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A Brisbane local SEO plan gets your business seen by more customers. Improve local SEO with GMB profile management, content creation, and link building. Read all about it below.
Local SEO is search engine optimisation that targets a specific area or region. This method is great for businesses looking to bring in more local leads, and includes tailored content for your local area or suburbs within your city.
There are lots of ways that local SEO in Brisbane can be implemented, including through targeted content writing, local landing pages, link building, and the use of Google My Business’ many functions. Don’t worry if this sounds like a lot, we’ll explain what all these terms mean below.
Think of all the times you’ve searched for ‘food near me’ and been presented with a myriad of restaurant options close by, or typed in ‘Brisbane carpenters’ and seen a large list pop up, accompanied by their locations on Google Maps. These are examples of local SEO at work.
People often search for businesses near them when they have a problem that needs solving. This can include searching for ‘plumbers in Brisbane’ when a sink springs a leak or say, ‘website builders in Newstead’ when your business needs a new website. Local SEO methods help your business show up in these tailored searches, bringing customer eyes to your brand.
Another element of local SEO is including and optimising your business’ details such as the Category, Description, Posts, Photos, and Google Maps listing. Having your business listed with Google Maps builds credibility for your brand, while also enabling customers to easily find you on the app or on desktop.
Contact us to find out more about how we can use local SEO in Brisbane to help your business.
Local SEO can benefit your business by:
Implementing local SEO methods for your website takes many forms. It may include:
Landing pages are used to target a specific service offered by your business. This might include location-based pages for different storefronts, or pages that cover a specific service provided by your business. One way to enhance your local SEO in Brisbane is through these unique landing pages.
For example, if you have a construction business, you may like to have a landing page that specifically targets customers who are searching for ‘stair building in Brisbane’. This page will then be focused on the stair building aspect of your business, and target people who are searching for this service through appropriate keywords – local SEO at work.
Those with multiple niches within their business might like to have a variety of specific landing pages that address these. Examples could include individual pages for ‘deck building in Bardon’, ‘roof replacement in Bardon’, and ‘granny flat construction in Brisbane’.
You can have as many landing pages as you like, with optimised keywords driving local SEO traffic individually to the pages.
These pages are fantastic for driving niche traffic to your business’ services. They provide a space for tailored traffic to land, rather than weighing your main homepage down with too many keywords – something Google doesn’t like. Niche-specific landing pages also simplify the navigation process for clients who are looking for a particular product or service that you provide.
LeMans Motors is a mechanic with five workshops across Brisbane. They’re now one of the largest mechanic brands in the city, with 2.9K monthly organic website visitors, and an $8k+ traffic value. However, they didn’t receive these rankings miraculously over night.
When we first met with LeMans Motors, they had two workshops and their website was generating minimal organic traffic. They were heavily dependent on Google Ads to generate leads and their content wasn’t optimised for search engines. They engaged us to take charge of their marketing with ongoing monthly strategy.
First, we shot entirely new content for the brand, including staff headshots, workshop interaction videos, social media content and general location photography.
We took this unique content and created an entirely new website that was carefully laid out to showcase their reliable services and trusted values.
As well as integrating a seamless booking system, each page was optimised to include relevant keywords that would see LeMans appearing in local SEO searches throughout Brisbane.
The results for LeMans speak for themselves. Over just 12 months, they experienced a tremendous increase in organic traffic. This meant that more people were finding LeMans from local SEO searches in Brisbane.
LeMans has been able to open two new locations as a result of this traffic increase. With plans to expand into other Australian states, we’ll continue to spread the good word about their reliable servicing and quality workmanship.
We’ll take a look at your current position and show you how we’ll get you to where you want to be with a customised SEO campaign.
A key element of local SEO in Brisbane is Google My Business. GMB was first released in 2014, and comes with many features that contribute to boosting your business’ SEO rankings. These functions include category, description, reviews (and rating), posts, Q&A, services, products, and photos – just to name a few.
It also works in conjunction with Google Maps, meaning your business will appear when searched on the app or on desktop. Having a valid address and Google Maps listing is important, not just for local SEO and credibility, but to also make it simple and straightforward for customers to find you.
GMB also lets you include basic business details such as your address and opening hours. All of these details work to build credibility for your brand, something that Google loves and rewards highly.
