Companies, especially enterprises, focus on global search engines to reach a wider audience. While this is a good thing to do, it is important to focus on local enterprise SEO if you want tangible results that can change how your website performs.
Enterprises work on local SEO every once in a while, which usually amounts to nothing. Some enterprises ignore local SEO and think it is necessary for small and medium-sized businesses.
However, the one thing that every enterprise with multiple branches has to remember is enterprise SEO is important for local business growth. Let's see what local SEO is, how it can benefit your organization and some important strategies behind it.
What Is Enterprise Local SEO?
Enterprise local SEO is a digital marketing strategy that focuses on reaching out to customers or clients in the local area. It is completely location-oriented, and brands, irrespective of size, have to focus on it.
Enterprise local SEO focuses on managing multiple website pages across various locations and handling physical store locations.
If you manage a small cafe based out of one particular location, doing local SEO for that particular location would be sufficient. But big organizations panned out to multiple locations worldwide are different.
With so many branches, there is a need to do local SEO for all of them, and this isn't going to be a one-man thing. Local SEO can be achieved only with the help of an expert enterprise SEO agency. Here is a list of things that you need to look out for before you map out a strategy:
● Collecting and standardizing data from multiple locations.
● Knowing about the franchise relationships to get details of who controls which data and assets, etc.
● Scaling the entire SEO strategy along with content development.
● Dealing with bad reports from franchise to organization level.
● Having people who work with the team in local franchises and gather data from them effectively.
These are just some of the basic things every enterprise focusing on local SEO has to do.
Why Is Local SEO for Enterprises Important?
When a brand is established in multiple locations, it requires global SEO strategies to appease audiences from all locations. However, that is not enough. This brand also needs to do local SEO to attract locals to areas where it has franchises.
When you try to analyze enterprise SEO vs local SEO, you will see that local SEO is the aspect that generates more walk-ins for the brands. Enterprise SEO works as well but if you want to target a particular section of audience from one location, then local SEO should be your go to option.
50% of people search for local products and services on Google daily. And brands have to make the most out of it without any delay. Before the pandemic, almost 90% of near-me searches resulted in calls or visits to the business in just one day. Imagine the number of quality leads you can generate for your business with a proper local SEO strategy.
Be it a service-based business or a product-based, having the right local SEO strategy can be proven as a game changer for any business, and it is not something you can ignore.
Benefits of Enterprise Local SEO
With a proper local enterprise SEO strategy in place, you would be able to attract a huge target audience and increase leads and conversions. Here are some of the benefits of local SEO tactics for enterprises.
Rank Higher Position for Local Queries
Some so many people use phrases like near me or search for a product or service available close to their location. Using the right local SEO tactics, it is easy for businesses to rank on top of search engines for these queries.
Search engines will consider your business more relevant than others and push it to the top. This can help with website traffic and lead generation as well.
Increase in Relevant Traffic
Identifying and reaching out to the right target audience is one of the biggest hassles for almost every business. This is where enterprise local SEO can help your business. When you start filling out Google My Business and submitting your business to as many local directories as possible, reaching out to the target audience in that location is easy.
This way, whatever traffic you get onto that particular location's landing page will be relevant and reliable.
Do you know that over 72% of local searches result in actual store visits? Yes, implementing local SEO the right way can make a lot of difference for your business. So, it is something you can take advantage of at any cost.
Builds Trust and Authority
No matter which website you visit online, they all claim to be one of the best in the market but are they really "the best?" Well, people just don't believe any such claim blindly. This is where brand authority and visibility matter.
You need to assure them that your business is the best out there, and proper local SEO can help you with this. This is an opportunity to show that you have industry expertise and that your product or service is here to make a difference. Once you do this by reaching out to relevant audiences, your authority in the field will increase.
Strong Local Community
You may be famous in the US, but if you want to attract people in Mumbai, any other part of India, or anywhere in the world, you need to build an effective community there. With local SEO, you will be able to get this done.
Local website optimization can help increase your brand awareness, and as people get to know about you, they will trust you. Once you gain strong credibility among the locals, building a community will eventually become easier.
Feature in Google 3-Pack
If you have searched for any “product/service near me,” Google provides you with three product or service providers in that area. You can click on more results to see further options available.
When you get featured in this pack, it becomes easy to get noticed by locals. Most people are relaxed about these search results and go for the ones that Google usually handpicks. If you optimize your website properly on Google Maps, you will be able to rank in the Google 3 Pack and become even more visible to your target audience.
More Local Reviews
Local reviews are quite important for every business. You can gain them using enterprise local SEO strategies.
Do you know that online reviews impact 93% of consumers?
Apart from the consumers, Google takes these reviews very seriously, and as your profile keeps getting fresh feedback consistently, so you will get a better ranking. So, ask your clients and customers to leave feedback on Google.
