where they’re located, just that they have what you want. And then a very popular one is any type of software as a service, whether you use it personally or. professionally.

Again, we don’t care where they’re located. We just wanna make sure that they’ve got what we need. The near Me search engine optimization is content that is served based on the searchers geographic location at that moment in time and the businesses. Location or the area that the business services, right?

So they have to match up. And I say at that moment in time, because not only does it work if we’re home, it works when we’re out and about, if we’re traveling. And so businesses that utilize this are, auto repair shops, restaurants, lodging in-home trade provider. insurance companies that sell like auto insurance and home insurance.

And then,In-home mobile services. I don’t wanna forget about them because that’s actually a rising market where traditional brick and mortar type of services actually come out to your home. mobile dog groomers, mobile chiropractors. I’ve met a mobile pediatrician. gosh, I wish I knew her and she was in business when my son was little.

 and mobile auto repair. I’ve actually met a, a guy that has a mobile auto repair, so those folks also want to come up in near me geographic location type of services.

All right, so we’re gonna start first and foremost with Google My Business. That’s your main thing if you just created one because you figured you needed one, and it’s cool when it comes up when someone searches your name. Great, but it’s actually so much more than that. take a listen to episode 58.

I walk through a lot of the features of Google My Business, why they’re important, why you should set them up. But the short answer is fill out everything, as much as possible on that listing, for what you do and what you provide. The more information you give Google, the better they’re going to do. Bringing you up in specific, searches. The two I want to, highlight here, because we did a whole episode on it before, is one is reviews. People think the reviews are great because other people see them, but Google actually uses your reviews to figure out where you come up in the local search.

Meaning the more reviews you have, the better they are and the more frequent or recent they are is how they’re figuring out where to put you. especially if you’re in a competitive market. and there may be multiple service providers doing what you do, right? Coming up higher in listing is better for you.

And the other overlooked area that, a lot of people don’t fill out is the frequently asked question section, and the answers. Yes, people can come and ask those questions and you can answer them, but you can also put the question in there and answer it yourself. You might just have to have an employee log in and do the, first half for you with a different Google account.

But Google doesn’t have a problem with that at all. those are helpful because, Google knows we ask a lot of questions, right? They, filter up frequently, ask questions in their answers so that people don’t have to click through, and they’re gonna do the same thing with that data that you put into your Google My Business listing.

And then for Google My Business, if you have more than one location, you need to create more than one. and those profiles are based off of your physical address. So if you service multiple counties, you wanna have multiple offices because that’s how you get multiple Google My Business listings and you’re more likely to show up in near me if, you’re servicing a county that’s, An hour and a half away from your primary location.

So having secondary locations and their locations is definitely advantageous for you. You just need a physical address so that they can verify that address, via the postcard method. So now let’s talk about what you can do on your website to help with your. Local search, right? So it’s not just Google My business, it’s also your website.

So you wanna create local,specific keywords, right? So whatever your service is, and then also the town, region, or state or combination thereof, depending on your geo fence, right? How far are people willing to drive? To get to you, right? If you’re a brick and mortar, if you’re a stationary location, or if you’re a service provider, what is your service provider area?

That’s how you wanna figure out what this is. So if you only service one town, then that’s what you’re gonna use as your location. You may service a county, you may service an entire state. An entire state is still considered local. Then you wanna make sure you include. with your specific service or services as your keyword phrases.

If you provide multiple services, then you’re gonna need multiple keyword phrases for each individual service as well as the location and. , when you’re actually putting this on your website, if you have those multiple services, I would focus on those service pages first, meaning service one’s page. Let’s optimize that.

Then when that one’s done, let’s move on to the next one and keep going. it’s very difficult to optimize your homepage for all of them. Whereas, if someone is looking for that, having them go directly to the service page is, So now for each page, let’s talk about what you do to optimize that.

there’s a couple of things. So one is your heading your page title or your H one tag. That’s, they’re all the same thing. Heading H one page title. What this typically is, is when you first come to a website page and there is copy and an image right when you first get. Usually below the menu, that’s usually your title, that first H one tag.

That’s what you want your,specific, keyword phrase to be. , then you also wanna use it, sprinkle it through your body copy. So that’s like the paragraphs and the headings and that sort of thing throughout the copy of the rest of the page. And this is why I say service pages cause it’s a lot easier to naturally blend that phrase in on a page that’s specific about that.

