Local SEO

Paid Search vs. Local SEO

Given the ease and specificity of conducting paid search campaigns for local keywords, many organizations wonder whether optimizing for local organic search is worth the time and effort. Local SEO efforts take several months to produce significant results, while paid search can begin generating results almost immediately.

At Overdrive, we view both local SEO and paid search as vital to driving local traffic. Paid search is effective, but it can be far more costly than organic search. Additionally, many users will avoid the ads that appear on their SERPs and are more trusting of organic search results. Together, local SEO and paid search campaigns will deliver more value and synergy than either approach alone.

Local SEO Ranking Factors

In local SEO, page ranking is determined on a number of factors. The following list is roughly ordered in importance, with the top factors having more weight than the factors lower on the list.

• Link Signals, including Inbound anchor text, linking domain authority, and linking domain quantity.
• On-Page Signals, including using keywords in titles, a page’s domain authority, and the presence of name, address, and place information.
• Behavioral Signals, including a page’s click-through rate, the number of mobile clicks to call, and social media check-ins.
• Google My Business Signals, including categories, proximity, and keywords in the business title.
• Citation Signals, including the volume of citations and the consistent use of name, address, and place in aggregator databases.
• Personalization of web pages for local search.
• Review Signals, including the quantity, velocity, and diversity of reviews.
• Social Signals including level of engagement on Google, Facebook, and Twitter.

Techniques for Improving Local SEO

Improving local SEO involves a large number of tasks related to technical criteria on websites, incorporating citations, optimizing content, generating positive reviews, and developing a location-specific social media presence. Several of the most important techniques for improving local SEO include:

• Claiming and optimizing a Google My Business Account, enabling Google to authenticate your business as legitimate and improving your presence on SERPs.
• Developing a system for generating and managing positive reviews from customers on Yelp or Google.
• Optimizing for mobile search and local voice search – customers increasingly use voice search on mobile devices to perform a local search, requiring organizations to optimize for more long-tail keywords that reflect the conversational quality of voice searches.
• Developing content based on local events, activities, and news.
• Creating location-specific About Us pages that contain unique content for each location.
• Boosting presence in online business directories like Foursquare, YellowPages, MapQuest, Yelp, and others.
• Increasing the number of high-quality backlinks by creating high quality content that others will link to, by engaging with local influencers on social media, and by publishing guest blog posts on websites with high domain authority.