The #1 spot on Google Maps is a gold mine for a local business. The problem? Almost nobody knows how to get there.
You know the drill. You're in a town looking for, say, a café. In our case, the town is Louny. What do you type into Google? Probably "café Louny". Every café in Louny should be fighting tooth and nail to be the one that shows up first. If it has a polished profile and good reviews, there's a strong chance that's exactly where you'll end up.
What you see on the map above: the position of our café Macrolife Food & Coffee on Google when searching for a café in Louny and the surrounding villages. We're first everywhere.
How do you get to first place?
Google collects a whole range of signals from local businesses, but in general local SEO is far more direct and straightforward than global SEO (e-shops and the like). On projects like this we focus primarily on:
- Identifying the 2–3 most important keywords for the business in its location
- Registering and optimising the business listing on Google My Business
- Registering and optimising the business listing on Firmy.cz
- Optimising the website — keywords in the meta tags, H1, H2 (without overdoing it)
- Implementing LocalBusiness structured data
- Securing backlinks from every local directory (typically the town-hall website and the like)
- Securing a handful of citations (mentions) without a backlink but with structured data — the goal is to get the name, address, phone number and e-mail into more places across the internet
This set of optimisations is often all it takes — and unlike classic SEO, the results show up within days, weeks at most. And then the customers and enquiries come rolling in.
Why it works
Local SEO is one of the most effective marketing investments a brick-and-mortar business can make. Unlike classic SEO, where results take months, local SEO delivers changes within days. For a local business, Google Maps is like a shop window on the high street — whoever is seen first wins the customers.
With Macrolife Food & Coffee we managed to cover not just Louny itself but every surrounding village as well. Anyone searching for a café in the area finds Macrolife in first place. And because the profile has polished photos, up-to-date opening hours and excellent reviews, the conversion rate from viewing the profile to actually walking into the café is high.
What this means for you
Do you run a café, restaurant, hotel or another local service? Then local SEO is probably the fastest and most affordable way to win new customers. You don't need to pour a fortune into advertising — all it takes is a properly optimised Google profile and a website with relevant content.
If you want your business to rank first in search, get in touch. We'll be glad to help.