Businesses that have a comprehensive GMB listing with many up to date details, reviews, relevant content, and other functions tend to rank well in search results. Try to include as much relevant data as possible, and update it regularly.
We manage the GMB listings of countless clients, ensuring phone numbers and opening times are correct, relevant Google posts are created to keep customers updated on goings on, and reviews are responded to in a timely manner.
When claiming your listing, you might be tempted to write your business name and then sneakily include some related keywords in the name field thinking this will help boost your local SEO ranking. Funnily enough, the opposite will likely happen.
See, Google doesn’t like it when people try to manipulate its algorithms by including false information for the sole purpose of ranking. It wants accuracy and facts.
In GMB, your business’ name should be just that – the name of your business. Having an accurate name is one of the many ways to build credibility with Google and improve your local SEO in Brisbane.
It can be frustrating to find a business you like on Google, only to realise you’re unable to get in touch with them due to a missing or disconnected phone number.
From a business’ perspective, having a disconnected or out of date phone number can mean missing out on leads, as potential customers choose convenience. With a missing phone number leading potential customers to contact your competitors instead. Make the process of getting in touch with you as easy as possible by having an active phone number listed through GMB.
Attaching a phone number to your business listing is also looked upon favourably by Google, and is beneficial for your local SEO.
Your business address should also be listed and kept updated. Not only is this important for those looking to swing by and say hello, it’s also vital for a business’ Google Maps listing and local SEO. People often use Google Maps directly to find their way to a location. This can be done through typing in a business’ name or by using voice command to create the directions to an address.
A relevant business address builds authority through Google and helps improve local SEO. This address can be updated and verified by signing in to your GMB account.
Opening times are another important local SEO feature to include in your business’ GMB listing. Customers want to know when they can get in touch with you or pop in and visit your storefront, and having up-to-date business hours listed communicates this information.
The last thing you want is for potential customers to turn up to your place of business and be met by closed doors because the hours listed online are incorrect. Keep your hours updated and remember to make any amendments if they change or you decide to go on a much-needed holiday!
You can update your opening hours at any time to modify times or include periods when you are on holiday or otherwise away from your business.
When building a brand online, engagement is key. Google is no different. Activating GMB means you can receive reviews from your customers. 89% of consumers read reviews before they purchase a product. Further to this, Google is the most popular online review platform with 59% of consumers using it, making Google reviews a vital facet of local SEO.
Google understands the importance of customer engagement and prioritises listings that respond to their customers’ reviews. So, replying to positive reviews with a heartfelt thank you or negative reviews by offering a solution to your customers is a simple way to increase your ranking with the search engine.
Customers are also able to give you a star-rating out of five when reviewing your business. This rating is prominently displayed next to your business name, and gives potential customers a quick way of seeing what others think of your business.
The importance of reviews for your business really can’t be expressed enough. Setting up this function in your GMB dashboard is a simple way to help improve local SEO for your business.
Another function to consider when looking to boost your business’ local SEO in Brisbane is your category. The category function serves several purposes: it lets those searching for your business quickly see what kind of work you do, and helps Google know when to show your business in results. Google gives you lots of categories to choose from when describing your business, with more than 3000 options available. From these, you can select one primary category and as many as 9 secondary categories to describe the work you do.
It’s important to choose an accurate primary category for your Brisbane business. Specific categories tend to hold more weight than broader categories, so where possible, try to hone in on the niche you want to display to those searching, and set this as your primary category.
You may choose to simply pick categories that you feel best apply to your business, or dig a little further and conduct some competitor research to see what others are doing for their local SEO in Brisbane. Competitor research may be helpful in establishing the niches to target with categories, but it can take some time and skill to dig into the HTML source code and figure it all out.
At Sonder, we do the hard work and research so you don’t have to, taking local SEO practices into account and providing you with a carefully tailored category and subcategories that are highly relevant to your business.
The handy posts function was introduced by Google in 2016. Posts are made in the GMB dashboard, and are uploaded instantly, appearing when customers search for your business. Posts show up in the Knowledge Panel (the box on the right-hand side), below your rating, address and contact info. When they were first introduced, posts expired after seven days, but in 2021 that all changed, and they now remain visible until removed by the business.
These posts are great for sharing important messages, keeping customers up to date with what your business is doing, and connecting with your local community, and of course for your business’ overall local SEO picture. Some of the Google post options include; product promotions, discount codes and coupons, upcoming events, announcements, newsletter sign-ups and COVID-19 updates.