It is quite common for businesses to worry about negative reviews, and whenever you face them, respond politely.
More Visibility in Your Specific Niche
When done with perfection, local enterprise SEO can generate visibility in your specific niche. As you improve your business details and update the Google My Business section, you can attract traffic from locals. These people would be truly interested in the product/service that you are selling.
The first 5 Google results (PPC excluded) got 67.6% user clicks. This means you must ensure that your business pops up for the right inquiries.
While conversions are quite important for your brand, getting proper visibility and creating awareness among locals is also important. Optimizing your website for locals will surely help in creating awareness among the masses and put you on their radar.
These visibility tactics may only help you after a period of time, but you will surely benefit from them as you go further.
More Local Listing Exposure
You will get a chance to be included in the local directories with the help of enterprise local SEO. This is the best chance for any business to gain visibility and traction. Business directories are specific places where people look for vendor and provider information.
Including your business in as many local directories as possible will help your organization greatly. Google My Business is one of the most popular business listing sites, and almost every organization is on it.
Remember that more is going to be needed. You have to try other business listing sites and mention your website there. This helps add more referral domains to your website and increase your visibility.
Enterprise Local SEO Strategy
All the above-mentioned benefits sound good. But remember, you will be able to reap all of those benefits only when you have a solid enterprise local SEO strategy. It is important to have a proper plan and process to aid you.
Let us see some of the most important local enterprise SEO strategies to aid your business.
Optimize Your Google My Business Account
The best and most effective way to rank on top of Google is optimizing your profile on Google listing. This is completely free, and you need to spend some time optimizing it effectively. You can manage your businesses across multiple locations with Google Business Profile.
The first thing that you need to do is create a Google My Business account and claim your business. This will take some time. Once done with it, you must provide all the requested information on the dashboard. These details will appear on Google search local results, Google Maps, and the knowledge panel.
Here are some pointers that you need to mention:
● Verify the ownership of your business to access the full dashboard on GMB
● Provide accurate information and update it whenever needed
● Include your business hours, logo, plenty of images, and the product or service that you sell
● Ask your customers or clients to provide feedback on Google
● Respond to customer reviews in a polite way
Optimize Your Website for Voice Search
Voice search has been prevalent for ages, so many people pose a query to their device and get relevant answers rather than typing it into the device. There is a difference between these two. From different word usage to punctuation, several things come into the picture.
You have to optimize your search engine for all of this. Work on the long-tail keywords that are relevant to your business. Adjust the tone of content on your website to be conversational. This will help search engines rank your website on top whenever a voice search pops up.
Remember that when optimizing your content to voice, keep it simple and quick. People usually use voice search for something specific and expect a quick answer. Suppose someone is cooking and wants to know how many tablespoons one cup equals; they may ask Alexa or Siri for it, and they would expect to get a short answer.
So, optimize your content and make sure that you have crisp, to-the-point answers ready.
Focus on Local Keywords
Keywords play quite an important role in local SEO. You can use Google Keyword Planner or any tool that you are comfortable with and search for keywords that are geo-location specific.
For example, "any product or service near me/near particular area/ in a particular area, etc." are important keywords for local optimization. Once you get the list of these keywords, make sure to add them to your copy, URL, and metadata.
You can also add your region's hotspots and specific landmarks as keywords. Remember that keywords matter a lot for any website to rank on top, and make sure that you focus on them in your copies and content.
If you plan to post some Google ads and PPC, then be very careful about the keywords you are bidding for.
Optimize Your Website
Search engines like Google stress a lot about location-specific ranking. If you plan to create a foolproof local SEO strategy, you first need to optimize your website effectively.
Creating one landing page for every location and adding that location-specific keyword is essential. Ensure your website page load speed is very high and the interface is user-friendly. All of these will have a huge impact on Google's ranking.
When you deliver great content, user experience, and intuitiveness, search engines will help in the better ranking of your business.
Focus on High-Quality Backlinks
When you create a location-specific new page, it is important to generate backlinks for it. Make sure that you get high-quality backlinks from multiple websites. The first thing that you need to do is a guest post on others' websites. You can also contact local influencers and get them to give you a backlink.
As the number of referring domains and backlinks for your website increases, you will get better performance on the page.
Create Blogs Around Local News
When you are planning to appeal to an audience of a specific location, you must discuss local events or news. It is always a great idea to include anything that happened locally in your blog to generate some traction, only if it's relevant.
Apart from that, if there are any local charities or causes that your business supports, you can discuss them too. Creating hyperlocal content on your website will attract more local audiences and help build a community online.
As you move further, this online community can become a huge part of your leads. Try to stress more about the local news and happenings.
