How to Rank for and Leverage “Near Me” Searches in 8 Steps

More and more people are searching for business using their mobile devices like their phones. Whether it is a restaurant or looking for a hotel, customers are searching for business local to them. If you want to get your small business on these listings, you need a local SEO strategy.

What is Local SEO and Why is It Important

Once upon a time, the Internet was all about connecting customers with businesses anywhere—around the region, the state, or across the planet. But things have changed. While the Internet is still the great equalizer, allowing companies large and small to compete on more even footing, the fact remains that consumers have started using it to find local businesses for their needs.

By optimizing for local SEO (search engine optimization), businesses can also convert queries into purchases and boost website traffic. Since local Google search results display your business name, address, contact information, and business hours, it becomes easier than ever for consumers to find your business, too.

To make the most of this trend, you need to ensure that you’re able to show up at the top of “near me” local search rankings. When your business is optimized for local searches, you benefit from improved brand visibility, which results in easier lead generation and drives conversion rates as well.

“Near Me” Searches: A Very Brief History

As part of a digital marketing strategy, local SEO refers to the use of keywords or search terms that people in your area would likely use to find your business. For instance, ‘dog groomers near Lansing,’ would help people in the Lansing area locate your shop. 

The past couple of years have seen a rise in “near me,” search queries. There has been a 150% increase in ‘near me now,’ searches such as ‘coffee near me now.’  Likewise, there has been a 900% increase in searches such as events near me today/tonight. There has also been an increase in now + near me searches by 200% in the last couple of years. 

Most phone users have their location turned on and many apps require users to activate this feature as well. As a result, many mobile users now have their location services activated. This provides the benefit of the Google algorithm being able to pull up search results relevant to their location. 

These ‘near me’ searches are important for business as they allow you to get your customer when they most need your product and services. By capitalizing on this purchase intent, businesses can get a significant boost in sales.

Google “Near Me” Searches Ranking Factors

There are three primary metrics that outweigh anything else when it comes to “near me” local searches, according to Google. These metrics are:

• Relevance
• Distance
• Prominence

What does each of these metrics mean and how can you influence them to make sure customers can find you when they want to? 

1. Relevance

Relevance is the easiest one to figure out. If a customer is shopping for shoes, and you sell pizza, there is no reason your business should show up in their search. It’s not relevant. In terms of local search, you want to ensure that your website content closely matches what a user is searching for.

Pro Tip: Google recommends adding complete and detailed business information to optimize your Google Business Profile listing in order to help Google better understand your business and match your listing to relevant searches.

2. Distance

Distance is another important one. “Near” is somewhat subjective, but if your business location is 15 miles away from the searcher, then you’re not likely to show up in the search results unless there are very few relevant results closer at hand. The farther away you are from the user’s location (and the distance metrics from their device), the lower in the results you’ll show up.

3. Prominence

The final attribute that really matters is prominence. This one is a little harder to quantify, as it touches on things like authority, brand image, customer ratings, etc. It’s really tied to the volume of information about your business found online. The more information out there, the more prominent your business seems. This includes the number of customer reviews, the number of backlinks to your site, and a great deal more.

Related: Get more Google Reviews with our Complete Guide to Online Reviews

How to Optimize for “Near Me” Searches and Improve Your Local SEO

There are some simple steps to get started with optimizing your website for local ‘near me,’ SEO. Consider the following to start.

1. Create a Google Business Profile and Optimize It

Do you really want to know how to optimize for “near me” searches? Then it’s time to master Google Business Profile (formerly called a Google My Business profile). This feature lists your business in a special section to the side of search results, making your business look more prominent and official. 

Take advantage of Google Business Profile using these steps: 

• Search for your business on Google to find your Google Business Profile
• Follow the instructions to prove your identity to Google and take control of your listing
• Check and update the information in your listing
• Expand your listing with useful content

Use Google Posts

Within Google Business Profile, you can use Google Posts to directly post information to local search results and maps on Google. You can write about subjects such as your: 

• Products and services
• Current deals
• Upcoming event

Google’s Click-to-Call

With Google’s Click-to-Call feature, you can add a clickable phone number to your Google Adwords ads, which will show up in Google search results occasionally based on normal Adwords bidding. 

Allowing prospects to call you immediately by clicking on your link can increase your clickthrough rate and give you a better return on your ad investment.

