Nov 27 2024
Improve local SEO with Google My Business/Business Profile

Every business owner with a website is looking for ways to get noticed in the search results. There are loads of tactics to rank well as a local business, but unfortunately, there is no silver bullet. As with most things SEO, this is a combined effort. One of the ways to get noticed is by offering customers up-to-date information like opening hours and contact information. You can do this using Google Business Profile, formerly Google My Business. But what is it exactly, and why is it so important for local SEO?

Table of contents

What is Google My Business?

Before we start, it’s good to know that Google recently changed its name from Google My Business to Google Business Profile. But even with its new name, Google Business Profile is still your one-stop shop for managing your business information and how it will be presented in the search results. It is an essential tool to adjust how your business is shown in Google Maps, the Knowledge Graph, and organic search results. According to the most recent edition of Whitespark’s Local Search Ranking Factors Survey, Google My Business remains the biggest driver of local SEO success, with reviews coming in second place.

You can manage your business listing by adding NAP details, opening hours, photos, etcetera. There are even unique options to show multiple ways to shop (delivery or curbside pickup). In addition, you get many other options, like managing the reviews your customers leave behind. As you might already know, reviews should be a critical part of your local SEO efforts.

Want to learn more about local SEO and how to get higher rankings in the local search results? Our Local SEO training helps you improve your online presence and attract more online and offline visitors.

How does it work?

Getting started with Google Business Profile is easy; you make an account and claim your business. After filling in your details, you need to verify your business. You can choose between receiving an automated call or text with a verification code, or receiving a real-life postcard from Google at your specified address with the verification code. Some businesses may need to verify with a video. You may have to verify with more than one method. So, why does Google want you to verify your account? They want to ensure that you’re telling the truth and that you’re the business owner listed at the address. Google has a special page that helps you check your verification status.

Once verified, you can fill in all the necessary details and check how your listing is doing. You can get regular insights to see how many impressions, clicks, and subscribers your listing got over time. It’s a great way of getting a feel for how Google and customers perceive your business.

Keep in mind that Google My Business (or Google Business Profile) is not the catch-all tool for your local SEO. It has to work in tandem with your other off-page and on-page SEO efforts. You probably won’t climb the charts if your profile is inaccurate, but you won’t reach the top without a well-optimized site and localized content. These things go hand in hand.

Ranking factors

Google Business Profile uses many factors to determine rankings for businesses. We’ll highlight the three most important ones:

  • Relevance
  • Distance
  • Prominence

Relevance

Relevance determines how well your business fits the search intent of the customer. Is your focus identical to what the customer needs, or are you a bit opaque about what your company does? Vagueness doesn’t rank or sell. Be as clear as you can be, and keep your focus. That way, Google knows what people can expect from you and will be more inclined to show your business in the search results.

Tip: When setting up your profile, Google offers you common services that you can add to your category of business. It’s smart to include these, because they will help your business get found. We’ll talk about these in more detail later on.

Proximity

Proximity is a well-known factor for ranking local businesses. And quite logical when you think about it. You can’t rank in a local search for dentist in Philadelphia when you have located your company in Manhattan. However, the exact way Google determines which businesses to show in a local search is unknown, and it can be pretty hard to rank in a given area. Other factors play a significant role as well. It helps to say you are located in a particular area and show it by having local-oriented content around your business on your site. Google uses what’s known about the searcher’s location to present the most relevant local businesses.

Prominence

Prominence is all about the activity around your listing; this could be the number of reviews, events, local content, et cetera. It also helps to have loads of quality links to your site. It is somewhat hard to determine what prominence means exactly, but one thing is for sure: no one likes inactive profiles. You have to keep it updated with new photos and manage your reviews. As said before, this goes hand in hand with your site, so make sure both listings align and publish content focusing on your local area(s).

It is vital that you keep your business listing accurate and up to date

Optimize your Google Business Profile listing

Any business with a bona fide brick-and-mortar location or an online outlet is eligible for a Google Business listing. But what if you operate your business out of your house and don’t want people to know your address?

If you don’t operate a walk-up brick-and-mortar location but visit your customers in a particular geographic area, you’re called a “Service Business.” Service businesses include plumbers, carpet cleaners, and courier services. In this case, you’re still eligible for a listing. However, you’ll want to choose “Service business” when Google asks what kind of business you have.

