In this article, we discuss what is near me and how to optimize for businesses and people places to visit near me searches. Some of the Local search engine optimization specialist makes a big mistake while optimizing businesses near me for local searches.
As a local search optimization specialist, you should not ignore ‘near me’ searches. If you ignore it you will miss a good amount of traffic to your competitors.
What is near me Searches?
Near me, searches are location-based search queries. They are a lot of ways with a view to getting quick results nearby.
For Example, you are hungry and want to places to visit near me for a restaurant that is near your current location. You may search for ‘cafe near me.’
With the same query, you got the following results on your mobile phone :
Mobile Search results also show distance as well. According to places to visit near me the distance, mobile search results on Google maps are not ranked. Even if you are very close to a searcher’s location, It is not required that you will come on the top on Google Maps.
You just need to optimize your business for ‘near me’ searches.
Why you need to optimize your businesses ‘Near Me’ Searches
Nowadays, businesses can’t ignore ‘near me’ searches as more and more people are searching for ‘keyword + near me.’
According to the data from Google, places to visit near me
Search interest in “near me” has increased 34X since 2011 and nearly doubled since last year. The vast majority come from mobile—80% in Q4 2014.”
Google Trends also suggests a steep growth for the search term ‘near me’.
Over the years, people are more aware of how they search on Google. Now they want results that fulfill their requirement of search suitably.
Searching with Keyword+ near me, they become sure that the results will be relevant to their locations.
Nowadays, places to visit near me mobile searches are greater than desktop searches and as well as mobile search for ‘Keyword + near me’ also shows distances, search queries like businesses near me, people near me is growing rapidly.
Thus, people have started places to visit near me to add location qualifiers with near me.
Google says,” Now we are seeing a move toward dropping location qualifiers (like zip codes, locality, and “near me” phrasing) in local searches because people know that the results will automatically be related to their location according to their phone’s current location.
Steps to Optimizing for businesses Near Me (SEO for Near Me Searches)
Leaving a few twists, near me optimization is the same as local search optimization. So for the best local SEO techniques with some additions work great for ‘near me’ optimization.
According to Google, local search results are based on relevance, importance, and distance. These all are factors to deliver the best search results to match searches’ queries.
Here are some best tips that will help you rank on the top for ‘near me’ search queries.
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Get Your Business Mobile
Now Mobile searches are more than desktop searches, you can’t control ‘businesses near me’ or ‘people near me’ optimization if you don’t optimize your business for mobile.
So how will mobile optimization help you get the top ranking for ‘near me’ keywords such as ‘businesses near me’ and ‘people near me’?
Also see: Google is now indexing more mobile pages than it is desktop
Google is going to be Mobile-first indexing. In addition, Google is also introducing a voice search feature that people use a lot their mobile phones to conduct voice search. This all involves that getting mobile will help you are optimizing for near me searches.
See below link for best practice for mobile optimization:
Mobile First Indexing: How It Work and How Does It Impact SEO
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Update Google My Business Listing
If you want to control search results for ‘near me’ search queries, you should ensure that your business information on Google is exact and up-to-date.
Below are the things you should provide to Google accurately:
- Name
- Address
- Website and phone
- Business hours
- Categories
- Menu (if Applicable)
Updating Google My Business (GMB) information is critical for the ranking. So you have to take it seriously.
Introduction of Google My Business is very important for a high ranking, so you should optimize it properly for ‘Keyword+ near me.’
Use keywords and key phrases in a natural way.
After updating Google My Business information, you must get your GMB listing verified.
If you haven’t listed your business on Google, you can start now by clicking here.
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Keep Reviews and Ratings Visible to Google
Ratings and Reviews are most important for optimizing for your ‘businesses near me’ searches.
Most positive reviews and higher ratings build your relevance and prominence on Google, so they help you rank higher.
So you have to encourage your customers to write reviews and give ratings.
As well, you will get a few negative reviews, but you have to reply to negative reviews, never ignore it
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Keep NPA+W Consistent
To get a higher local ranking, you should make sure that your NPA+W is reliable all over the web.
What is NPA+W?
It is a Name Phone Address + Website.
By keeping your NPA+W consistent across the web, you help Google show accurate information to searchers. The best way is to use a tool for this task.
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Build Citations on Authority Sites
To optimize for your ‘business near me’ searches, you have to build local citation on high authority websites. Local citations help your business build relevance on Google.
Top citations sites that you have to target to build citations are yahoo.com, here.com, opentable.com, bbb.org, yellowpages.com, Angie’s List, etc.
Local citations spread consciousness through websites that most people think honest and increase CTR, helping your business rank higher in the end.
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Earn Backlinks with Geographic Anchor
High-quality backlinks build your prominence on Google, improving your chance to rank higher.
Here are a few ways to create local contents to earn backlinks:
- Include local influencers
- Write guest posts for locally-focused blogs
- Share content in local media
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Get On-Page SEO Right
To optimize your business for ‘near me’ searches, you should make sure to let Google know what you offer and where you offer it.
Ensure that Title tags, Meta tags, Header tags, Page content, images are optimized for ‘near me’ searches.
What is On-Page SEO and What are the Best On-Page SEO Techniques?
Conclusion:
‘Near me’ searches are something that you cannot ignore if you want to target local people.
Now optimizing business for mobile, updating Google My Business, keeping reviews and rating visible to Google, having consistent NPA, building citations on high-authority websites, and earning backlinks with geographic anchor ‘near me’, and on-page SEO improve ranking for near me based queries.
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