Local SEO Services

Local search engine optimisation is a specific area of SEO that focusses on optimising a website to improve visibility in localised organic listings.

Local SEO is not reserved for plumbers and roofers – there are a wide range of businesses that can benefit from localized services.

Search engine optimisation is a series of optimisations that are undertaken by your SEO provider to improve your visibility to customers within your service area. Local SEO does not only include Google Maps or Google my Business listings – it also includes the organic results that appear underneath them.

Local search marketing is much like regular SEO services, only with an added component on helping businesses appear to users in their local area. The tactics and steps that are used to increase search visibility for general search terms are also applicable to local organic listings. The differentiating factor is the emphasis on the location aspect of the search.

Local SEO services can cost anywhere from $1,500 per month all the way up to $10,000+ per month. The price of SEO services is contingent on a number of key factors including:

1. Industry competition
2. Location of business
3. Business service area
4. Number of services or products offered
5. Website starting position

For businesses competing in regional or non-metropolitan areas, the cost of Local services can be as little as $1,500 per month (depending on the industry, service area, services offered etc.).

For larger businesses looking to compete in major national cities such as Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth or Adelaide, the cost can be significantly higher. Want to find out how much local SEO costs for your business? Get in touch with one of our SEO Experts today to discuss your SEO requirements.

The biggest difference between local SEO and regular SEO strategies is that one is about targeting local leads, and one is about targeting general leads. Local SEO is important for businesses that offer their services in a predefined service area or have a bricks and mortar business.

In general, local SEO is designed for businesses that are likely to attract users conducting searches for goods or services in their area.

For example, someone that is looking for a plumber to fix their tap today may conduct a search of ‘Plumber + their Location’. Google will return results from web pages that use location specific keywords on their web pages. As a result, users are connected with businesses that offer the goods or services that they are looking for in their area.

Local SEO is designed to attract customers who are searching for goods and services in a predefined service area. Whether they are looking for a café, and electrician, or a new pair of shoes – businesses can take advantage of local users with a targeted, local strategy.

We believe that local leads are the most powerful leads that your business can received.

Want to know why?

Well, because they are far more likely to lead to a conversion than a general search user. In fact, the average conversion rate between a general SEO search and a local one is roughly eight to ten times higher. If you are a small to medium business, you cannot afford to neglect your local audience.

Local SEO services are suitable for any business that services or sells products at a specific (one or more) location.

Brick and mortar businesses like restaurants, bars, bakeries, shops etc. should all be using localised strategies to promote their businesses. Furthermore, service-area businesses like roofers, electricians, and plumbers should also be using localised services to promote their businesses to local customers.

Here is the best way to think about Google local search engine optimization marketing. Any businesses that has a physical location or is able to service a physical location (or a number of different locations) can benefit from search engine optimisation services. For instance, if you are a service provider or a businesses that services or sells products to customers in a geographical location – location oriented SEO can benefit your business.

Let’s say you are looking for rubbish removal services. The search string that most users are going to type is something along the lines of:

“Rubbish Removal + Their Location”

Now, the reason that users are likely to include their location in that search string is because they want that junk removed and they want it removed today. Including a local element to the search means they are more likely to see results that are in their desired area.

Now, let’s say you leave the location out of your search, how can Google deliver relevant results? Great question!

Google has analysed billions and billions of search results and user experience metrics. In order to deliver the best experience for users, Google understands that certain businesses require results in their immediate area. Google’s search engine ranking algorithm uses device proximity to show results that re local to the user. That means that even when a user does not include city or “near me” in their search, they will still see relevant, locally optimised results.

That means, if you search for “Rubbish Removal” and you are in the Sydney suburb or Surry Hills, your search results will look completely different to a user that is located in Bondi or Parramatta.

The truth is local search engine results have been around for years.

However, it is only in recent years that Google has been able to fully utilise them. Users are increasingly using mobile devices to conduct searches, which means that google can use device location to deliver precise results. Over the last five years, search results have evolved dramatically. As more users conduct searches from mobile devices, the importance of effective local SEO strategies will only continue to increase.

Our approach to ranking a website for local SEO is different to the way that we approach other facets of search engine optimisation.