Google asks what kind of business you are operating

Verifying your location

Google tries to make sure that only legitimate businesses are represented in GMB. It requires anyone claiming a Listing to verify their association with the company. The easiest way to start the process is to perform a desktop search on Google for your business name (for example, “Kido Chicago”). You’ll see a link in the panel on the right-hand side of the page that asks, “Own this business?”

Before you click that link to begin the verification process, make sure you are either not signed in to Google (you can create an account in the next step) or are signed into a Google account for your business instead of your personal Gmail. It’s not a requirement; however, sharing access to your listing with employees or other company agents from a business account will be much easier.

Screenshot of a listing for a coffeehouse. Highlighted is the
Click on Claim this business to claim the profile of this business; if you are the owner

Once you fill out the most basic information (see below for what these details are), if it can corroborate your address and phone number, Google will call and ask you to enter a PIN on the screen. If it hasn’t previously seen a business with the phone number and address you submitted, you’ll be mailed a postcard within a week with instructions on how to PIN verify.

Verify with video

Some businesses may need to verify with a video. If you own a physical store, you will need to record your location by showing street signs, your business exterior and interior, and you need to show that you’re authorized to represent this business. You will need to show all these requirements in one continuous recording, so no editing.

If you own a service business, like a plumbing or landscaping business, you don’t have a physical store. That’s why you’ll need to show street signs or the surrounding area where your business is located, your business card or a branded vehicle or business tools, and finally a proof of address. Again, this needs to be done in one continuous recording.

Primary business information

Name, Address, and Phone

This sounds simple, but it’s surprising how many business owners overthink these core attributes or try to “optimize” them. Your Name, Address, and Phone (NAP) are your thumbprint online. If they don’t reflect your business accurately in your Google Business Profile, Google—and your customers—lose trust that you are who you say you are. They will stop sending business your way.

  • Do NOT stuff keywords in your business name. Represent yourself as you would answer the phone or welcome a customer into your store. You probably see spammers doing this and succeeding all the time, but it’ll come back to bite them at some point. Google is monitoring for these kinds of abuses all the time, and they’re getting better at blocking the abusers.
  • Submit the same address you use on your website. If you’re a Yoast user, this should be the address you enter in the Yoast Local SEO plugin. Even if you’re a service-area business, you’ll have to submit a physical address, not a PO box or other mailing-only address.
  • You’ll see a map displayed just alongside your address. Zoom in and double-check that the pin is in the correct place on your business. Google’s pin precision for U.S. addresses is typically pretty good, but it can be spotty in other countries.
  • Don’t use a tracking phone number to segment customers coming from Google vs. other sources. There are ways to do this, but they’re pretty advanced. Implementing tracking numbers incorrectly can do tremendous damage to your local search rankings.

Choose a category for your business

From a rankings standpoint, the business category is the most important attribute you can optimize in your Google Business Profile. In our experience, it’s best to keep an eye on Google’s advice on categories. Remember that advice has changed frequently over the years and might change again.

Start typing, and the categories magically appear. You can add more later on

Google maintains a taxonomy of several thousand categories to describe local businesses. You’ll probably find a match pretty closely by typing in a few characters of a keyword that describes your business.

Google suggests “using as few categories as possible,” as well as categories that are “as specific as possible.” And while it’s true that Google can and does “detect category information from your website and mentions about your business throughout the web,” our advice is to specify as many relevant categories as possible on your Google Business Profile listing.

Google’s automated review system may remove one or two from your listing, but this is not spam—provided you select relevant categories. It helps you show up for as broad a range of searches as possible.

Services businesses can add the specific services you offer

Add your website

In the process, there’s a field to add your website URL, but it doesn’t have to be your “website” per se. In particular, if you operate in more than one location, you may want to enter the page on your website corresponding to the location you’re submitting to Google—rather than your homepage. Opinions are mixed on whether listing your homepage, or a location page will help you rank better, so do what’s best for prospective customers. If you think your homepage will give them the best initial sense of your business, submit it as your “website”. If a location page—or even some other page—will give your audience a better sense, submit that instead.

