People searching online for local businesses and services is increasing.

Two factors that have fueled this increase are:

  • Voice search devices like Amazon Alexa and Google Home
  • Mobile searches

So, three ways you have to optimised your local business are:

  • Near me searches
  • Voice searches
  • Mobile searches

In this article we will learn about:

  • Local SEO
  • Ranking for “near me” desktop and mobile searches
  • Optimising for voice search

Let’s get into it.

“Near Me” Search Growth

“Near me” searches have grown 900% from 2013 to 2017 and in recent years:

  • “Near me now” searches have grown 150%
  • “Near me tonight” or “near me today” searches have grown 900%
  • “Near me” searches including “now” have grown 200%

Google needs your location when searching Google maps for businesses or services near you:

  • The location or GPS on most mobile devices is on
  • Most apps need your location to function well
  • People previously turned their location off for privacy reasons but now leave it on

Google uses your location to find businesses that are:

  • Close to your location
  • Relevant to your search

These results are found by potential customers when they search for your product or service.

Basically, “near me” searches find:

  • Something specific
  • In a certain location
  • At a certain time

Even “near me” mobile searches with the intention to buy has grown by 500% in recent years.

“Near me” at the end of a search means the user wants to act now by visiting the place of purchase to buy at the time of the search or very soon.

Top “Near Me” Searches

Local business owners need to optimise for “near me” searches.

This survey found 82% of 1000 smartphone users did a “near me” search in 4 days.

And, the type of searches were:

  • 84% Food searches
  • 56% Entertainment searches
  • 50% Banking searches
  • 41% Apparel searches
  • 38% Personal Care searches

The results of these searches show the search intent of searchers.

Optimising For “Near Me” Searches

For your local business to get better local search visibility, you need to optimise for “near me” searches.

Different ways to optimise your business for “near me” searches include:

Get your business on Google My Business and optimise

Open an account on Google My Business to rank your business on local search results and get to the top of “near me” searches.

Click “Start now” and add your business on Google local by following the instructions.

Then optimise your business listing in the Google local search results by:

  • Entering your business’s name and address
  • Adding directions to your business using Google Maps.
  • Adding business hours and contact details like phone number and website
  • Use the right category for your business and be specific
  • Add photos of your services
  • Ask customers to leave reviews on your business page.
  • Keep your NAP (Name, Address and Phone Number) consistent on all business profiles like Facebook and other social media websites
  • Keep business information accurate, detailed and up-to-date
  • Add attributes like business amenities you offer, for example, WiFi

Remember, Google lists the best businesses first and reviews determine the best businesses.

So, you need a good amount of positive reviews for your business to hot the top of the local search results.

Use schema markup

In the local search results, Schema markup helps your business stand out from its competition.

Schema data gives search engines more information on your business and helps users by presenting them as rich snippets.

Start by:

  • Creating pages for every location your business operates
  • Then, add schema markup to all these pages

Make sure your schema data includes:

  • Your business address
  • Opening and closing hours
  • Contact information

Remember, schema markup for your homepage helps:

  • Makes sure your business information is accurate
  • Your business show up in the Knowledge Graph

Note: Only add information in the schema markup already displayed on your web page.

Get backlinks with geographic anchor text

Backlinks improve your business’s rankings on Google local.

So, get high authority backlinks that are relevant with geographically rich anchor text to increase your business rankings for “near me” searches.

For example, to rank for “near me” searches in “London” and for “desserts”, then use location rich variant anchor texts like:

  • “Best desserts in London”
  • “Desserts in London”
  • “London desserts oxford street”
  • “Ice cream in oxford street London”
  • “Ice cream London”, etc.

Create pages targeting all your business locations and optimise

If you have businesses in different locations then create pages for each location.

For example, if you have a phone repair shop in five different UK cities including Londoon, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, and Glasgow, then create web pages for each city.

And, optimise those web pages for “near me” searches by:

  • Having a user-friendly URL structure for readability. For example, if advertising a phone repair shop in London, then use “www.yourwebsite.com/London-phone-repair”
  • Use your target keyword in the title and meta tags
  • Add alt tags and title tags to images on the web page. Use an image of your shop with location keywords in the alt and title tags
  • Add a description of your shop and with operation hours, services, directions, and other amenities
  • Add a video of your shop and transcribe it. This increases web page relevance based on the location your business serves.
  • Use internal links. Link to location-specific pages in your website’s footer with the anchor text “near me” included.

Note: For example, the footer from TripAdvisor, links to location-specific pages with the words “near me” in the anchor.

Make your website mobile-friendly

Google picks websites with the best user experience for search results.

So, improve your website’s user experience and rank higher in “near me” searches by making it mobile-friendly and improving site speed. 

Make your website mobile-friendly by:

  • Make your website responsive to both mobile, tablet and desktop users. Delivering the same content and experience all the visitors
  • Make AMP pages to improve site speed
  • Compress web pages with Gzip
  • Have a website search bar so people can easily look for information
  • Minimise CSS, JavaScript and HTML files
  • Reduce redirects and remove JavaScript render blockers
  • Don’t use Flash which negatively affects user experience
  • Auto-correct for forms and the search bar
  • Have large button sizes so it’s easier for users to click
  • Use browser caching to improve website loading time
  • Use a CDN so your website loads faster

Start a blog and get local backlinks

Starting a blog is the best way to get local backlinks.

With a blog you can regularly share articles and keep visitors updated about your business services.

A blog can take visitors searching for information and persuade them to buy your products.

You can earn backlinks from authority sources by:

  • Interviewing local influencers in your niche then publish them on your blog
  • Conduct local surveys and regularly publish the report on your blog

Remember, influencers can link to your blog in return, which helps get relevant backlinks.

So, create blog posts with the answers people are looking for to their questions.

“Near me” Searches on Smart Devices like Alexa and Google Home

People ask all types of questions to their smart devices and a lot of the questions are “near me” searches.

And, the U.S alone has about 43 million smart device users.

Some examples of voice searches include:

  • “Alexa, what movies are playing near me?”
  • “Alexa, what restaurants are near me?”
  • “Okay Google, find a tire store near me”
  • “Okay Google, is PizzaHut near me open now?”
  • “Where are ATMs near me?”

To get to the top of search results for voice queries, simply:

  • make a list of questions people might ask smart devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home
  • Optimise your Google My Business profile for voice queries

So, optimise your website for “near me” searches, and voice searches, to get ahead of your competition. 

And, find a way to get your business recommended by smart devices, because Amazon Echo and Google Home are becoming popular by allowing users to conduct faster searches.

Conclusion

Start optimising your business for voice search and “near me” searches.

Remember to generate maximum profits, you need to:

  • stay ahead of your competitors
  • keep your customers happy

So, think about now and the future by using these strategies to keep your customers happy  and optimising your business for “near me” searches.

Let me know in the comment sections how you have been optimising for voice and “near me” searches.

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