With a call to action at the bottom that prompts users to click through, Google posts are a great way to encourage customers to interact with your business, and a handy local SEO tool to add to your arsenal.
High quality photos are a terrific way to improve your local SEO and show potential customers what you’re all about. The photos function lets you display photos of your business, products and / or services within the Knowledge Panel. These images will appear when a customer searches your business, and are fantastic for showing a little bit more about what you do.
The types of photos you choose to display will depend on the business you run. Restaurants may like to display plates of their popular meals to entice diners, whereas tilers might like to post images of their completed jobs to show the quality of their work.
While it may be tempting to quickly snap a blurry pic and upload it, taking the time to craft a high quality image will help your business stand out. After all, these images are likely some of the first that potential customers will see. Our professionals know how to capture your business’ best side. Learn more about how you can build a clear brand image with high quality photography and video production.
Convenience is paramount to conversion. The services and products functions in GMB make it easy for customers to browse through your business’ offerings without having to click on your site. The services function of GMB is ideal for – you guessed it – service-based businesses. This local SEO feature allows you to list the services your business offers, making it simple for potential customers to understand what you’re all about.
Services can be added in the GMB backend, with some able to be selected from the list and others needing to be added in as custom services. You can also add in a description of each service your business offers, along with a price.
Products are a relatively new function of GMB, but it’s a good one to be aware of if you have a business that sells products. This local SEO feature lets a business display a selection of products within their Knowledge Panel, making it easy for customers to see what you stock.
People viewing your business are able to easily scroll through a selection of products you have available without clicking through to your website. Each product can have a picture, price, and description added. Products can be arranged using custom categories that you choose, boosting the convenience and overall user experience. There’s also the option to add a call to action button with a link that prompts customers to purchase the item, redeem an offer, or learn more.
The Q&A local SEO feature makes it easy for people to find out information about your business on the listing’s Knowledge Panel, and as the business owner it’s important to keep an eye on this function. Activating the Q&A function in GMB lets previous customers, Google users, or the business themselves answer questions about a business. As the answers to the questions posed are crowdsourced, it’s not just a business who can answer them.
As is the nature of the internet, if not managed, this can lead to misinformation provided by well-intentioned but ultimately uninformed Google users. To keep on top of this it’s important to ensure you are answering the questions as they appear, rather than letting them sit around to be answered by somebody else.
Don’t have the time to answer questions as they are sent through? We can provide this service as part of our GMB management package, letting you get back to what it is you do best: running your business.
Their new updates show Google placing even more importance on longform content for driving traffic to a site, and it’s no surprise. Google wants to match searchers with the products and services they require and one of the ways it does this is by finding results it believes are particularly relevant (ie: optimised).
Project video for Archway Commercial Interiors
If you’re looking to boost your local SEO in Brisbane, one way to do so is through targeted content writing. There are many facets to local SEO content writing that work together to bring traffic to your site, and combined with metadata and link building, it can be a powerful SEO tool.
Targeting local keywords through the body of your content is one way to improve your ranking with Google. Local SEO content writing can be completed for each page of your website, with different keywords targeted for different pages. This ties in with local SEO landing pages as these tend to be created to help boost the ranking of particular keywords to draw traffic to your business’ niche.
Content writing from a local perspective may mean writing content that includes keywords of the city or suburb your business wishes to target. This can be evergreen content for your website pages or blog posts that are written each month that incorporate relevant keywords.
Blog posts are a great way to continue producing new, relevant content that relates to your business. These posts also provide additional opportunities for ranking with Google. A blog post might aim to answer a popular question customers have about your service, or explain the steps of a process your business offers. Blogs should include relevant SEO keywords to position your page as an authority on the subject matter in the eyes of Google.
We can produce beautiful copy for both local SEO landing pages and monthly blog content. Contact us for more information about our content writing services.
Link building has a heavyweighting when we’re talking about Brisbane local SEO. Links help to establish a website’s authority and ranking through search engines. Link building often involves having other websites link back to your site in a process called backlinking. When done right, backlinking helps to establish your business as an authority on a topic, which in turn will see it prioritised by search engines, thus benefiting local SEO. When done wrong, link building might produce zero results, or have your website flagged as spammy and penalised accordingly.