Add a business description

Later on, you can add a business description to your profile. It’s essential to take a moment and find an excellent way to describe your business on Google. The business description field gives you a maximum of 750 characters to convince people to visit your business. This might be the first thing people read about your business, so make it unique and exciting. Describe what your business offers precisely and how you set yourself apart from your competitors. You can also talk about your history and anything else that’s helpful for customers.

Keep the description short and sweet, and don’t try to push promotions or deals you have running. You also shouldn’t include URLs or HTML code. Give it a think, write a few descriptions and pick the best one!

A unique business description can make you stand out from the rest

More business information

After entering the attributes above, you’re asked to verify your listing. But don’t stop there. There are a few other attributes that are well worth your time to add.

Photos and images

Photos may be the most neglected attribute in all local SEO. The success of Instagram, Pinterest, and any lesser-known apps indicates how visual our internet culture has become. Consumers often select—or reject!—a business because of its photos. Not only on the content of the photos, but consumers also judge the quality and professionalism of the photos.

Photos are essential in the mobile ecosystem that Google Business Profile powers (including Google Maps), where they dominate a business’s representation in Google’s user interfaces. Try to add authentic photos instead of stock photos, and make sure the pictures reflect your business.

As with all local media or social media sites, Google Business Profile has its image format requirements. Take some time to review them and make sure you have high-quality assets for each format. You can find more on improving your images in our image SEO guide.

Business hours

Selecting your opening hours is pretty straightforward. Google has dramatically improved its interface for telling customers when you’re open over the past several years. Hours will be front-and-center wherever customers interact with your business on Google, so they should be accurate. You can even daypart multiple times during the day and add specific hours for holidays and special events.

While you can’t control it, you may be interested to know that Google now displays the busyness of your business in real time. This is based on aggregate location-tracking visitors with Android phones and iOS Google Maps users with location services enabled.

See when a business opens and when the most popular times are

Specific categories of businesses will have the option to add their menu. Suppose you’re lucky enough to be in one of these categories. In that case, we highly recommend adding this, as it gives Google an additional set of keywords that your business should consider relevant.

Accept messages for more leads

By default, this feature is turned on. It will add a messaging feature to your Business Profile, and it can be a great way to generate more leads. Of course, you need to keep this chat feature in mind and check regularly for any messages. If you respond quickly and helpfully, you’ll probably turn visitors into customers.

A screenshot of a Levi's store Google Business profile. The chat function is made bigger to highlight where it is on the page.
The chat function

If you’re slow to respond to customers, however, Google might disable this feature for you. So, if you’re not sure you’ll be able to keep track of this feature, it might be better to turn it off.

Share posts on your Business Profile

The Posts feature is a very useful way to communicate with your customers from your profile. With posts, you can connect with existing and potential customers through your Business Profile on Google Search and Maps. You can create and share announcements, offers, new or popular items in stock, or event details directly with your customers. Use this to promote your sales, specials, events, news, and offers. You can even add videos and photos to posts to make them more interesting!

A screenshot of the Seattle Children's Museum post on their Business Profile about their prideful playdate event in July.
Example of the post feature

Many options

Since Google Business Profile has grown quite a bit over the years, there are many more options to explore. You don’t need to use all of them, but some are valuable. For example, the Products feature to highlight your products in your listing is a great way to get people interested in what your offer.

Another great option is the possibility of getting potential customers to ask questions that you can respond to. Keep in mind that others can also answer these questions, so keep an eye on this. When it works, it can be a real help in turning visitors into customers.

And, as always, get reviews for your business! With a Business Profile, you can even respond to these reviews. It doesn’t have to be a message. Nowadays, you can also quickly respond with an emoji, like a heart or fire emoji.

Ranking factors beyond your control

There are two significant local search and local SEO ranking factors over which you have little control. They both have to do with the physical location of your business.

The location of your potential customer

The first is the proximity of your business to the location where your prospective customer is performing their search. All other things being equal, Google will display a company closer to the searcher than one farther away from them.

In the early years of Google, its algorithm favored businesses close to the center of a given city or its “centroid.” This was partly because Google wasn’t as good at detecting the location of the searcher as they are now. It defaulted to showing businesses in the areas with the highest population density.

Nowadays, this factor has declined in importance. Especially for mobile searches where Google has a precise idea of where you are. Google has also partially improved at detecting desktop searchers’ location information through surreptitious collection means.

