How and When Adding “Near Me” to a Search Phrase Will Work for Customers Looking for Your Local Business
The “near me” search phrase is surrounded by quite a lot of debate. Do you use it or not? If people are searching for something that is “near me,” how are they going to find you? There are a few instances in which “near me” can benefit your business, but you need to put in…
The “near me” search phrase is surrounded by quite a lot of debate. Do you use it or not? If people are searching for something that is “near me,” how are they going to find you? There are a few instances in which “near me” can benefit your business, but you need to put in the work to leverage this search term.
Local SEO is one of the most important parts of your marketing plan and can take on many forms. You can:
- Add locations to your keywords
- Add location tags to images
- Add locations to your content
- Use a large swath of locations
Now that you know you need local SEO, we can focus on what the “near me” phrase does for you and how it can aid your business without ever having to type it yourself.
Local Searches Are Growing Faster Than You Think
Local searches including “near me” have grown 900% over the last two years. That kind of growth indicates that you need to focus on local SEO. You can add locations, landmarks, and other things to your keywords. You can always focus on finding people in your local area, but the “near me” phrase takes it to the next level.
Using the steps below allows you to grab a portion of that 900% growth in local searches. As powerful as it is, however, the “near me” phrase requires a little bit of finesse. While you probably use it yourself, you need to get your business into these search results.
Leveraging Reviews is Simple
An estimated 84% of online customers are willing to follow the recommendations made in an online review in the same way they would follow a recommendation from a family member, friend, or coworker. This means that you need more online reviews.
Leveraging reviews is easier if you incentivize your customers to write more of them. Give your customers a receipt with a URL and blurb that asks them to leave a review. When your customers get an email receipt, add a link where they can leave Google reviews.
Why Google reviews? Because 86.86% of the global search market belongs to Google. When people search for you, a business like yours, or a service you offer, Google gives them your local business page, directions, phone number, and reviews.
Google takes “near me,” uses the searcher’s location to determine what is near them, and gives them results accordingly. If you are close to the customer, your business will be first, or among the first, to appear. If you have nice reviews, that is one of the first things customers will see. Before they can even check your address, they are reading about how Customer A is so happy with your restaurant and the food (or what it is your business offers).
Every Location You Serve is Easier to Market
When you serve multiple locations or have multiple physical locations, you must add each town or city name to your tags, keywords, calls to action, and anything else you can think of. For example, you may be focusing on Dallas SEO while forgetting that you also serve Arlington, Richardson, Irving, Fort Worth, Garland, Plano, Flower Mound, The Colony, Grapevine, Mansfield, DeSoto, Duncanville, and more.
If your business is tagging content and images with all these locations, the “near me” search phrase is more likely to find you. Something as simple as a call to action on everything you post with all these cities is enough to enhance your online presence.
Keep in mind that people who live in Dallas do not sit at home all day. They drive to work, take the kids to school, go shopping, and visit friends or family. Your business might be located along any of these routes in a variety of suburbs. Someone who lives 30 miles away might choose your business over someone around the corner because you are near their office, parents, or child’s school.
Directions, Phone Numbers, and Landmarks
Your Google My Business page should have your phone number, address, directions, and even local landmarks that are close to you. You can also list all those towns you service. This information should be consistent across every page of your website, the contact page, and your Google My Business page.
If you put the address, phone number, and name of the business across the bottom of every page, Google can find you even more easily. You can go a step further by adding a schema markup that includes your hours, the name of your CEO, your annual profits, and even links to your profiles on social media platforms.
If every page has the exact same information, you will have a larger online presence. As Google searches for what the customer wants, it will choose your business when you have a definitive location “near me” along with all the data that a customer needs.
Remember, up to this point, you haven’t used the phrase “near me” in your content marketing.
Simple URLs are Key to Local Success
Simple URLs are a good way to show up in even more local searches. You have two options:
- www.mysite.net/dallas/fast-food-menu/lunch/brunch
- www/mysite.net/dallasbrunchmenu
One URL is easy to read, remember, and type. One is so long that the Dallas part of it gets lost. When you use simple URLs, Google can easily find your business. If you have location pages for all the places you serve, you can create them all in the same way:
This means that any customers near one of these locations will be fed your specific location page. If you have followed the steps above, you also have your contact information across the bottom of the page and a Google My Business page for each location.
You Don’t Even Need to Write “Near Me”
As mentioned, your local SEO Dallas plan does not include typing “near me” around all your keywords. That is clunky, weird, and makes your content look like spam. Only customers use the phrase “near me” when they search. If you wish to use “near me” in your educational articles or blog posts, you need to parlay the phrase into a question.
Speak directly to customers by asking them: “Searching for an oil change service ‘near me’?” That might allow you to get the phrase into your writing, but as you can see, you have not attached a location to it. This is why you should focus on local SEO and let your customers write out “near me” every time they have a need.
As you review your current or potential Dallas SEO services, you should consider how to leverage the “near me” search phrase that customers use all the time. Setting up your website and Google My Business page properly allows you to capture the attention of more local customers. After all, 900% growth in “near me” searches means your company can grow quickly. Reach out to an SEO specialist in Dallas who can audit your current SEO situation and help you improve.