There are a few methods you might choose to employ to get other sites to link to yours. You may go the grassroots approach and send them a friendly email, asking them to link to your website – although this can take a bit of time and produce varying results. You may choose to pay a site for them to link back to your business – however, this can be tedious (and costly!).
You should also be incorporating informative links into your copy to establish your reputation of legitimacy. Google understands that we don’t know everything, and it looks favourably on sites that link to other websites with high authority. Having a solid reputation with Google helps improve your reach, including local SEO.
Another important element in the link sphere is ensuring all of your internal links work. You want to make sure that when you mention a service you provide, the link is clickable, and when you direct a customer to contact you, you’re linking them to your contact page. Broken links can interfere with the ranking of a page, and should be updated or removed.
Using a digital marketing agency takes the difficulty out of sourcing backlinks and finding authoritative sites to link to.
Get in touch with us and we’ll organise a sit-down meeting to explain how we can improve your business’ local SEO rankings.
It’s no shock that smartphones have become one of the main ways we search for information online. In fact, in Q1 of 2021 54.8% of global web traffic was generated through mobile devices. Sothere’s a pretty good chance you’re reading this text on your mobile right now!
When building your website, you should ensure it is optimised for both desktop and mobile use, to avoid alienating users on either platform. Local SEO should be crafted with mobile device users in mind just as much as for desktop users.
A person may grab their phone and quickly type in ‘mechanics near me’ when their car is playing up, or be looking to find a business and call them on their mobile with one press of a button when they want to order some takeaway for lunch. They may need to look up your business hours on their lunch break at work. It’s vital that your GMB details are updated to ensure you don’t miss out on potential customers.
Voice searches are another element of local SEO in Brisbane that should be considered. Many people now use the voice search function on their mobile device to find relevant results to their queries when out and about.
Including longform questions as keywords in your content could help drive traffic from voice searches to your site. For example, someone may ask their device ‘can I DIY waterproof my bathroom?’ and optimising your site to provide an answer to this question can then drive traffic to your website.
We can build you a site that’s optimised for mobile users and desktop users alike, incorporating elements of local SEO to get your business showing up in search results.
Take a look at our frequently asked questions below to see if your query about local SEO in Brisbane has been answered. If you have more questions, you’re welcome to send us a message and we’ll get back to you soon.
Local SEO stands for local Search Engine Optimisation. In a nutshell, it means optimising your website so that it appears in Google’s search results when people look for a local term. An example of a local SEO search term would be ‘digital agency in Newstead’ or ‘Italian restaurant Brisbane’.
There are several elements that work together with local SEO. The process involves creating content that uses relevant area specific keywords, managing and maintaining a Google My Business account, and building authoritative links.
Some elements of local SEO can show up instantly – such as your business’ contact number, opening hours, photos, and posts within your Knowledge Panel, whereas others can take a little while to begin showing results.
It may take several weeks or months for a page to begin ranking on Google for relevant local SEO keywords. The amount of time it takes to rank a page will depend on a number of factors, such as the competition within the keywords selected and your website’s current authority score.
For many businesses, much of local SEO is simply trial and error combined with a healthy amount of research. It may take you months just to figure out that the SEO you’ve been trying to implement isn’t working to bring your search engine rankings any higher.
By using a digital marketing agency, you can skip all of this arduous work and start seeing results for your business. We have the tools and expertise to implement real change for Brisbane business’ online image and rankings. Start implementing a tried and tested local SEO strategy and get your business seen by more potential customers.
There’s quite a bit that goes into building a business’ local SEO profile. Incorporating area specific keywords and content with an active GMB listing and relevant link building are at the crux of the process, but there’s more to it than just that.
While local SEO is a multi-faceted, often-intimidating beast, it can be tamed with the right knowledge and skill set. We have the expertise and programs needed to craft tailored Brisbane local SEO campaigns, designed to get your business in front of more eyes.
Google My Business – commonly referred to as GMB – is a free service offered by Google that lets businesses display their information in a concise Knowledge Panel. This panel appears on the right side of a screen and is filled with information that is useful to potential customers, such as your opening hours, business address, phone number, category, and photos. It’s a helpful tool for local SEO in Brisbane.
This service also shows customer reviews, ratings, Q&As, services, products, and posts – all things a customer can use to form an opinion of your brand in their mind. Keeping an up-to-date, completed GMB account is important as it builds trust with Google and ultimately with your customers.