To perform in the local search results, we need to answer a few important questions:

1. Where is the business located?
2. Can the business service multiple locations?
3. Where are the clients/customers currently coming from?
4. Will a local strategy benefit this type of business?
5. Is the local component of the search important for achieving the right visibility?

Before we can put together a strategy for your business, we first need to establish if it is the right move.

Local SEO will not be effective for all businesses and not every business type is the right fit for a localised strategy.

If we determine that your business is the right fit for a local strategy, here are a few of the important factors that we will incorporate into your local Campaign.

• Claim and optimise your Google My Business (GMB) listing
• Ensure that your phone number, address, and business name is correct
• Build local reviews
• Create pages dedicated to specific services and service areas
• Local link building and local citations with consistent name, address, phone number information
• Local link building strategy
• Optimise landing pages with appropriate location data
• Schema mark up to provide Google with more information about the nature of products and services being offered as well as service area.

Just like every SEO campaign, there are hundreds of variable factors that must be considered in a local search engine optimisation strategy.

The above list are a few of the important, transferrable elements. However, the right strategy will depend on a myriad of different factors that are specific to your business.

If you’d like to learn more about how local search engine optimisation works get in touch with the friendly Safari Digital team.  During your SEO consultation, we’ll go through a comprehensive strategy suited to the unique needs of your business.

We offer SEO services to businesses across a wide range of niches on one simple condition – there must be a local search market for your goods or services.

If we believe that an area focussed SEO strategy can help your business to grow, then we will work with you. If we believe that there is a better way for you to spend your online marketing budget – we will be the first to tell you.

Local SEO can be effective for almost every industry. If you are looking to increase sales, generate meaningful leads, and grow your online exposure – search engine optimisation is worth considering for your business. Our local strategy varies depending on the service, product, target audience, and your unique business goals. We don’t use cookie-cutter technique and we don’t outsource any step of the process.

Want to know the best part about investing in local SEO services? You’ll be amongst the first businesses in your niche to do so.

The most current data advises that 56% of local businesses haven’t even claimed their Google business listing – so just imagine what your business could achieve with a complete local strategy.

Taking your business to the top of the local results in 2020 is still a straightforward affair.

Local marketing awareness is in its infancy, which means that standing out is simple. There are hundreds (even thousands) of businesses who are desperate to boost their market share but have no idea how to start. By working with a specialist local SEO company, your business will be amongst only a handful of companies in your niche who appreciate the potential of local search.

The most important thing that you need to understand about Local SEO services is that conversion rates are ridiculously high.

The most recent data indicates that 78% of local searche queries end with an enquiry or conversion – that is extremely high.

To put that in perspective, if you are a service-based business like a roofer or plumber and your website gets a click from a local enquiry, there is an 8/10 chance that it will end in an enquiry.

When you consider that the majority of local queries result in a conversion, the value of local marketing services cannot be overstated. Local SEO attracts highly-motivated buyers at the pointy end of the buyer cycle – which is when you want your business to be front and centre. If you are going to attract motivated consumers to your business, a localised search marketing strategy is essential.

The one thing that you need to understand about search engine optimisation (SEO) is that it is always changing and evolving. Nothing is ever where you left it, which means that you need to continue to update and improve your website in order to stay ahead of the pack. AS a dedicated SEO Agency, we are able to spend all of our time researching and understanding the on-site and off-site factors that influence organic search rankings.

A recent study found that on-page keyword usage is the number #1 on page ranking factor – and we agree. The quality of your on-page content is the most important factor for organic search success. We are a content heavy agency – we focus on content as a priority which is reflected in the amount of new landing pages and content marketing pieces that are created for each client.

As of 2023, how you rank on Google is dictated by a mixture of on-site and off-site SEO ranking factors. If we had to put a list together, the most important ranking factors are:

1. Quality content
2. Keyword usage
3. Technical SEO
4. Off-site factors such as link building
5. Ongoing content production

The truth is, there are more than 200 individual factors that will influence how a website ranks in organic search. We aim to simplify the process and focus on the factors that really make an impact for your business.

In 2020, customers expect results that are personalised and easy to apply.

Search engines have reacted by using various data points and geo-tracking to display search results that are distinct to the user.