Then it is trying to naturally blend it in over and over again on a page that has a focus on multiple. if you have a WordPress website and you use a product called Rank Math, they will count how many times you’ve used it and compare it to the overall copy of the entire page and tell you if you’ve used it too much or too little.

They help you with that balance because, Google’s got this Goldilocks thing for. using,that search phrase in copy. They don’t want too much. They don’t want too little, They want it just about right because it’s been abused in the past. And then also, if you’re using Rank Beth, they got a handy little tool right in the backend page editor that will help you put in the title tag and the meta description.

And they’re just form fields that you fill out. Title tag, put it in meta description, write it out. Boom, hit save. You’re done. It puts it in the right. in all the code, which is pretty cool. And then you also wanna include it in your footer as well. The next place you wanna focus on is your blog content.

So if you’re writing articles, that is great. Now what you wanna do is those articles, topics should be specific to your location and your location service area. meaning if you are an electrician in Florida, You’re gonna want an article perhaps, about. generators and the importance of having them, having them serviced and maintained before hurricane season starts.

And even mentioning, we know hurricane season is from this time to this time, and that generator needs to be ready to go. here are the top things that you need to think about, when buying and maintaining ‘ em specifically for us here in Florida or in this specific county of Florida.

And that’s gonna make that, that, article. one, it helps with your geofencing. oh, they service this area because they talk about it on this particular page. And two, if someone’s doing a search for generators and how to maintain them, in Florida, that’s gonna come up to them and it’s gonna be so much more relevant to them than just a general article about generators.

 Then I want you to make sure you take that article and you post it to your Google My Business listing. , the business listing has an area where you can put events and notices and that kind of thing, but you can also post your articles here. So you take the image, a little bit of a snippet of the article so people know what it’s about, and then a link back to the site.

and this actually generates more traffic for your site, but it also comes up in search. It’s all part of that connection. Google says, Oh, this is your listing. This is your content. That content’s linking back to this page on the site. It helps connect those dots. And then if you wanna automate this, there’s a pretty cool tool that we use all the time.

it’s social pilot, it’s for scheduling and creating social posts, but it also allows you to put your blog feed in there and then anytime your blog is updated, it will take whatever. new posts you just put out there and shoot it to the social media sites that you designate. And they also have a listing for Google My Business, meaning you can put your social posts, your articles, all that good stuff out on Google My Business, which does not hurt, but it automates all of it, which is really cool.

Now moving past the website, you wanna focus on,local directories, getting your business listed. So hopefully your logo, your name, your address, your telephone number, your website url, right? Because that’s another connection point for Google. They say, Oh, this is them here. This is them there. They’re the. And so the type of places that you want to get listed are, if you’re a member of your local Chamber of Commerce, that’s a good one cuz they usually have pretty high ranking authority because they’re all about local all the time. if you’re part of any local Facebook groups where people recommend, If they have a website page, hopefully they will allow their members to be listed on that website page.

That would be helpful for you. If you’re part of any local networking groups,usually your, company gets listed on them. So if you’re a member of bni, they’ll have a local region page. . And if you’re a woman business owner and you’re a polka dot for a polka dot powerhouse, you get a listing as well.

So think about that. And then there’s other like hyperlocal groups where someone locally started a group created a webpage. You definitely wanna make sure your listing gets there. Don’t ignore that. And then depending on the type of business that you are, any. turn by turn direction. Apps. There’s quite a few of ’em out there.

obviously we know about Google, but you automatically get listed on that because of your Google My Business listing. It comes with the package. this is great for restaurants. You wanna make sure that you show up everywhere. And then any other type listing where they’re gonna show you because the person’s in a geographic location.

Just make sure that they’re reputable and not spammy. And if, if they’re designated as a spammy site, meaning they’re doing not good things to come up in search, right? Black hat, things that Google doesn’t like anymore, it’s not gonna help you at all because they’re not gonna come up in search.

And then it shows that you’re linked. Spammy site, which kind of makes Google pause and go, how reputable is this site? If they’re linking back to that one. We actually unlink a lot of those back links when they get associated to a website just to let Google know, like, no, this was not intentional.

We don’t wanna be part of this.

So with all of these, putting your information out there, make sure your information is consistent across the board, because that’s how Google connects the dots and no, it’s you, right? Because other companies may have a similar name. in an area. So make sure all of your information, and when I mean consistent, it’s accurate and it’s identical, use a copy and paste method.