For best results, yes. Your GMB profile is often the first thing that searchers see when they Google your business. It includes important information such as your contact number and hours of operation, and showcases images that you wish to display.
You can also list products and services through GMB, allowing potential customers to see your pricing before they’ve clicked through to your website. Reviews and ratings are displayed which is a huge pro, as time and time again, positive reviews have been proven to encourage sales.
A comprehensive GMB profile works to establish your brand’s authority and trustworthiness with Google, while also improving your local SEO. Google rewards companies that have authority through its ranking system, which is another reason to ensure your listing is up to date and complete. There are loads of benefits that come with having a comprehensive GMB profile, which is why we strongly recommend businesses have one.
You don’t have to, but we highly recommend it. Google posts are a free service displayed to searchers to let them know what’s currently happening in your business. Some things you might like to advertise through the use of Google posts include product promotions, upcoming events, announcements, newsletter sign-ups, and discount codes and coupons.
While it was once the case that posts would expire seven days after their creation, this is no longer true. Now posts will stay up until you take them down meaning you can advertise campaigns and events weeks in advance or advertise a discount code for an entire month. This local SEO function of GMB is an underused form of free advertisement for your business that we recommend you to take advantage of.
Niche specific landing pages work to draw targeted traffic to your site. These can be created to showcase the many different products and services your business provides, giving each topic a place to live online.
Local SEO landing pages target keywords that are highly relevant to your business that are being searched for by Google users. Through creating and optimising these pages you can draw more traffic to your website and explain the services you provide in further detail.
Landing pages can be created for the varying facets of your business. For example, you may have a general electrician business but would like to target keywords relating to ‘outdoor lighting installation in Balmoral’ on a separate landing page.
Using local SEO to target selected keywords is ideal for businesses that provide multiple services or products. It allows for different aspects of your business to get the attention they deserve, while also providing a specific, useful and informative place to direct traffic to.
Yes. Blog posts are great for producing fresh, relevant content for your brand. Fresh content provides extra opportunities to incorporate SEO keywords to help your business rank higher in search engines. Local SEO can be brought into blog pieces to make the information relevant to the areas you service.
We recommend that blogs are posted at least once a month to keep the train of relevant, informative pieces rolling and to establish your business as a leader within your industry. This type of content is a great opportunity to boost local SEO while providing education to your community, and encouraging sharing through social media can result in more attention for your brand.
You can, but we don’t recommend it. While it’s easy enough to snap a pic on your iPhone and upload it to your business’ photos through the GMB dashboard, you should try to showcase only the best images for your brand.
It’s better to take your time and curate images that you’re proud to attach to your brand. Your GMB photo gallery will likely be some of the first pictures of your business that people see and will serve to help them build their image of your brand before they even consider getting in touch.
If you’re not much of an Ansel Adams behind the lens, we can help. Our creative team would love to work closely with you to create images that you’re excited to have represent your brand. We create content that can be used across multiple platforms for your business, including social media and for use throughout your website. Our team is also able to assist with branding and video production.
For best results, it’s worth considering giving your content a refresh. Google regularly updates their algorithm, so chances are the SEO work you completed years ago is no longer looked upon as favourably as it was by the search engine at the time.
Google also prioritises new and updated content over older content that has been sitting idly for a few years. Ensuring you regularly update your pages and produce high-quality, engaging blog content is a good method for boosting and maintaining your SEO rankings.
To add to this, a lot of changes have been made to both SEO and local SEO practices in the past few years. Refreshing your content using an updated SEO plan is a great way to manage your rankings while also improving your local SEO in Brisbane.
Absolutely. We love helping businesses create a vibrant online presence that drives traffic, and would be glad to assist you in building your brand. Our dedicated team has worked with businesses large and small to craft a presence that reflects the feeling of their brand. The content we create builds upon this presence, with well-crafted information that encourages people to click, engage, and share.
We can implement a tailored local SEO in Brisbane plan to get your business seen by more potential customers. These services include GMB profile management, copy and content creation with a focus on area specific keywords, and link building,
At Sonder, we love helping businesses bring in more leads, and get excited by every success story as our clients grow, achieving bigger and better results.
We’re a small team realising big dreams.
Bolstering Brisbane digital for over half a decade.
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