How to Win “Near Me” Searches in a Zero-Click World
In today's digital world, your local community can simply search online and find nearby goods and services. “Near me” searches have grown in popularity, becoming an integral part of our daily lives. “Near me” searches can be used to find a local doctor to a plumber, or a restaurant to a particular product. This involves adopting local SEO best practices to win “near me” searches in a zero-click world.
As search engines continue to evolve, so does SEO techniques and strategies. One of the major differences experienced over the past year, is zero-click searches. What are they?
Google introduced its Search Generative Experience (SGE), which takes up a large piece of real estate on search engine results pages (SERPs). SGE provides users with answers directly on the SERP, eliminating the need to click on a website to gather more information, resulting in zero-click searches.
“Near me” searches have revolutionised local search engine optimisation (SEO). Users carrying out searches for goods, services, and businesses close to their location, rely on “near me” searches to find the information that they need.
These searches continue to gain traction with the increased use of mobile devices. Mobile users are looking for quick searches, motivating the “near me” search. Consumers are looking for precise and valuable results from search engines to address their urgent pain points.
“Near me” searches are valuable, as they reveal local intent of your prospective customers within your local community. This means these are people in your neighbourhood that are interested in hiring your services, or purchasing a product you stock.
This type of local SEO is strategic, helping to improve online presence by understanding your location-based search activity. Optimising your content and catering to your local consumers helps your business become more visibility in local results, booting conversions, and increasing sales.
Google takes three criteria into consideration when it comes to ranking “near me” searches:
The benefits of “near me” searches are excellent, helping you improve your local ranking and reach your local community. There are some best practices you should follow for these searches, especially in a zero-click world:
Ensure your Google Business Profile is complete and accurate. Ensure consistency when it comes to your NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) information, add high quality images, and encourage reviews. Remember to respond to all reviews, both positive and negative in a timely and professional manner.
Add location-based keywords to your content, helping search engines identify the information you provide, along with your location, improving your ranking in local results. Add your location in your landing pages, web page URL's and headlines and titles.
On-page SEO is essential for “near me” searches and this includes schema markup, also known as structured data. Schema markup helps Google and other search engines understand the context of your web pages, improving the chances of improving your local rankings.
A large number of “near me” searches are carried out on mobile devices. Google prioritises mobile websites with its mobile-first approach. This means creating a mobile website or a responsive design that works across all devices, operating systems, and browsers.
As with your Google Business Profile, you need to ensure your NAP information remains consistent across your website, social media platforms, citations, and your Google Business Profile. This avoids the risk of confusing the search engine algorithm, helping to improve your ranking in local search results.
As more people use “near me” searches, it's imperative to ensure you have a good online presence in your local community. If you have noticed a drop in website traffic since the introduction of Google's SGE, you are not alone. Take advantage of “near me” searches today by contacting the expert Genie Crawl team right away.
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