Optimize your local SEO

What is local SEO?

Since 2014, local referencing has become the essential factor of a good SEO strategy. Taking care of your local SEO means improving your visibility, your e-reputation and increasing your interactions with your customers tenfold.

Over the years, the behavior of Internet users has changed because requests respond to an instantaneous and localized need and the searches made via smartphone or tablet are constantly increasing. Local SEO has therefore become an excellent way to work on your local positioning in order to stand out from the competition. But for it to be effective, it must be done in a qualitative way and ensure a permanent follow-up.

Why turn to local referencing?

Nowadays, Internet users consult search engines to meet their needs at a specific time and place. Local SEO meets this demand because it encompasses all the techniques that aim to position a site on geographical queries.

We must differentiate between two types of localized searches:

1.
The Internet user makes a search without geographical precision such as "hotel spa". The search results will be displayed according to his geographical position detected by his GPS (on mobile or tablet), via the IP address of his computer or according to the configuration of his browser. If the user is searching from Aix-en-Provence, the search engine will suggest all hotels near the city. In other words, the closer an establishment is to the user, the more likely it is to appear in the first positions of the Google Maps box of the Google results. In a very competitive area, it is not always easy to be well referenced.

Of course, a hotel that has taken care of its local referencing has a higher chance of appearing in the first positions. In this white paper, we will discuss the factors to take into account to optimize the visibility of your hotel.

2.
The second situation is a search by the Internet user including a geographical position such as "hotel spa Bayeux". The user is not necessarily in the geographical area of the establishment.

In this case, the results that will be displayed will be the same regardless of the traveler's geographical location, as long as the locality is indicated in the request. By the same token, the more your site is optimized locally, the more likely your establishment will stand out on these types of targeted queries. Whether the queries are made locally or outside your sector (national and international), it is essential to work together on these two types of referencing.

Before launching a local SEO strategy, you need to know why your customers book their stay with you rather than with a competitor. Make a list of all the plus-products of your establishment, this will allow you to know which categories you can indicate in Google My Business.

The plus-products of your establishment

For example, you have a spa available to your customers and outside customers. It is in your interest that the Internet user, located nearby and typing on his mobile "spa", finds you thanks to the geolocation of his mobile. From now on, the person interested in a service will type a request related to a service and a place, study the distance that separates him from what he is looking for, look at the reviews left by Internet users and ask for the itinerary via Google Maps or other.

A study by Moz.com highlights all the main factors of local SEO:

The factors of local referencing

To optimize your visibility locally, you need to work on your Google My Business page, external links, reviews management, your presence on social networks and geographical optimization.