How to Rank on Other Search Engines 

Rank at the top of other search engines besides Google by getting back to the basics of SEO. Remember these tips:

• Research the simplest, most intuitive keywords and local searches that are relevant to your business
• Keywords are often in this format: “service” in “location” (e.g., “plumber in Boston”)
• Use your keywords naturally on your website’s body copy, meta description, subheadlines, URL, and so on
• Register your business on Bing Places and Apple Maps

It can be tempting to add “near me” keywords to your site in an attempt to game the system and boost visibility. Unfortunately, that won’t work. In fact, it could lead to your site being blacklisted by Google. Focus, instead, on the three metrics above, plus optimizing your mobile website and responding to reviews. 

2017 was the first year in which mobile searches trumped desktop and laptop-based searches. That trend is only increasing. More and more people are finding answers to their searches from a smartphone. Focus on adding features like Click-to-Call, Click-to-Chat, and others to help customers find and connect with you quickly. 

2. Standardize Your NAP Data

Want to know how to rank for “near me” searches and draw in more customers? First, improve your prominence by getting your name, address, and phone number (abbreviated NAP) into local business directories. 

Your NAP information is still extremely relevant to local shoppers. That’s why NAP is a significant portion of your online search ranking. Take advantage of this by using these steps.

Inconsistent NAP information will make search engines suspicious. Fix it up by: 

• Deciding on your standard NAP data and standard way to write it
• Searching the web for any variations of your NAP information (such as by using Moz Local) and asking websites to update to your standard information

3. Creating Local Citations

Next, you can create new and varied local citations of your NAP data using these steps: 

• Look up the most important local directories for your city and for your category
• Create and fill out your profile on those directories with your NAP data

4. Pick Local Keywords

Pick out keywords that are relevant to your business, product, and/or service and combine them with your local city or region. Then, put various keyword-city/region combos into your landing page: 

• Content
• URL
• Title and headline
• Image data

Also, place a Google map that points to your business on your landing page.

5. Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly

Many of your potential customers will do “near me” searches on their mobile device. That’s why you should convert your website to be mobile-friendly.

6. Get Relevant Local Links

Here’s a major part of how to rank for “near me” searches: Persuade other websites to talk about your website and link to it. 

These other websites don’t have to be famous. They just have to be local websites that are in your industry or that discuss the type of products or services that you offer.

7. Compete for Local Citations

Local citations of your NAP data are very important to your rank. Fight for them! You can use these tactics and ideas:  

• Find out where your competitors have posted their NAP citations, and post yours there too.
• Use meeting services (like Meetup.com) to find nearby events that relate to your business, and sponsor those events in exchange for a link.
• Sign up to try to win local awards.
• Offer jobs or scholarships to local students to get links on higher education websites.
• Compile public data to create a helpful website for your community and get press coverage of it.

8. Create a Proper Schema Markup

The first thing to do here is go to Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper. Here you can select from several data options. Next paste the URL you want to markup and then select the elements for mark up. From here, you can continue marking items up. Next create the HTML and then add the schema to your site. Finally test your schema.

Customer Reviews: The Ultimate Way to Optimize for “Near Me” Searches

Online reviews, particularly for local businesses, are more important than ever. Google regularly updates reviews to keep them front-and-center especially on mobile. But it’s not just about getting good reviews, you also need to worry about your rating and reputation, and the only way that can be handled is to actively manage your reviews. 

Your website is one of the most important tools for ranking your business in “near me” local searches, but it’s not the only one. You should also use local business listing sites, respond regularly to reviews, and make sure your business listings are complete and up to date.

Podium offers several ways you can increase your customer reviews. You will learn that more reviews means more business for you. Podium provides plenty of resources to help insure you make the most of your reviews, such as the Google Review Link Generator.

FAQs

How do I get my business to show up in a “near me” search?

You can get your site to show up in ‘near me’ searches when you list your business on Google My Business and optimize it. You will need to have backlinks with geographic anchor text. Next you need to make sure to create pages that target all the locations of your business/ optimize these as well. Keep your site friendly to mobile users.

How do you rank for “near me” keywords?

Some of the best ways of ranking for ‘near me’ keywords is to update your Google local business details. You should also make sure your customer reviews are visible to SERPs. Do this with Schema. Make sure your Name, Address and phone number are clearly displayed. Make sure all your business details are consistent on all platforms.

What are the top “near me” searches categories?

While it is true that every business can benefit from optimizing for “near me’ searches, some of the top businesses searched in this method are: restaurants, entertainment, and banking.