Local SEO and why it matters for Guernsey Finance

In the Finance Industry, Local SEO could easily be overlooked as being unimportant when the clear majority of our clients are based from overseas. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. I will explain why we should be doing more for our local SEO to help on with business on a global scale.

Firstly, what is Local SEO?

Local SEO is a highly effective form of online marketing. It allows a business to promote their services via SEO techniques to local customers without having to compete on a global scale. Appearing first in SERPs (Search engine results pages) is going to make you more visible, give you an advantage over your competitors and improve your brand awareness.

So why use Local SEO Optimisation for a global business?

Guernsey is one of the top jurisdictions for offshore funds. We’re also known to be one of the most compliant jurisdictions, therefore if an oversees client searches for businesses in Guernsey to work with, they are quite likely to add the term “Guernsey” to their search.
A good example of this is to perform the search “Restaurants” on your favourite search engine. Google for example shows a map with some of the top results.
Performing the same search on say google.de as google.co.uk, you’ll get different results. Firstly google.de won’t pick-up your location so will return generic results.
Click the image below to enlarge:

Now add the word “Guernsey” before your search, and you are shown the same as the local results. We’ve just performed a Guernsey Local search from a different country and the results should be very similar to those you saw on your google.co.uk. See example below:

Advantages to Local SEO

Google, Bing, Yahoo! and other top search engines use many different websites information to show snippets or “rich content” alongside their results in the SERPs. By using some local SEO techniques, you can increase your exposure by appearing at the very top of the SERP (search engine result page). This can happen quickly, so the results can be seen within a number of days in some cases, but mainly depends on the size of your website, how it is structured and various other factors.

Why is this so important?

It is estimated that 98% of searchers choose businesses on the 1st page of results they see.
It is also estimated that 88% of consumers trust online reviews or testimonials.
Over 75% of smartphone users contact a business after searching for their local information

Not appearing could in theory cost you over 90% of your business.

First steps to successful local SEO

Whilst local SEO is not quite as simple as putting the correct information on your website, it’s a good start. Search engines are used by everybody on the internet. If you have an Apple iPhone or Mac Computer using Siri or a windows computer with Cortana, these will both use search engines to perform the searches you make with those assistants. The same for Google’s “OK google” service. These devices can also have access to your location, but again with the keyword Guernsey being added by offshore clients, you tap into a whole extra market, just for doing the basics of Local SEO.

Here’s a short list of things you can do to help improve your local SEO

• Register your “Google My Business” account & Bing my places account
• Become listed on websites that offer local listings
• Build quality links with local-friendly websites
• Build a social profile. Likes, shares and engagement all contribute
• Use a content strategy that includes local content

What’s next?

The above steps are simple and can instantly help boost your SEO as well as Local SEO. But there is still much more to do.
Your next steps would be to consider regular updates, make sure they are well written and structured. You should also be considering a link building strategy and perhaps partners to do this with as well as ongoing SEO audits to ensure you don’t fall foul of search engine penalties such as Google Panda. Duplicate content, or poor technical SEO can seriously damage your outreach.
There are a lot of options to consider when making choices like this, which is where Midshore can help. Sam is a talented SEO expert with years of experience with SEO in many different business sectors. If this is something that interests you, contact Sam via email.
sam@midshoreconsulting.com