“Near me” search terms have grown by more than 400% between the period of 2016 and 2020. To standout, your business requires a rock-solid local SEO strategy that incorporates local citations, Google My Business and a range of other local search factors that will affect your local visibility.

As of 2020, 46% all Google searches feature a local intent.

That indicates when someone is looking for a product, service or place they combine their location in the search. Google is putting greater importance on presenting local results that present an immediate resolution for their users. Rather than giving full results, Google is presenting laser-targeted results that direct consumers from their phones or tablet straight to your business. 28% of searches that involve a local intent will end in a purchase.

Local SEO is a strategic process that emphasis the location element of search rankings.

Local campaigns are designed to optimise products and services towards a specific audience based on their geographical location.

In 2023, Local SEO is one of the most powerful ways to quickly scale a business online. Some of the latest Local statistics that highlight the need for a comprehensive local marketing strategy in 2023 include:

• Almost 20% of users will convert the same day that they conduct a search
• More than 60% of Australians use their mobile device to find goods and services in their area.
• 78% of location based searches lead to offline conversions
• More than 35% of Australian adults will look up a local businesses before visiting
• 97% of consumers used a mobile device to find a local business in 2020

One of the biggest benefits of local search engine optimisation is that users are local and ready to make a purchase. Conversion rates are significantly higher than regular SEO and can lead to a dramatic increase in high-quality leads.

Sure, why not! Just like building a house, you have access to all of the raw materials required to build it, it comes down to having the know-how. But if a trip to bunnings, or a poke around your websites back end leaves you scratching your head, here are some things to consider.

When done correctly, Local SEO can inundate your business with leads that are worth tens of thousands of dollars each month. The equivalent google advertising value of some of our local clients exceeds $20,000 each month. That means, if the business were to pay for the amount of search visibility that they receive each month through Google SEO, they would pay more than $20,000 every single month. There is a reason why Google can charge so much for advertising – because SEO is not easy. If it were, no one would pay for advertising!

Learning SEO is a fulltime job – just ask our staff! If you have the time, resources, and patience to learn search engine optimization, then yes, you can do it yourself! If not, it could be more cost effective to hire SEO specialists.

97% of search engine users go online to locate a local business.

Users who want to discover a local business to search engines first. Without a local strategy, your business is missing out on these customers. Investing in local search means appearing in more local search results and securing your slice of the local market.

In 2020, businesses without a strong online presence are missing out on local, qualified leads. Local services will help companies to increase local presence and local recognition. The first move towards building your business is letting customers know that you exist. As of 2019, 86% of people rely only on the internet to locate a local business – if you’re not visible to your local market online, then you’re going to be hard to locate.

Getting to the top of the search engine results pages used to be thought of as a pipe dream for small to medium businesses with a restricted budget.

The top of Google is historically dominated by big companies who can throw money at a problem – so what about companies who need to find an answer on a budget? Since 2014, Google has been providing local businesses the chance to outrank and outperform their more established competitors on a local level.

If you’ve spent any time delving into digital marketing, you’ve probably heard the saying “Content is King” – the old phrase still rings true.

The latest search research reveals that 57% of SEO experts rank content creation and content marketing as the number one way to drive the best results in local SEO. Content marketing is a proven local strategy that gets small businesses noticed in the right places.

Content marketing is one of, if not the, most critical aspects to gaining local visibility.

Producing and publishing content that is both relevant to your niche and your local community can significantly improve your organic search potential. Once you’ve posted content, the hard work does not stop there; content marketing includes regularly updating content, managing content, and optimising the content for better user interaction. Updating existing content with fresh images and written content can increase organic traffic by 111.3%.

According to the latest studies into search, the average page one result in Google contains 1,890 words of content. And while that might seem like a ridiculous amount of writing per page, the focus should be creating location landing pages that will position your business as a local industry leader – not a follower.

Not every page needs to be lengthy; however, on-site content optimisation, including competitor and keyword research is crucial to optimising pages in the right places for the right area. Our SEO services focus on optimising the right pages, for the right visibility.

Social reviews through Google My Business, Facebook and Yelp are one of the most potent and highly effective ways to enhance user trust and boost conversions.