A physical store in the city of your customer’s search question

The second factor is having an address in the city in which your customer is searching.  If your customer is searching in Seattle, your Tacoma or Bellevue-based coffee shop won’t appear. This is simply because it’s irrelevant to the customer’s search.

Short of opening additional locations to target areas where high concentrations of your customers are searching, there’s not much you can do to optimize for these ranking factors. Still, you should be aware of their importance.

Google Business Profile Insights

Google provides a free, lightweight analytics package as part of GBP. This gives you a basic sense of how customers and potential customers view and interact with your listing.

Insights show how often your listing appears in plain old search vs. Google Maps. It also shows the number of clicks to your website, requests for driving directions, phone calls, and more.

There’s also a breakdown of how many customers see your listing for direct searches (for your business specifically) vs. discovery searches (for businesses in your category). While no one outside of Google is entirely sure how they calculate the discovery number, it’s probably as good a barometer for the overall strength of your local SEO as any, mainly if you track it over time.

Troubleshooting listing issues

The most typical GMB troubleshooting issue continues to be duplicate listings for the same business. While it’s gotten harder to detect duplicate listings, it’s much easier to close them.

The first step to identifying duplicates is to search for your business name on Google. If it looks like multiple listings refer to your business, select the one you’d like to report as a duplicate and click “Suggest an Edit.” Follow the suggestions to have the listing marked as duplicate.

Google support staff are generally responsive to these reports within a reasonable time. If you continue to have trouble, ask multiple people—co-workers, friends, family members, or relatives—to report the same problem, and it’s more likely Google will look at it. If your issue seems particularly thorny, you’re most likely to get a response by tweeting @googlemybiz, the official Twitter support channel for Google Business Profile.

Some time ago, Google added a new feature to the Google My Business dashboard. A feature that allows you to manage your reviews and report reviews for removal. You can also check the status of reviews you’ve already reported here. Keep in mind that Google will only remove reviews that violate their policies, such as irrelevant or offensive content.

Structured data and Yoast Local SEO

Google increasingly depends on structured data to determine what your site is about and which elements represent what. This is true for your business information, including the information that Google Business Profile uses. Make sure you add the correct structured data to your site. Enhance your NAP details, opening hours, reviews, product information, et cetera, with Schema.org data. This will make it much easier for Google to determine the validity of your listing. Several tools can help you with this, including our Yoast Local SEO plugin.

Local SEO is critical, even with Google Business Profile

So, you should activate and maintain your Google My Business account and make it awesome. But to get the most out of your listings and to get good rankings, you must have your site in order as well. Optimize every part of it. Create local content for your chosen keyword and business location and get quality local backlinks to build a solid link profile. Ask customers to review your business onsite or on My Business. Make sure your listing is active and attractive; as we said, inaccurate profiles are no good.

Read more: The ultimate guide to small business SEO »



Edwin Toonen

Edwin is an experienced strategic content specialist. Before joining Yoast, he worked for a top-tier web design magazine, where he developed a keen understanding of how to create great content.

Avatar of Edwin Toonen

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Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Feb 7 2024
Local business listings with Schema.org structured data

One of the things you can do to present your local business better in search results is Schema.org data for rich snippets. Adding structured data to your site can help search engines understand your business and how it performs. For this reason, you must add your NAP details, store/location map, reviews, and images. Find out how Schema.org structured data can help your local SEO.

Table of contents

Local customers use search engines

Modern-day customers use search engines to find your specific business and businesses around their current location. Customers using their phones looking for ‘Italian restaurants’ will get rich search results from local businesses. The results will include distance, reviews, opening hours, and possibly making a reservation.

Improve local rankings

Getting a good ranking for your local business means offering search engines as much data about your business as possible, which local SEO helps you do. Besides that, you need an excellent, fast, and mobile-friendly website, quality content, links, and reviews.

You should focus on being the most relevant result for a specific query to improve your rankings. In addition to that, your business has to be the best result. One way of getting this kind of recognition is by asking your customers for reviews. Reviews help search engines and potential customers determine which business is legit and which isn’t.

