Maintain traffic through local SEO

Cathryn says: “Focus on local SEO.

With AI overviews and AI Mode dominating the SERPs, it's really important to focus on local SEO to try and maintain a certain level of traffic volume.”

Is this more relevant for certain types of businesses?

“There are businesses where their content is very much informational, like solicitors or accountants, where their blog content is being picked up by AI overviews dominating that space, which means their traffic volumes are starting to decrease. We're seeing that in lots of different sectors.

However, they have a local edge. They have a local office, and it's those local searches where people are looking for ‘solicitors in Brighton’, where the AI overviews are not being shown as much. It’s typically around 40% for those versus about 90% for informational-led content.

There's an opportunity to try and maximise that element, your local SEO, to try and get more traffic and keep that traffic up as much as you can.”

Are AI overviews generally bad for local businesses like solicitors and accountants?

“It's starting to hurt their traffic volumes, as we're seeing in many industries. Because the AI overviews are appearing and users are getting the answers to their questions, their blog answers are being shown, and users aren’t necessarily coming through to the site or inquiring. It is having an effect.

However, you can look at searches that are more local, where people are looking for things like solicitors or accountants in certain areas. It could extend to other service-based industries, whether you're a café, a restaurant, or a plumber.

You can focus on optimizing your local SEO through your website content, but also on your trustworthiness and things like citations to make sure that you're in the directories and in a good place.”

Should you focus more on bottom-of-funnel phrases as opposed to top-of-funnel phrases?

“Yes, but also think about the long tail. At this point, they know exactly what they want and what type of service they want.

Focus on those bottom-of-funnel phrases rather than when they have a wider need and they're searching in a more question-led and informational-led way.”

Is AI less likely to produce results for that kind of content, so you are more likely to get traffic from Google through a conventional search result?

“Although AI will start appearing for local searches, and they are appearing more and more, there are certain ones where it won’t show up as much, such as when someone's looking for a type of service ‘near me’.

If someone is looking for a Thai takeaway, for example, and they're searching, ‘Where can I find a Thai takeaway in X,’ you are more likely to get your local map results and Google Business Profile results, rather than the AI overview. The SERP will not be as dominated, so you will hopefully get more traffic through that.”

Are LLMs like ChatGPT able to recognise where users are in order to answer local queries, and how do they go about delivering such results?

“There is some indication that that's starting to appear, and they're showing certain places and recommendations based on the user’s specific location, but it generally doesn't come up as often as it would with a general question or when you're trying to get an answer to an informational query.

That's where the opportunity lies, but it is starting to appear. AI is starting to realise where you are and trying to answer those queries, but it’s not always correct.”

What do you need to do with your websites to optimize them more effectively for local queries?

“With your website, the traditional method is, you’re in a certain location, so you’re going to change your content to show that. If you’re in Leeds, you would make sure to have ‘Leeds’ throughout the site and things like that. That method is changing.

It’s very much about appearing as part of the local community and making sure that the blog content has a local edge. If you're part of any charity endeavours, you've been doing any local event sponsorship, you've got local case studies and success stories, try and get that across, along with any awards, accreditations, etc.

It's just about showing AI, the search engines, and the users that you actually are an expert in that local area.

If you have any of that local content, like awards and extensive reviews, you definitely need to publish it on your website. It could be in the form of a blog article or, ideally, you want that on the homepage, as a trust signal demonstrating that they are dealing with a reputable business.

However, what's probably more important than just the website now is to look outside of that. Look at where you're listed as a business – not just thinking about your Google Business Profile, but also any directories where you have citations. Make sure those names and addresses match and there are no inconsistencies, so it shows another trustworthy trust signal.

That’s probably the first port of call. Make sure that all these directories where you're listed (Bing Maps, Apple Maps, etc.) match exactly. I see that quite often, where people have different trading names or different variations of the way that they put their name and address, and that just doesn't match. That really doesn’t help your local SEO.”

How often should you publish new case studies and get new reviews up?

“It's about regularly keeping it updated. It wouldn't necessarily be monthly, but if you are posting a regular, updated case study every few months, it's more about the quality of the content than keeping it completely up to date all the time.

Try to keep a level of maintenance and get the important ones out there, but always keep an eye on it. Don’t just do all the content and then leave it; it's about constant refinement.”

Are there any recent updates to the way that Google Business Profile operates that you need to take advantage of now?

“One of the ones that people tend to miss is that there's an opportunity to link to any current blogs and social posts, so you can put your latest blogs or content in there as additional information for people about the business.

What that shows is that you're regularly updating content. You can also include any local angles in there, and any local blog articles that you've got going on.

You can set that up as an automatic process using an RSS feed, or you can do it manually. Honestly, you can only add a few links, so it makes sense to just keep an eye on it and update it now and again.”

Should local businesses be involved on platforms like Reddit as well?

“Yes, especially where there's a discussion around the sort of questions that people are asking in Google: ‘Where do I find the nearest solicitor in X?’, ‘Where's the best family restaurant in Y?’, etc.

It can be good to participate in relevant discussions to show that you are a source of information, but it would also provide an external link. There’s also value in the fact that AI uses Reddit content. For example, ChatGPT uses quite a bit of that to pull out information. That’s a good place to be for various reasons.

You could feasibly think about having your own subreddit, but it's more about looking for relevant discussions and participating in them.”

How do you deal with negative reviews?

“People are entitled to their reviews. The best thing you can do in that situation is to try and get more of the positive ones to replace and update them.

The most important thing would be to respond to them. If you've got a negative review, try and turn it into a positive in some way through your comments. At the very least, show that you are responding to customer needs and things like that.

All of that shows a level of interactivity with your Google reviews, which will help your local SEO.”

Is there likely to be any significant changes to the future of local SEO?

“It's changing from the point of view that it’s less focussed on what you're putting on the website and more focussed on things like Reddit, and making sure that you're leaving comments and demonstrating authority in different ways.

It’s more relevant now to think about external events you can sponsor and try to show authority that way. The angle is changing from ‘I need to state that I’m a local business on my website’ towards showing trust to Google through all these external sources. That's more important now.”

Might it get to a point where local businesses rely entirely on third-party platforms, or will you require your own website for the foreseeable future?

“The role of a website is going to change. There will still be a need for a website, but local businesses will need to think about how to optimize that content for AI in order to maintain it.

There is also a slight change because AI is now directing people to contact you by phone or email, so there's a step that's missing. There's a possibility that you will start seeing more direct contact from your users, and websites will have a slightly different role in trying to generate more AI top-of-funnel content as well.”

Are you seeing any trend in terms of local businesses using AI to produce content?

“Not so much. All businesses are using AI to produce content, but I don’t think there’s necessarily a local edge.

What you can say about local businesses is, if they're smaller and they've got less capacity, then they will use more of the AI tools to help produce their content.”

Cathryn, what's the key takeaway from the tip you shared today?

“Go back to basics. Make sure that all of your citations match across your Google Business Profile and all the various directories and social media profiles. Make sure that all of the addresses and contact details match, and there’s consistency.

That’s the first trust single that you need to maintain your local SEO.”

Cathryn Stormont is an SEO Consultant at DIGIFreelancer. Find out more over at DIGIFreelancer.co.uk.