5 Things You Need to Grow a Local Presence

Developing a local web presence is essential for your business to sustain a competitive advantage in your community and surrounding areas.

What Is Local Presence?

Local presence means making your website easy for nearby searchers to find. When people search for information, products, and services near your home base or storefront, a strong local presence is what puts your business in front of them.

Local search is huge: nearly half of all Google searches have local intent, and it converts fast. According to Google, 76% of people who search for something nearby on their phone visit a business within a day, and a meaningful share of those searches lead to a purchase. If you sell what local searchers are looking for, it's important that your business shows up in those results.

You can connect with these high-intent, nearby customers by making your site local-friendly. Here are five things you can do to grow your local presence:

#1 Website and Mobile Content

Growing a local presence starts with your website's content, and since Google now ranks the mobile version of your site, it needs to look and work great on a phone.

Make sure your street address, phone number, and hours of operation are easy to find (a footer on every page is a good spot). Add photos, videos, and content relevant to the customers you serve nearby.

List the areas you serve (the cities and towns in your county or surrounding counties where you have customers), and include a map showing your location so people can find you quickly.

To help search engines understand exactly where you are and what you do, add local business structured data (schema markup) to your site, and keep your name, address, and phone number (your "NAP") consistent everywhere they appear online. Then submit your sitemap in Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) so Google can crawl your pages, and use its reports to monitor how you're performing in search.

If your website isn't fast and mobile-friendly yet, make that a priority.

#2 Work Your Google Business Profile

Google's local platform, Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), is essential. You absolutely must claim your business's profile (Google has probably already created one for you) and stay active with it. A complete, active profile improves your chances of ranking in the local map results and organic search.

Better still, Google gives business owners a set of free tools right on the profile to help turn searchers into customers. Your Business Profile is more than a listing of contact info and directions; Google built it to drive new customers to your business, not just traffic to your website. But you have to claim it to use those tools.

Here are five things you can do right now to get your profile going:

1. Claim it.
2. Fill it out completely and accurately, including a link to your website and your primary and additional business categories.
3. Upload high-quality photos.
4. Use posts to share announcements, promotions, and helpful information your prospects want to see.
5. Turn on notifications so you know when someone leaves a question or review, then respond. These are places where prospects and customers interact with you directly.

Your Business Profile is the internet's local business directory. The more active you are on it, the more Google trusts your business, and that's never a bad thing. For a deeper dive, see our guide to your Google Business Profile.

#3 Encourage Ratings and Reviews

Reviews are one of the biggest factors in local search, both for ranking and for winning a customer's trust. Your Google reviews matter most, since they appear right in your Business Profile and on Google Maps, but reviews on other relevant directories help too.

Many consumers read reviews to see what others experienced before they buy, so a steady stream of positive, recent reviews can be the deciding factor. Encourage happy customers to leave honest reviews, but never pay or offer rewards for them, which violates Google's policies.

Just as important, monitor and respond. Thank customers who leave positive reviews, and respond calmly and professionally to negative ones. You'll build trust with everyone reading, and you might learn something that makes your business better.

#4 Spread the Word with Social Media

Building a local following can generate word-of-mouth and referrals. Create and develop a local presence on the platforms your audience actually uses, such as Facebook, Instagram, and X, and add your address, phone number, and website URL to each of your social profiles.

Get involved in conversations. Invite your friends and contacts to follow you, become a follower of other businesses in your area, and interact with their audiences. If you have the budget, the paid advertising options on these platforms let you target people in your area. Always include your social links in your emails and on your website.

#5 Local Search Advertising

Paid search advertising on Google and Microsoft (Bing) can put your business in front of local searchers right away. With pay-per-click advertising, you target your local area and choose the keywords most related to your products and services, so your ad shows up when nearby customers search for them. Service businesses can also use Google's Local Services Ads, which appear at the very top of local results and charge per lead rather than per click. Relatively few local companies take full advantage of paid search, so doing it well can put you a step ahead.

What's Next?

Your next step is to put these five things into action. Need a hand? See how our local SEO and marketing team can help you grow your local presence.

Local visibility is one of the keys to small business online marketing. Explore our full guide.