Why Schema.org

The main thing to remember is that Schema.org describes your data and content to search engines. Search engines can find out a lot about your site by crawling it. However, if you add structured data, you can give everything meaning. This way, search engines instantly grasp what the content means and how they should present it. In addition, Schema.org is a shared initiative by the big search engines, so using it will lead to consistent results in the respective search engines. Yoast SEO automatically adds structured data with much information about your site.

Rich search results for businesses

So, when we mean rich search results, we are talking about the information about a business you can directly see in search results without clicking a link. There are a few different results here: a regular organic search result for a business can feature breadcrumbs, highlighted pages, or even a search box. In Google, there’s also the Knowledge Panel on the right-hand side. Here, you’ll find lots of metadata about a business, from opening hours to photos. Finally, the results you see when you search for a specific term rather than a business. See the screenshots below for the different results for a particular or generic search.

Search for specific clothes store in Burbank
Looking for a local business using a specific term

Why you should use JSON-LD

To get rich results, you need to use structured data like Schema.org. In the past, adding Schema.org data to your post was pretty tricky because you had to embed it in your HTML code. With JSON-LD, you can add a JavaScript code block to your page. Plus, the code is readable and easy to change. Also, there are tons of helpful tools to do it for you.

With JSON-LD, you no longer have code wrapping around your HTML elements, with less possibility of messing things up. In addition to that, Google advises you to use it. Now, let’s see how it’s done.

How to add Schema.org to your local business listing

Since LocalBusiness is a subtype of Organization, we recommend implementing the fields for Organization in addition to the ones specific to your business.

When working on your listing, the most important thing to remember is to pick the correct business type. Make sure to choose a specific one, not a broad one. So, if you own a barbershop, you can use the LocalBusiness type HairSalon. You can find hundreds of types of businesses on Schema.org, so you’ll probably find one that matches closely. If not, try using the product types ontology. This site uses Wikipedia pages for describing products or services with GoodRelations and Schema.org. Here, you can get more specific information if your listing is too broad.

Generate and test

While you can write Schema.org JSON-LD code by hand, it’s not recommended. Use a generator like this Schema Markup Generator or Google’s Structured Data Helper — you can even ask ChatGPT to code structured data for you.

The Yoast Local SEO plugin is the easiest option to add proper local-oriented structured data. It also ensures that it plays nicely with the rest of the structured data generated by Yoast SEO.

Always validate your structured data in the Rich Results Test Tool. Using Schema Markup Validator, you can check your site to see if the structured data is implemented correctly. Or use Classy Schema to visualize your implementation.

Don’t forget to add your site to Search Console so you can check how Google presents your site. If you want to learn more about Google Search Console, read our beginner’s guide to Google Search Console.

Quickly add structured data for your local business

The Local SEO plugin by Yoast gives you everything you need to do well in the local search results pages!

Required properties for local businesses

There are two main Schema.org at play here: Schema.org/LocalBusiness and Schema.org/Organization. Here, you’ll find everything you need to inform search engines about your local business. To get started, you need to define at least the following properties: the name of your business, its postal address, a URL, and a logo. Here’s what a simple address looks like in structured data:

"address": {
  "@type": "PostalAddress",
  "streetAddress": "9901 Union Street",
  "addressLocality": "Simi Valley",
  "addressRegion": "CA",
  "postalCode": "93065",
  "addressCountry": "US"
}

The properties mentioned in the previous paragraph don’t get you far. You need to go further to make the most of structured data for your site. Be sure to add the following properties as well, if applicable. This is just the beginning, on Schema.org/LocalBusiness you’ll find loads more. Google also has a long list of supported properties.

- url (unlike the @id, should be a working link)
- geo
-- geo.latitude
-- geo.longitude 
- telephone
- aggregateRating
- openingHoursSpecification
- openingHoursSpecification.opens
- openingHoursSpecification.closes
- openingHoursSpecification.dayOfWeek
- openingHoursSpecification.validFrom
- openingHoursSpecification.validThrough
- menu
- department
- servesCuisine
- priceRange (how many $?)