Or there are services out there where you list your things once and you say, Okay, go ahead and post this. And it keeps it consistent.

And then the last thing that I have for you is I wanna talk a little bit about, Rank Math Pro. Because they have a local SEL module, right? The paid version of rank math is pretty cool. It comes with a lot of things, above and beyond what the, free version offers. But setting up your local seo, so you turn the module on, you fill out all the information, your company, your logo, your hours, your location, and then it injects that into the back end of the site for where Google’s looking for that type of information.

Automat. . And then you can also set it up if you have multiple addresses in multiple locations as well. And if you wanna put those on the site, it keeps everything consistent and it, it really just makes it super simple to add those things to the site rather than, having to figure out how to get all of that out there.

So now that you have all of this new knowledge about near me search, local seo, let’s see what you should do with it. Let’s talk about that. So the first thing I want you to do is look at your Google My Business listing and go through it thoroughly and make sure everything is the way. , you want it to be filled out, right?

If you have only a couple of images up there, put more right. Help Google out so they can help you. if there’s recommendations in there for additional services, cuz they’ll actually make recommendations. Now, accept them if you do them right. If there are things that are just outside your wheelhouse, then don’t accept them.

Just make sure it’s set up Complet. Okay, then look at your website and start optimizing one service page at a time based off of the information I provided you earlier to like just take it one step at a time. . And then if you’re not writing blog articles, I really recommend that you start. Blog articles are the easiest n most natural way to do ongoing search engine optimization on your site.

It provides you with new keywords. It provides helpful educational information to the reader, which they like. They like working with businesses that help and educate them and it keeps your site updated and it keeps adding more pages. Google likes, sites that are bigger with more pages, and that gives you the opportunity to show up and search more and more often for various different keywords.

So here are my final thoughts for you on this, topic. near me, SEO is a really great tool for small businesses that service a specific area. , making sure that it’s set up correctly and is typically outside the skillset of the average small business owner. You guys are great at what you do for a living.

But things like search are convoluted, they’re difficult to understand. There’s so much information out there because it’s been around for so very long, and you get conflicting information, and that’s where a company like Inma comes in. This is what we do. This is what we are subject matter experts at, right?

We do this all day across all of our websites. And the most important thing, I think that we. Some other companies don’t, is we create balance between the human side of search, meaning the person that is searching and the technical aspect of it, which is the search bot, which is Google, right? Google needs techy things done so we can serve it up, but then what’s served up has to be usable and Friendly for the human being, meaning they go to a page and they don’t wanna see the same word splashed over and over and over again, and they walk away feeling unsatisfied with the content.

And so we pay a lot of attention to that, meaning let’s make sure it’s optimized as much as possible. But when the person comes to actually. It. They’re like, Oh, this is great. I love this. I wanna learn more about this company. I wanna read more articles from them. So that balance is really important and that’s what we focus on.

So we’d love to have a conversation with you about that. Here at Inma, we also love to give back to the business community in many different ways. you can schedule a 45 minute consultation with me to talk about search, to talk about your website, to talk about any aspect of marketing that you want to, right?

Not necessarily a sales pitch. Sometimes you just need to have a conversation. I’m totally cool with that. I love talking about this stuff, so I don’t mind. Go to the website dot. I N K yma.com. Upper right hand corner, there’s a button to schedule a marketing evaluation. Just click on that, pick your date and time and we are on the schedule together.

If you just got a quick question, you wanna send me an email, fill out the contact form, or if you’ve got a suggestion for a show topic. I love those two. I love when I get suggestions for those. That’s at the bottom of every page on the same. We also have a marketing Mastermind blog for you. This is where we write full articles on tool evaluation, how to do certain things.

We kind of not only tell you about what it is, but why from a marketing perspective you want to do it. We’re also adding a lot more video content now, that we’re pushing out. So definitely go there, sign up for the newsletter, do a. for the topic you’re looking for and we should have an article about it for you.

If not, go to the chat bot ask us to write an article. We will definitely put it in the content queue for sure. so hopefully you found today’s information useful, helpful. that’s what it’s for. If you did consider sharing it with other business owners, if you’re. An issue. There’s usually another business owner out there that’s having the same issue, and wouldn’t it be great if you could pass this information along so that they could grow their business?

That is the whole purpose of this is to help the entire small business community grow and thrive. So thank you so much for listening and I hope you have an amazing day.