Local SEO London

At the start of 2024, there were around 5.5 million private sector businesses in the UK, a number that’s actually gone down by approximately 1% from 2023. This fact alone tells us two things: new businesses are always forming, and there is always a risk of facing business closure if things aren’t handled very well.

Of course, saying you want to handle your business well and actually staying on top of what can often feel like a million separate tasks is easier said than done. Even just in terms of customers, modern businesses have to split their attention between customers connecting with them online and in person.

Well, unless they’re investing in local SEO, that is.

At Digital Glory, we take our role as a provider of local SEO London very seriously. We know that local SEO has to bring in organic traffic both to your website and to your brick and mortar store – so we make that happen every time.

Before we talk more about the details of our highly successful campaigns, we’ll walk you through the basics surrounding local SEO.

What is a local SEO agency?

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a practice that aims to help you boost your website’s rankings in organic search results for relevant keywords. In other words, when someone looks up terms that relate to your business, SEO helps you show up near the top of the results.

A local SEO agency does not actually need to be located close to you, confusingly enough. Instead, a local SEO agency should help you optimise your local SEO – which is the prominence of your Google My Business page in search engine results.

What does local SEO entail?

The goal of local SEO is to increase the visibility of your business in search engines for local searches. Terms like “restaurant near me”, for example, bring up restaurants with optimised local SEO first.

Here are some more examples of local SEO keywords:

” Italian restaurant near me ”

” Dental implants London”

” Coffee shop in my area”

Since it aims to connect prospective customers with people located in their area, local SEO is especially important for businesses with one or more physical locations, or ones that serve a particular geographic area.

Since local searches have high user intent, they tend to deliver very high conversion rates.

Let’s look at the main components of this important aspect of SEO that Digital Glory can help you perfect.

Google My Business (GMB) optimisation

A complete, accurate and well referenced GMB listing can go a long way towards establishing your business locally.

Local citations

Your business contact details, including your company’s name, physical address, email address, and phone number, need to be consistent across local directories. Also, your opening hours and main products and/or services should be listed accurately to help customers find you.

Client reviews

Reviews from local clients on popular platforms such as Google My Business, Trustpilot, Tripadvisor and Yelp can very significantly enhance or reduce consumer trust towards your brand.

Map pack

One of the main goals of local SEO is to appear in the first three Google My Business results following a location-specific query.

Being in the top three of what is also known as the map pack (as seen in the image above) brings excellent conversions due to the prominence of the map pack in search engine results.

Supercharge your business’ growth with Digital Glory’s local SEO services

Doing local SEO London right can yield very significant results, even if your business is not yet prominent enough to appear at the top places of organic results for popular keywords. Digital Glory can help your business master the factors that impact local SEO.

Whether you have one or multiple locations, we’ll help you get the lion’s share from local search traffic – and here’s why.

Meeting users where they are

93% of users use search engines to find a local business. This indicates high reliance on local search results in finding businesses, and shows that adjusting for users’ patterns can massively expand your reach.

Capitalising on high conversion rates

Since 72% of consumers who perform a local search visit a store within 5 miles, it’s clear that local search results are highly effective in driving physical traffic, implying high engagement rates with these results.

Staying ahead of trends

‘Near me’ searches have increased more than 1,030% in the last 6 years – a staggering statistic on its own. On top of that, mobile searches (including ‘where to buy’ and ‘near me’) have grown by over 200% in the last 3 years.

These statistics show that users increasingly search on mobile for immediate actionable information.

Enjoying click-through rates

The click-though rate for local or map pack results is 44%. That’s quite significant considering that map packs most often compete directly with organic results and ads.

In a large metropolis like London, competition is high. A well-run local SEO campaign can give your business a competitive edge.

Local SEO vs organic SEO

It’s important to understand how local SEO compares to organic SEO, so let’s talk about that now.

While organic search results are crucial for the overall visibility of your business and website traffic, where local searches are concerned (e.g. the search containing a location keyword), local results can overshadow organic results due to their prominent placement, visual appearance, and immediate relevance they provide to users with local intent.

We’ll look at some specifics to provide more context.

Map pack visibility

Map packs attract a substantial number of clicks due to their prominent position on the search results page, as well as their accessible and actionable information.

A map pack is visually distinct and attracts more attention than text-based organic results. Furthermore, the visibility of review ratings offers an easy way for users to assess the trustworthiness of a local business.

Mobile search prominence

On mobile devices, local results are more visible since they take up a significant amount of screen real estate. That means users are more likely to click on them.

At the same time, it represents the intent of users that search local information on the go. Given that mobile searches are increasing year after year, local SEO cannot be ignored.

User intent

Users with local intent who look for products or services nearby are much more likely to click on local results. The growth of GPS and location services make proximity searches with terms such as ‘near me’ more common and specifically geared towards local results.

High engagement

Features like directions, reviews, direct call buttons, and hours of operation enhance user engagement and attract the attention of users. It also helps that these features make it so prospective customers don’t need to visit your website in order to retrieve the relevant information.

Get the best results with Digital Glory’s approach to local SEO

Local SEO is an indispensable part of an SEO campaign when a business has a local presence or offers services within a specific radius. In all of our local SEO campaigns, we set up a detailed plan for the future with specific milestones. Then we monitor the results for a wide area around your location or service range and report to you monthly on your rankings per area (as in the image below).

We boost your rankings by playing by the rules set out by the search engines. Plus, we always use our extensive experience to guide us.

We guarantee long-lasting results, as we put in the time and effort required to make your business surpass the competition. We never use any black-hat methods to achieve quick results, as those would certainly collapse sooner or later. Instead, we commit to a holistic SEO campaign, aiming for you to get the most conversions possible in the long term and establish you as a market leader for your geographical location.

Plus, our holistic approach includes technical SEO, on-page SEO, and off-page SEO as well for maximum impact.

Get in touch

Contact us as to provide you with a free of charge consultation for local SEO London and make the first step in conquering your local web presence.

FAQs

Lastly, we’ll answer some key questions associated with local SEO in London.

Is doing local SEO worth it?

Yes, it’s really worth it if your business has any kind of physical presence. Driving up foot traffic means increasing the potential for conversions, as well as word-of-mouth marketing, which makes local SEO essential for anyone looking to establish themselves in the local business scene.

Should I do SEO myself?

Ideally, no. Doing SEO all alone is tough even for seasoned professionals, since SEO is a multifaceted practice that requires a lot of different skills to do well. Choosing a local SEO consultant is a safer and more cost-effective bet.

Why is SEO so difficult?

The rules of SEO are always changing, since popular search engines are always updating their algorithms. This means that tricks that work well one year might become completely ineffective in the next one, so unless you have time to stay on top of every new trend, it will feel like the playing field keeps shifting.

Can I do SEO without local SEO?

It’s physically possible to do this, yes. However, that means losing out on people who would like to come and visit your store in person. Remember, as well, that people located near you can easily reach your store on a regular basis and become brand loyalists, spreading the word of your business to their friends, family, and loved ones. Securing their business helps you thrive as a company. At the same time you would be losing out on a significant amount of traffic since some of your potential clients would only click on the local results (Google My Business pages) when searching with a location keyword and not on organic results which may be less prominent if a Google map pack is present.