Recommended properties for Organization

As LocalBusiness structured data is heavily tied to the Organization structured data, so it’s necessary to focus on that. There are loads of options to help Google understand your business better. Below is a list of recommended properties. Remember that Yoast SEO Premium and the Local SEO add-on make it easy to fill these in.

name (Text: name of your business)
alternateName (Text: other name you often use)
legalName (Text: the registered legal name)
description (Text: describe your business)
logo (URL or ImageObject)
url (URL)
sameAs (URL: links to other online services or social profiles)
telephone (Text)
email (Text)
address (PostalAddress)
 - address.streetAddress (Text)
 - address.addressLocality (Text)
 - address.addressRegion (Text)
 - address.postalCode (Text)
 - address.addressCountry (Text)
contactPoint (ContactPoint: how can a customer best contact you?)
 - contactPoint.telephone (Text)
 - contactPoint.email (Text)
numberOfEmployees (QuantitativeValue)
foundingDate (Date)
iso6523Code (Text)
duns (Text)
leiCode (Text)
naics (Text)
globalLocationNumber (Text)
vatID (Text)
taxID (Text)

Example code for local business Schema.org

To clarify how this works, we will use a real local business: Unique Vintage in Burbank, CA. This makes it a bit easier to validate the data we enter. In the code below, you’ll find all the NAP details, URLs, geolocation data, and opening hours you might need.
The LocalBusiness code above gets perfect scores from the Rich Results Testing Tool

Reviews

Reviews are a significant driver for new clientele. Scoring well in Google means your business provides quality, which can eventually lead to better local rankings. Think about how you pick the next company to visit. Will it be the one with three two-star reviews or the one with eighty-five-star reviews?

In the example above, we’ve added a review section. If you want to use reviews in your Schema.org data, remember that these reviews must live on your site. You cannot use sites like Yelp or TripAdvisor to generate reviews to show in the search engines. Ask your customers to leave a review. Make a review page, collect the reviews, and present them to the world.

Social

Another element to add to complete your online profile is links to your social media accounts. To do this, you must specify an organization or a person. The URL has to lead to your main site, while the sameAs links lead to your social media profiles.

Google My Business

There is another way you should add your local business to Google. By opening a Google My Business account, you will be able to verify that you are, in fact, the owner of your business. After that, you can add or edit all relevant information about your business, such as address information, opening hours, and photos. In addition to that, you can even manage the reviews people add to Google and see how your local listing performs.

Conversely, this only applies to Google. Every search engine can interpret Schema.org, so adding structured data to your site is still advisable. Additionally, Schema.org can do much more than add relevant local business locations. Therefore, Schema.org should be your main focus.

Despite all this, you’re still very much in Google’s hands. Some businesses appear in the Knowledge Panel, while others don’t. Some products get rich listings in the search results, including prices, reviews, and availability, while identical products from different vendors don’t. It’s hard to predict what will happen. However, don’t let this stop you.

Structured data for your local business

As we’ve shown, Schema.org can play an important part in the optimization of your site and your SEO strategy. Structured data can do much more; look at all those properties on Schema.org. We’ll keep an eye on what structured data can do for your site and keep you in the loop!

Don’t forget that if you want an easier way to add your local business and organization data to your pages, you should check out our Local SEO plugin and Yoast SEO Premium.

Read more: Structured data with Schema.org: the ultimate guide »



Edwin Toonen

Edwin is a strategic content specialist. Before joining Yoast, he spent years honing his skill at The Netherlands’ leading web design magazine.

Avatar of Edwin Toonen

Coming up next!

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Jan 24 2024
Use AI to drive foot traffic to your local business

Local businesses thrive on foot traffic. As consumers turn to their devices first, having a solid online presence is paramount. Generative AI is a helpful tool for finding innovative ways to boost local SEO and captivate potential customers. This article will explore how using this AI technology can transform your local business presence.

AI content enhances local search presence

Local businesses know the power of the right words. They can turn a casual online searcher into a loyal customer walking through the door. Here’s where generative AI shines, shaping content that captivates and converts. 

First, AI dives into the data pool of local search terms. It finds phrases that locals use when looking for services you offer. For example, a local hardware store might discover people searching for “home repair workshops near me” more often than expected. AI uses this insight to suggest blog topics, social media posts, and helpful guides highlighting the store’s home repairs expertise.

Next, the AI writes. It crafts content using local keywords, ensuring it sounds natural, not forced. This content isn’t just informative; it’s tailored to your town, neighbors, and the local culture. It’s as if a local storyteller is behind every word.

