Solving the Most Common Local SEO Challenges

A person searching for local stores in NYC

SEO continues to gain more foothold in the digital marketing space. It has always been important, but its importance continues to shoot upward, and rightly so. SEO practices also evolve each year, making the landscape more competitive.

Businesses understand the importance of SEO, which was reinforced during the COVID-19 pandemic. As governments imposed lockdowns and social-distancing regulations, more people were forced into their homes. Businesses only had a few ways to reach customers, and they were all digital.

SEO remains crucial because most people start their purchasing journeys online. As more people gain internet access, the number of purchasing journeys that start online will continue to rise. This trend is already apparent, with less than half of people starting their purchasing journeys online a decade ago. Today, Think with Google reports that nearly 63 percent of people start their buying journeys online. 

In addition, research shows over nine billion Google searches are performed daily. This internet traffic must divert somewhere from the search engine. That’s why most businesses constantly compete to obtain as much organic search traffic from Google, Bing, and other search engines.

 As the SEO landscape evolves, new best practices emerge. In addition, constant technological advancements have also resulted in new SEO-related sub-areas, like mobile and local SEO.

The latter has become particularly important for some businesses. If your agency doesn’t provide local SEO services, consider outsourcing white label SEO services from Rocket Driver. Established in 2011, Rocket Driver is a leading white label SEO marketing agency.

Understanding local SEO

Local SEO is similar to your standard SEO, except it focuses on a geographical area. For instance, let’s assume your client operates an Italian restaurant in Chelsea, Manhattan. They want to acquire more patrons. Hence, they asked your agency to assist them with obtaining more organic traffic through SEO. Since your client’s restaurant operates in Chelsea, Manhattan, diverting organic traffic from the West Coast doesn’t benefit them because they can’t possibly convert those leads into conversions.

That’s where local SEO becomes crucial. It’s important to understand that the best candidates for local SEO strategies and practices are businesses with physical locations and brick-and-mortar stores. These businesses want customers to visit their stores, or their service coverage area is limited. As a result, they don’t want to obtain traffic from all across the United States.

It’s also important to understand that users performing local search queries have different search intents than others. These users are further along the purchasing journey and are likelier to purchase products and services. As a result, local SEO practices must be geared toward their buying stage accordingly.

According to a survey, 78 percent of internet users perform Google searches to learn about a local business more than once a week. They’re also likely to visit a store within five miles.

As a result, your digital marketing agency must have the right local SEO strategy to obtain these customers for clients. It also means resolving the most common local SEO challenges that plague businesses and marketers.

Creating a local search presence for Service-area businesses and marketplaces

One of the most common local SEO challenges is creating a search presence for service-area businesses (SABs) and marketplaces. For instance, let’s assume your client runs a plumbing company in NYC. Most plumbing outfits don’t have a physical location since no customer visits a plumber’s office and requests their services. Instead, they’re likely to call plumbers or book them via websites. However, since these businesses don’t have a physical operating location, they often don’t appear in the Local Packs on Google. It’s a significant issue resulting in potential revenue loss.

One way to solve such issues is by creating a sub-store within a partner brand’s location to get Local Pack visibility. However, this approach only applies to certain business models. A good, real-world example of this is FedEx OnSite partnering with Walgreens to appear in Local Packs.

Managing and optimizing Google Business Profiles

Another local SEO challenge businesses often encounter is not having a properly optimized Google Business Profile.

A Google Business Profile has become essential for businesses because it’s similar to digital yellow pages listing. Let’s assume a user searches for “airconditioning repairs in NYC.” This search will result in various businesses appearing in the “Places” section. Clicking on these profiles will provide more details about relevant businesses, including a brief description, images, product offerings, photos, reviews, etc.

These listings appear because these businesses have well-optimized Google Business Profiles.

As a digital marketing agency, you must ensure your client’s Google Business Profile follows Google’s guidelines to rank well. While duplicate listings are less common, they also appear sometimes. You must remove these duplicate listings to help your client rank better.  

In addition, also monitor your client’s Google Business Profile listings regularly because users will add pictures and reviews. Google sometimes overwrites data if it trusts data from another source more. The Google Business Profile dashboard is effective for monitoring purposes. However, you can also use white label agency tools from Rocket Driver.

Furthermore, you’ll also want to consider creating regular Google Business Profile posts to attract more customers. These posts are highly beneficial since you can add CTAs for conversions.

If your agency needs help creating more Google Business Profile posts, consider getting white label content and copywriting services from Rocket Driver.

Optimizing store locators

Businesses often outsource store locators to external parties. But this approach results in some issues. Following the correct store locator architecture is crucial. An effective store locator should be linked to state, city, and location pages.

In addition, most businesses often don’t create relevant location page content to complement their store locators. This approach results in poor search engine rankings, causing lost traffic and sales.  

Rocket Driver’s white label web design services can help your agency create well-optimized location pages and store locators for clients.

A person using Google Maps to find a local store

Get Started with Rocket Driver

Local SEO has become crucial for businesses today. If your agency doesn’t provide local SEO services, consider partnering with a leading white label SEO reseller agency like Rocket Driver.

Check out their website by visiting www.rocketdriver.com/. You can also contact Rocket Driver for further inquiries or to get white label marketing solutions.

Agencies can also start a prosperous white label partnership by reaching out to Rocket Driver to book a 45-minute, one-on-one demo with one of the founding partners, Tom Lombardi. The demo will help agencies learn more about how a partnership with Rocket Driver can help.

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