Local SEO, a visibility lever for brands and companies

In an increasingly competitive online environment, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an essential strategy for standing out from the crowd. Among the various possible approaches, local SEO is proving to be a promising vector of visibility, particularly for brands and companies wishing to optimize their market presence on different geographical scales.

Understanding the challenges of local SEO

Local SEO refers to all the strategies and techniques used to improve a website’s visibility in search results based on its geographical location. In concrete terms, this means that web pages can appear higher or lower in the results depending on the town, department, region or even country of the surfer performing the search.

This approach is particularly interesting for companies with several points of sale, retail chains, or even independents seeking to capture local customers and stand out from global or national competition.

The basics of a good local SEO strategy

Setting up a Google My Business listing

One of the first steps in developing an effective local SEO strategy is the creation and optimization of a Google My Business listing. This free listing provides a clear and concise presentation of essential information about the company (address, opening hours, contact details, etc.). It is also taken into account by the Google search engine to determine the relevance of local results offered to Internet users.

Taking care of site content and tags

The other important aspect of optimizing your local SEO is to work carefully on the content published on your website. In fact, it’s essential to ensure that each page includes relevant keywords reflecting the company’s activity, but also the geographical area concerned (town, department, region, country).

To make this information easier for search engines to understand, we also recommend the use of various HTML tags:

• H1, H2, H3 tags… tags: these tags structure text into subheadings to indicate the main subjects covered on web pages.
• The Title tag: this must be filled in with an appropriate title and include the most significant keywords relating to the company and its geographical area.
• Meta Description tag: in addition to the title tag, this tag is used to provide a succinct, relevant description of the page’s content, including important keywords.

Get customer reviews

Asking customers to leave a review on your Google My Business page or on other platforms (TripAdvisor, Yelp…) is also a technique that can pay off in terms of improving your local SEO. Indeed, search engines take into account the number and quality of reviews left by consumers to assess a company’s relevance and reputation.

Developing a multi-country approach for greater international visibility

Beyond the city/department/region divide, some companies may need to develop a broader local SEO approach encompassing several countries.

Mastering cultural and linguistic differences between markets

It’s essential to take into account the cultural and linguistic specificities of each target country in order to offer content that’s adapted and relevant to local audiences. In concrete terms, this can mean translating the entire site into different languages, adapting certain idiomatic expressions, or creating pages dedicated to events and promotions specific to each geographical area.

Optimize site structure and tags for multi-country SEO

To make it easier for Internet users to navigate and for search engines to understand the information, the website must also be structured according to the different target countries. This may involve setting up an international version of the domain (e.g. www.monsite.com and www.mysite.com), or adding sub-domains for each country.

In addition, we recommend the use of specific tags to indicate to search engines that the proposed content corresponds to different geographical areas:

• The hreflang tag: placed in the HTML code of pages, this tag indicates to search engines the language and geographical area concerned by the content offered.
• The rel=”alternate” tag: used to indicate to search engines the presence of alternative versions of the same page in different languages.

In short, local SEO is a major opportunity for companies seeking to increase their visibility on the market, whether at city/department/region or multi-country level. However, to maximize its impact on Internet users’ search results, it is essential to implement an appropriate, rigorous strategy.