But there’s more

But AI doesn’t stop there. We all know that Google and your customers are looking for reliable sources. AI can help businesses improve E-E-A-T by ensuring content isn’t just fluff. It lets you fill it with valuable information reflecting your on-the-ground experience and expertise. Authenticity is crucial, so you must double-check and edit AI-generated content for accuracy and relevance to your community’s needs.

Let’s say you run a café that prides itself on using locally sourced ingredients. AI can help create a narrative around your suppliers, share their stories, and highlight the benefits of supporting local agriculture. This boosts your SEO and connects with customers’ interest in sustainability and community support.

Finally, AI assists in optimizing your content’s structure and metadata for search engines while keeping it engaging for readers. The AI generates titles and meta descriptions — Yoast SEO Premium does this! — that capture the essence of your articles, enticing clicks from curious locals browsing online. These minor, AI-driven tweaks add up to a significant boost in your local search presence.

AI has the skills to help you get your local SEO work done. It’s up to you, the business owner, to bring passion and personality to the work, ensuring everything is done precisely and honestly.

5 creative strategies to use AI for local businesses

Local businesses can use generative AI to create content and experiences that improve local SEO and draw customers into their physical locations. Here are five strategies that illustrate the potential of AI to enhance local visibility and attract foot traffic:

1. AI-powered event promotion:

Imagine a local bookstore using AI to analyze reading trends and community interests, then generate a list of potential events such as author signings, book clubs, or children’s story hours. The AI takes it further by crafting compelling event descriptions and promotional content tailored to the local audience’s preferences. The bookstore can then share these promotions across its website and social media platforms, targeting ads to local readers and sending personalized email invitations.

2. AI-designed coupons and local deals:

A local auto repair shop could employ generative AI to create and distribute location-based deals or coupons. The AI would analyze local traffic patterns, vehicle types, and common service needs to offer timely specials, such as discounts on tire changes just before winter. These deals could be promoted through targeted social media ads, local online forums, and the shop’s website, directly reaching the local audience. The AI can also personalize coupons for customers who have previously visited the shop, incentivizing repeat business and word-of-mouth referrals. This approach drives foot traffic with appealing offers and boosts local search rankings by keeping the content updated and relevant to the community’s current needs.

3. Tailored recommendations:

A gourmet food shop can use AI to analyze purchase histories and online behavior, providing customers with individualized product recommendations. These recommendations could be paired with an exclusive, in-store tasting event for a local delicacy. The AI helps create a sense of anticipation and exclusivity, incentivizing customers to visit the store to experience the flavors they’ve been reading about online.

4. Customized in-store experiences with AI assistance:

Consider a local home decor shop that wants to offer a personalized shopping experience. Using generative AI, the shop could create an online quiz that helps customers identify their interior design style. Based on the results, the AI generates a custom shopping list of items available in the store that fit the customer’s style profile. The customer is then invited to visit the shop for a personalized shopping experience, complete with a store map highlighting where to find the suggested items. This strategy provides a unique in-store experience and boosts local SEO by driving online interactions that lead to in-person visits.

5. Engaging local tales:

A historic inn could use AI to uncover and tell stories about the town’s past, connecting them with the inn’s heritage. These stories could be shared on the inn’s website, social media, and even through QR codes around the property, leading guests on a self-guided tour that ends with a special offer at the inn’s restaurant or a discounted stay. By weaving the local lore with the inn’s offerings, AI helps create a unique narrative that draws in guests curious about the region’s history.

Generative AI can do a lot. It can help you find exciting and inspiring ways to boost your local SEO. Now, local businesses can create unique, SEO-friendly content and experiences that resonate deeply with the local community. Which, hopefully, encourages more customers to visit their locations and engage with their brands.

Humanizing AI for local impact

The blend of AI and human insight is where local businesses can truly shine. AI excels at processing data and generating content. But the human touch infuses warmth and personalization into every interaction. Here’s how companies can make AI more human to create a meaningful impact locally.

Firstly, business owners need to review AI-generated content. This step ensures that the voice and tone reflect the business’s brand and resonate with the local audience. For example, a mechanic shop’s AI-generated blog post about car maintenance becomes more relatable when the owner adds personal anecdotes or advice about local driving conditions.