Ask for Feedback
Feedback matters a lot for every business. As said in the benefits section, online reviews play a huge role in decision-making, so make sure that your happy customers leave feedback on your GMB account.
Once the sale is made, you can send them an email asking them to drop a review for your website online. Most people who are happy with your product or service usually won't leave a review. The ones who have any issues are the ones who post negative reviews online. Don't fret about these negative reviews; politely reply to them.
Use Online Business Directories
These online business directories are quite helpful for businesses planning to strengthen their online presence. You need to publish your business name, phone number, website link, business description, and address in these directories.
This will help boost your visibility and aid you with local SEO. Whenever listing your business in these directories, make sure to add all the points mentioned above.
Proper Tracking and Analysis
If your enterprise is spread across various locations, staying on top of all those locations will become tough. So, it is important to have a proper set process for tracking and analysis. Maintain a tracking sheet for all the activities you are conducting for every website.
Analyze those activities from time to time and see how they benefit your business. Setting up the tracking sheet may take time, but once you set it up properly, it will become quite easy for you to manage.
Why Do Enterprise Companies Struggle with Local SEO?
Local SEO is quite important for brands that are on an enterprise level, and there is no denying that. However, most marketers need to implement local SEO effectively. This is due to three main pain points.
Syncing Online and Offline Marketing Efforts
Enterprises are huge companies, and it is common for them to have multiple brick-and-mortar stores and websites. While digital marketers have one plan for their business, offline stores may have another plan to attract customers. So, bringing both plans into sync and integrating one with another will take a lot of work.
It is common to have different KPIs and metrics for online and offline marketing plans. However, they are directly proportional to each other and have a huge impact. This affects both marketers and in-store staff.
The best way to address this difference is by setting multiple goals and KPIs across the marketing team. Every location may need a different marketing strategy, so knowing and aligning it with the local requirement will impact it.
Knowing What to Prioritize: Local or National SEO
An enterprise requires both local and national SEO as well. Knowing when they need what makes a difference here. Some queries and keywords cater to the local audience, while others cater to the national audience.
You need to create a content strategy that satisfies both of these, as they matter a lot. So, marketers need to know the intent of keywords and queries that they are planning to rank and curate content carefully among them.
Marketers lose a heavy chunk of traffic due to wrong keyword planning, so you must be careful while curating a content strategy around these.
Duplicate Google My Business Listing
Optimizing your profile on Google My Business is important, but you know another important thing you need to focus on- duplicates. Yes, duplicates are still prevalent on Google My Business. So many organizations need help with ranking despite having the best strategies.
The reason for this is duplicate listings in Google My Business. You can see an improvement in rankings when you get rid of them.
Top Enterprise Local SEO Tools
If you plan to create a strategy for enterprise local SEO, it is important to get your hands on some of the best tools in the market to ease these things for you. Here is a list of local enterprise SEO tools that can help every marketer.
Moz Local
Moz is quite popular among marketers, but most didn't know that Moz offers local SEO services separately. Moz Local will help companies build a strong online presence in particular locations. From business listings to regular profile updates, there are so many areas where Moz can help your business thrive.
The best thing about Moz local is that it is a powerful suite with amazing reporting tools. These tools will easily help you track your multiple listings, activities, and other metrics.
Semrush
Most businesses use SEMRush for SaaS enterprise SEO. This tool offers position tracking, keyword research, backlink analysis, and many more. If you are one of them, you must check out the local SEO feature in the Semrush tool. SEMRush suggests multiple ways to drive traffic to your website, boost your presence in online listings, and track your position and growth.
Sush has a business listing management option that distributes details about your business across various authoritative directories online. It also helps with backlink analysis, suggests any gaps you can fill, and does many more.
Rio SEO
Rio SEO is another important tool that focuses on helping larger organizations rank better on search engines. This tool can optimize and distribute bulk data across the entire ecosystem. Apart from this, you will be able to monitor the reviews, create optimized pages, curate reports for the campaigns, and many more.
Owners of franchise stores will be able to manage the location accuracy of their stories without affecting the brand identity anywhere.
Final Note
Suppose you are running an enterprise business and want to strengthen your brand’s presence across various locations. In that case, the best enterprise local SEO marketing agency, TripleDart, is here for you. After working with some of the leading enterprises out there and giving them amazing results, TripleDart has a proven SEO framework.
This framework is capable of taking your brand to a local audience across the globe. You don't have to worry about your website’s performance or keyword rankings; TripleDart's foolproof strategies will help you with ranking, engagement, CTA, and many more. TripleDart experts are ready to tackle every enterprise's local SEO challenges thrown across them easily.
So, what are you waiting for? Book a call to see how TripleDart can change your local SEO strategy and make your brand shine online.