Working hand in hand with peer reviews and valuable business information, managing and optimising your Google My Business (GMB) is one of the most critical aspects of an effective local SEO strategy.

The latest local SEO statistics revealed that 56% of local businesses are yet to claim their free Google My Business listing.

Given that GMB is one of the first things that customers come across when searching for a company online, having the right information is imperative to local success. Businesses that verify, manage and optimise their GMB listing are deemed more trustworthy, reliable, and legitimate. Furthermore, GMB is your ticket to getting your business listed in local snack packs – where the most highly motivated local traffic will come across your business.

Earning a healthy backlink profile is an integral part of a comprehensive SEO campaign.

Links signal to search engines that one website considers another website to be trustworthy, authoritative, and insightful. Links coming from relevant and high authority websites also provide increased brand awareness, referral traffic, and can directly enhance the visibility of a website.

Where ten years ago link building solely focused on getting as many backlinks as possible, link building in 2020 is much more organic, relevant, and meaningful. Google’s Penguin update back in 2012 put an end to link schemes in an effort to halt high masses of link building for improved search visibility.

SEO is constantly evolving, and as a result, the weight that is given to backlinks will often fluctuate. However, it is undeniable that backlinks continue to play an enormous role in search engine visibility – the secret is to continue working with Google’s sophisticated and evolving webmaster guidelines.

In 2020, marketers need to make sure they are building clean, sustainable links that will remain safe and unaffected through Google’s future algorithm shifts.

The key to sustaining a backlink profile that is valuable for local SEO is to earn and acquire backlinks that are local, relevant, and meaningful. By creating potent and relevant connections with local businesses in your area, backlinks become an important way to acquire lucrative referral traffic and signal to search engines the value of your website within your local community.

At Safari Digital, we focus our local SEO services and backlink building efforts on working with relevant, local sources that are going to boost the local authority and trustworthiness of your website.

A variety of technical SEO factors can influence how your website performs in search engine result pages.

Pinpointing, addressing and rectifying any existing technical SEO problems is crucial for any effective SEO campaign.

Some of the most common technical SEO factors that we review and promptly address include (but are not limited to):

• Hosting suitability
• Website speed and page load time
• Broken backlinks
• HTTPS status and SSL security layer
• Website crawlability
• Sitemap
• Broken pages
• Duplicate content issues (on-site + competitors)
• Structured data (schema mark-up)
• Broken internal links
• Robots.txt file settings

These are just a few of the most common technical SEO concerns that we assess. In general, we solve all outstanding technical problems within the first month of an SEO campaign. In exceptional circumstances, we may take a couple of months to rectify all outstanding technical concerns.

Where one aspect of links in SEO focuses on getting other websites to link to your pages, internal linking revolves around linking between pages within a domain to create a hierarchy for your content.

Strategic internal linking is an essential SEO tool that webmasters have complete control over for optimisation.

Creating a hierarchy between pages signifies to crawlers which pages are most relevant, important, and valuable. This will help search engines to identify which content should be displayed on search engines and where. Optimising your internal linking structure can go a long way in improving search visibility.

Page titles, or title tags, provide one of the most potent relevancy signals for search engines.

When it comes to local search engine optimisation; title tags should be location-specific and give an accurate and short summary of the page’s purpose. Using the relevant keywords and locations will ensure that search engines are aware of your local relevancy.

In addition to being an important on-page ranking factor, optimised page titles can also have a considerable influence on how pages perform in the search engine result pages with user interaction. Providing clients with search engine marketing services, we have seen significant impacts just by optimising page titles for organic search.

One of the most critical aspects of implementing local marketing services is targeting local areas with location-specific pages.

According to the latest SEO statistics, 78% of users who make a search that includes location information will then carry out transactions in a physical store. If you want to get your business noticed in your local area, you need to put the effort in to target the area with attractive location-specific landing pages.

Web directories are used as online catalogues for website and businesses.

In the past, they have had a significant place in organic SEO to build a solid foundation for backlinks and NAP consistency. However, utilising spammy directories today for masses of links will only get your website into trouble.

The big takeaway from directory listings is that they really do not hold much weight in local search marketing today. Using legitimate high-quality and reputable directories is fine – as long as they are focused on providing NAP consistency and not masses of low-quality backlinks.