Secondly, businesses should connect AI initiatives with real people. A garden center could feature its knowledgeable staff in AI-generated videos, offering tips for seasonal planting tailored to the local climate. This approach showcases the staff’s expertise and builds customer trust and rapport.

Additionally, incorporating community feedback is vital. A café might use AI to analyze customer reviews and invite patrons to vote on the next ‘flavor of the month’ for a coffee blend. It shows that the café values customer input and is willing to adapt based on their preferences, fostering a loyal local following.

Need more?

Businesses can use AI to enhance in-store experiences while keeping the local vibe intact. A bookstore’s AI-generated reading recommendations become more personal when staff members add a handwritten note about why they loved a particular book, connecting with customers more intimately.

Lastly, it’s crucial to ensure that AI-driven initiatives like local loyalty programs or targeted promotions highlight the community’s character. A pet store’s loyalty program might use AI to offer discounts on products for popular breeds in the neighborhood, reinforcing the store’s local presence.

While AI can handle data and create content at an unprecedented scale, the human element turns these capabilities into genuine local engagement. Local business owners should ensure their efforts to attract foot traffic remain authentic, personal, and deeply rooted in the local community’s fabric.

Implementing AI with integrity

For local businesses, embracing AI goes beyond just adopting new technology. Adopting AI involves a thoughtful approach that respects customers and the local community’s values. Here’s how to implement AI with integrity and strategic foresight.

Start with a clear goal. Please identify what you want to achieve with AI, whether it’s attracting more foot traffic, personalizing customer experiences, or enhancing your local SEO. For instance, a fitness studio might aim to use AI to promote health and wellness within the community through personalized workout content.

Next, select the right AI tools. Many AI applications are available, but not all are created equal. Look for tools that align with your business goals and have a proven track record of success in similar settings. A salon could opt for an AI tool that helps schedule appointments efficiently, reducing wait times and improving customer satisfaction.

Employees should understand how AI is used within the business and be trained to provide a seamless blend of technology and personal service. A bookstore employee, for instance, should be able to take AI-generated reading suggestions and enrich them with their own insights and favorite picks.

Finally, monitor AI’s impact. Keep an eye on how AI-driven initiatives affect customer interactions and local SEO. Adjust your strategies based on customer feedback and performance data. A hardware store could track which AI-generated DIY project guides drive the most in-store visits and update their content strategy accordingly.

Measuring and adapting

After integrating generative AI into your local business strategies, measuring the results and adapting your approach based on performance is essential. Here’s how to ensure your AI efforts effectively drive foot traffic and enhance your local SEO.

Set up key performance indicators (KPIs) relevant to your goals. If you’re using AI to drive foot traffic through local events, track attendance numbers and sales during event periods. A local art supply store hosting AI-generated art class events would monitor sign-ups and in-store purchases tied to those events.

Use analytics tools to monitor online engagement: track website visits, social media interactions, and click-through rates on AI-generated content. For example, a family restaurant could review how many reservations are made after interacting with their AI-powered menu recommendations on their website.

Ask, and ye shall receive

Gather customer feedback directly. Ask customers about their in-store experience and how they discovered your business. Did an AI-generated email coupon bring them in? Did they enjoy the personalized shopping experience your AI quiz provided? A boutique might collect this feedback through quick in-store surveys or feedback forms.

Evaluate the data and seek trends. Look for patterns in what’s working well and what isn’t. Perhaps your AI-scheduled workshops are a hit, but specific topics draw more interest than others. Use this information to fine-tune future offerings.

Be ready to pivot. Adaptability is key with AI and local SEO. If an AI strategy isn’t delivering the expected results, don’t hesitate to tweak it or try something new. A local pet store might find that their AI-recommended pet care tips are popular online but don’t translate to in-store visits, prompting them to add in-store incentives to their content.

Continuously improve. AI is a powerful tool, but it’s not a set-it-and-forget-it solution. Regularly review your AI strategies and update them based on the latest local trends, customer preferences, and technological advancements.

Conclusion to using AI in a local business

Generative AI presents many opportunities for local businesses to enhance their SEO and attract customers. By combining AI’s capabilities with a genuine understanding of the local community, companies can create an irresistible online presence that translates into real-world success.



Edwin Toonen

Edwin is a strategic content specialist. Before joining Yoast, he spent years honing his skill at The Netherlands’ leading web design magazine.

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