Local SEO Strategies For London Businesses That Work

Optimise Google Business Profile (GBP)

First, you need to create a proper optimised Google Business Profile (GBP) formerly known as Google My Business (GMB). A proper SEO optimised GBP means you upload local keywords rich SEO description, have all the services mentioned, add your website URL, include timings, most importantly the area that you serve and of course the pictures to build trust.

You can set up a GBP yourself, it is pretty much straight forward process if you’re a bit familiar with the dashboard.

You can share regular posts, updates, offers, and events to keep the audience engaged. Consistent relevant posting and getting reviews from past clients on the profile helps Google understand that you’re a top performer with everything in place which ultimately helps boost your rankings in Google’s Local Pack.

Local pack is a list of local businesses providing the relevant services with their location, website and other contact details in it, usually a list of 3 to 4 websites.

Add the best of your work and high-quality photos. It could be about your products or services or even the backend of your operations. For example, if you are a printing agency, besides showcasing your output products like banners and signage, you can also show the machines. Or add a video on how the machines work. This is especially good because some potential customers might be interested to check the machines too.

Make sure you add consistent information about your business across the web. Provide your customers with the best services, and never be shy to ask them to leave a review. Local reviews make your business authoritative in the local area.

Create Culture Friendly Content

Your content should be in a language that is familiar to Londoners. If you are planning to write the content yourself, it’s good. But in case you are planning to hire a writer, it is a plus point if the writer is from London too because of the same culture, because many writers create generic content for a worldwide audience. 

Your content strategy should also cover topics that show expertise not only in your work but also in the industry in London. So relevant news, insights, trends, or local events can pose your business as an authority. You can get a lot of traffic if you cover only informational content and readers don’t mind engaging with it.

But if you want to make sales, trust, and authority are major factors. All these strategies will help consumers trust you more, allowing you to build reliability and authority.

Build Local Backlinks

Backlinks are like endorsements that other companies or websites give you. They are more useful if they come from websites or businesses based in London with a local audience following. Recommendations from many big London businesses signal to search engine algorithms that your business is well known. Below are ways to create quality local backlinks:

Partner up with other local businesses: This does not necessarily mean working with your competitors. You can connect with businesses that synergize with yours.

For example, let’s say your business is a gym. You can create backlinks with prep service companies that provide healthy pre-made meals. You can create links with apparel stores that sell sportswear needed in the gym for workouts. Therapy clinics can also be teamed up for rehabilitation services to recover from injuries caused in gyms.

Use Local Schema Markup

Local Schema Markup is another technique to tell search engines what your business is all about and where it serves. Schema can be utilized to showcase snippets. You can add schema to your products and services pages so they appear directly on the SERPs rich snippets (considering other factors are taken care of and you outrank your competitors), rather than only after the audience clicks on it. 

This is similar to why most shops use glass walls, they can directly see the offers without hindrance. This means if you are selling some commerce products, let’s say shoes, adding schema means this product will show up in the SERPs with price, reviews, descriptions, brand name, etc.

Make Your Website Mobile Friendly

The market share for mobile devices is 53.77%, 41.62% for desktop users, and 4.61% for tablets in the UK. From the stats, we can see that mobile users outnumber the rest of the devices.

If there is no mobile optimisation, the website may appear distorted and disorganized. No one wants to make a deal with someone who does not do things properly. Google understands the importance of this optimisation; that’s why it includes this responsiveness as a ranking factor.

Imagine if your business requires physical visits. If the audience is outside, what situation is most probable? Will they look for your business using mobile phones or laptops? Surely they won’t be using desktop computers to go to their destination. But the mobile also makes more sense as compared to a laptop.