Finding Local Search Satisfaction in The B2B World
Local SEO. It’s not new, but it doesn’t get much air time in the b2b community. The most obvious beneficiary of local SEO is the mom and pop/brick and mortar store looking to finally glean some business off the interwebs. But, these aren’t the only businesses that need to be optimizing their websites to show up in local search results. In this post I’ll outline some ways that local SEO can benefit a b2b business, and give you some ways to optimize your b2b site for local search.
First, let’s define what we mean when we say “local SEO.” If you type a phrase into a search engine that contains any geographical qualifiers, like “Atlanta” or “Zimbabwe”, you’ll get two kinds of results:
- Local snack pack, local pack or local results
- Localized organic results or traditional organic
This first group of results appears in a box that shows reviews, an image, the address, and places the business on a map. It looks like this:
The second group of results, are just regular organic search results with page title and metadescription:
Either of these kinds of search results can be locally optimized.
So there are a few reasons that a b2b business can benefit from local optimization. Here are a few:
1) Local trust
Even if a b2b organization operates globally, establishing yourself on your home turf is important. B2B buying is very dependent on relationships. A lot of times being geographically close to a prospect or potential client can help establish trust and build a relationship more easily.
2) Branding
Local SEO isn’t just about letting the world know about where you are, but letting your city know who you are and what you’re doing. It’s much easier to get featured in national publications than local ones. Connecting yourself to your local community gives your organization an identity and helps you to get local recognition for the good things you’re doing. Even if you’re a national brand, this is a valuable thing.
For more on why local SEO is important for b2b, take a look at this article from Entrepreneur.
How to optimize for local search
There are a lot of different factors that help your website show up in regular search results, in local pack results and in localized organic results.
To learn all the positive and negative factors for ranking in local search, take a look at Search Engine Land’s article: The big picture guide to local SEO: ranking in 2016 & beyond.
Depending on your industry and competition, it may be harder or easier for you to rank in any of these categories. You may not need to get all of them right in order to rank, or you may get all of them right and still not make it to page 1.
