Local SEO, or local search optimization, helps to increase a company's visibility in its local area of influence through search engines and on the search engine results page (SERP) for local queries.
Local SEO serves to position a company in its local area of reach, but not only. Local SEO is very important for visibility across all of a company's outlets, agencies, branches, or teams.
Local SEO search results responds to a search query related to geographic location (determined or obtained through phone GPS coordinates, for example).
There are three criteria that determine the ranking of a Google My Business listing on Google:
- Distance (between the business and the user),
- Recognition (brand awareness), and
- Relevance (match between the query and the services offered).
While you can't influence distance, you can optimize relevance and recognition, which is exactly what local search engine optimization is all about.