Google Local Search, we're gonna need to understand a couple of things here, the local search results box, how maps search looks. And we need to understand some things about mobile search as well, when it comes to understanding how Google Local Search is actually going to show results and how it's going to work. So let's go and have a look at that. So Google Local Search, what is the local search results box, we need to understand what that is. So let's go and have a look at how that actually appears in search. So we know what that means.

So what we've got here is we've got a local search. So we search for Chinese restaurant. Peterborough is by putting a location on that Google sees the location and they will change this to a local search. If we remove Peterborough from there. And we search is still showing as a local search which is really, really exciting. And the reason he's doing that is because Google are assuming that this is a local search.

Now, sometimes what happens with people's browsers, they're logged in, and the IP address is wrong. So that's the internet address. And then it shows a wrong result. So when we do a test, we always want to make sure we search with our location, and we're going to get a local search. This is the local search results page. Now, you'll notice that we've got the map above.

This is there sometimes and we record this Google always changing and playing with this, this has changed so many times over the last few years. It's It's ridiculous. It used to show seven businesses here, and now it shows free and then it gives more places here. So everything we're trying to do in this course, is we're trying to get you into this box. We're trying to get you here. So when someone searches for your business in a local search, we want you to be number one here.

Now there's a lot of factors and you might be competing against Someone who's been doing really good SEO for a long time and it's gonna be really difficult to do. But what I want to show you is a little something here. This is the top organic result. Now what do I mean by that? We've got an advert here, we're going to map we've got the local maps search result box, and we've got TripAdvisor very large directory, never TripAdvisor and that basically a directory stroke review site. And then the first organic result, the first normal website that appears is Shanghai garden.

And we got another directory then we've got another live directory that's actually an ordering directory. So you just eat is a very large website where you can order something, and they're gonna deliver from different restaurants. And then the next one we've got here is East which is a local restaurant. And then we've got rural China down here. Now we know his top position number one, top position number one, position number two, not on this page. So when the strongest factor is getting good organic ratings in the search because Google said what your top here, so we're going to put your top here as well.

So the map search is really, really difficult sometimes to get an impact in. It relies heavily on reviews, and click throughs. So the algorithm is really difficult to unlock. But one of the basic things is if we can get up business top here, nearly always 99% of the time, we're going to get our business here as well, no guarantee. But I've seen this very strong correlation. So let's have a look at the maps search.

So this is local search and navigation. So we was talking about the local search box here, but when we click on this more places, we're going to go through to the map search which is going to give us a map of all the local businesses that match that and if we zoom in, sometimes in really competitive sectors, you'll see more Businesses appear. As you can see, as you scroll out, you're gonna see a few more. But in some searches, you're gonna see that well, you'll see more and more business. And this is a good way of getting a sense of your local competition as well guys, because you can see who you actually got to compete against. What we have over this site is listings.

And that again, we see Shanghai garden we see the top three results. Now one of the really strong factors here is reviews. So as we scroll down, we're going to see lots of reviews. Now, what's interesting is, this one here, does only has one review, but you'll notice the reviews aren't showing. Now the score shows when you get five or more on average. So you need to get five reviews to get them to actually show in the search box see got one one, a nose to, again, ranking that may be that Google is just giving new businesses a chance because it's been very difficult in the past to get up in local search.

The historic Leader tends to be the dominant one. And we can get around that if we can improve our organic search. As we come down, we're going to see lots of reviews, Jimmy's restaurants 68, but the 3.7, so you've been demoted a little bit there because of the low quality reviews. And we'll be going into showing you how to create a review strategy later on. So as you come down, you're gonna see, we've got quite a few notes a little bit anomalous because, for instance, this one real China here has got 15, and it's 4.4. So it's got good ratings, and it's below other ones.

Now, a lot of time, that's because the website isn't very good, we can see that. We'll have a look at that in a little while in normal search. If we click on this listing, we're going to see that we have some reviews. And then we're also shown some different things here. Now, one of the things I want to show you here is I want to mention Google business photos. When you come in to a map search, and when do people use map search, they use map search when they're trying to find a location when they're trying to get somebody to use it for directions.

So if someone is local searching for a restaurant to go to for instance or hotel, this is really really good way of doing it. But when you go on this, you're going to see what's called a Google business photos tour. And what it is is a series of photographs stitched together. It's a project that belongs to Google, we used to be involved in this and in fact this talk is one we actually did. So this is our work. And we can see that we can go and have a look around the restaurant and we can see the ambience and this is a really powerful marketing tool.

Now Google, don't give it what it deserves in terms of real estate on the in the search. And it should be much better than it actually is. But it can be really good if you've got a customer facing business like a sharp or retail, anything where you're dealing B to see and people are coming in on a regular basis can be good to get one of these done for your business. What you need. do is find a Google business photographer, a local one 500 a new ones, they tend to be a little bit more competitive because I've just come onto the program, we used to be involved in it, we no longer are. But the new photographers tend to come on to the program, their prices might be a little bit more competitive.

And you might be surprised how cheap you can get a good Google business photos Tor, and then you can take this and embed this on your website. And that's when it becomes really valuable. If you've got it on your homepage and people are visiting and you can say, visit our business have a look inside. This is really good in terms of SEO to add SEO value. You've got to say really, when you look at this, where we've just come from, it hasn't helped us business that much in search. It's got the tour, and all this going on.

It's not really helped that much. Now some people say it has weight in search. I'm yet to be convinced it was one of the reasons why we left the program because we didn't think that it gave enough value to our clients investment. They were much better off Investing in local SEO and spending more money there than this because it's nice to have. I don't think it's neat to have it, I can't see a correlation between this and rankings. Now, I think one of the reasons that this business is suffering is because of their website.

So let's have a look at their website. As you can see, this website, not very good. No copy on the page. It's got some opening times here hasn't even got the menu on there. It just doesn't look very good. It's not a very good website.

And I think and it's not mobile responsive, which we're going to be looking at in a moment. And I think that's going to massively impact the local search because Google looks all of these things together. So we need to make sure we've got a good website, if we want to get those rankings on the map page. And the other thing to understand is, this is the Yellow Pages these days. This is what people tend to use. When they're searching for a local business.

They'll do a map search. We're taken here that we're looking for something. This is how people use it. And then you've got Street View, which Google business photos is linked to so people can explore and travel and plan their journey, plan their arrival plan their visit. And all of this is done here. So this is a really, really powerful search engine.

Now this is a different search engine to Google search. And people need to understand that this is not the same search engine, completely different search engine. It draws data from the other ones, but it shows different results because it is a purely local search driven search engine. So let's have a look at mobile search. Now, mobile search is really, really important because 50% of all searches are done on mobile devices. That's how much these smartphones and tablets have accelerated and people are predicting that will actually increase because everyone's basically got computer in their pocket.

And that's why think about a mobile devices data is not a phone anymore. It's a mini computer to make phone calls as well. So people are searching on their mobile device. Now the important thing to understand is that this defaults to local search. So when someone is moving around, they're doing a search. Google assume it's a local search.

Every search they do on here that could relate to your services is going to default to local search. Now, the big issue with local search is responsive design. What is responsive design responsive design is a website that works well on mobile. I'ma show you how to test the website in a moment. But it's one that actually responds to different devices. So it doesn't just display on a computer desktop.

I'll actually display well on a mobile or a tablet. So most modern websites these days are built with responsive design. A lot of our websites aren't and don't be fooled if you need to get a new website after watching this. There are companies out there that still selling desktop and mobile websites. You don't need that you just need something to build a website that's easy to use and is responsive. Now we use Squarespace for a lot of our websites, and we highly recommend you do the same, it's really easy to use if you want to manage the website yourself.

And it doesn't have the security risks that WordPress websites typically have. Now, if two things being equal if there's two websites, and let's just go and have a look at that road China website, again, if there's two websites on one isn't responsive, and one is, Google will rank the responsive website above the non responsive website. So if your competitors all have old web pages, one of the best things you do is create a responsive website or get your website have graded and change to a responsive website because that's going to automatically put you above them in the search results. So it's really important that you have a responsive website. And obviously if you're watching this because you're interested in improving your local marketing offerings to your clients, this is an opportunity for you to team up with a local web designer and market that as a package, because local SEO isn't just about filling out directories, it's also this is a major part of it as well, you have to have a good functional website these days.

So that's really important to understand. Huge, huge, huge thing. So how do we test if it's responsive, is quite simple, what we need to do is get the website showing on a window like this, and we just drag the corner. And we simulate a smartphone screen. And as you can see, this is not responsive. And we can do the same and simulate a tablet screen.

And we can see this is not responsive. So let's go and have a look at a website that is actually responsive. So this is my SME heroes website. And as you can see, it'll start moving stuff across that squeezing and they'll start resizing and if you notice, is now actually as we do this, it's now actually rearranged everything so that it can be read on a mobile device. And that's how you can tell if your website is responsive or not.