Digital Basics Part 4: Local SEO for Melbourne Businesses

Episode summary

Ever wondered how businesses end up in those three map results at the top of Google? In episode four of the Design Box Digital podcast, Tristan Brunsdon explains local SEO in plain English for Melbourne and Australian small business owners. He covers the three things Google says it uses to rank local results (relevance, distance and prominence), how to set up and look after your Google Business Profile, how to ask for and reply to reviews, why your name, address and phone number need to match everywhere, and how to build genuinely useful suburb pages instead of copy-and-paste ones. Plus a seven-step local SEO checklist.

In this episode

  • What the map pack is, and why local searchers are often ready to act
  • How Google ranks local results: relevance, distance and prominence
  • Why you can’t pay for a better spot in the regular map listings
  • Setting up, claiming and verifying your Google Business Profile
  • Getting your business name, main category, address or service area, hours, services, description and photos right
  • Why fake addresses, virtual offices and keyword-stuffed names can get your profile suspended
  • How to ask for reviews, what never to do, and how to reply to good and bad reviews
  • NAP consistency: keeping your name, address and phone number identical everywhere
  • Citations: why a few accurate listings beat hundreds of directories
  • Local links and community involvement as signs of local prominence
  • Making your location obvious on your website, and building genuinely useful suburb and service-area pages
  • A seven-step local SEO checklist you can do yourself

Chapters

  • 0:00 – Cold open: three businesses on the map. How do they get there?
  • 0:50 – Welcome back, and a quick nod to episode 3
  • 2:29 – Section 1: How the Map Results Work
  • 5:55 – Section 2: Your Google Business Profile
  • 10:48 – Section 3: Reviews, NAP Consistency and Citations
  • 16:15 – Section 4: Your Website’s Role, and Suburb and Service-Area Pages
  • 20:32 – Section 5: Your Local SEO Checklist
  • 23:51 – Recap
  • 25:07 – Your One Action This Week
  • 25:46 – Call to Action and Episode 5 Teaser
  • 26:32 – Outro

Your one action this week

Log in to your Google Business Profile and give it a check-up. If you’ve never claimed it, or can’t log in, get access first. Then check four things: your main category, your hours (including upcoming public holidays), your phone number and website, and whether you have real, recent photos. Bonus: send your review link to three happy customers.

Resources mentioned

Next episode

Episode 5 – Keyword research without the jargon: how to work out what your customers are actually typing into Google, which searches are worth going after, and how to use them without sounding like a robot.

About Design Box Digital

Design Box Digital is a Melbourne web design and digital marketing agency based at the World Trade Centre in Docklands. We build WordPress and Shopify websites, run SEO and Google Ads, and help businesses turn their websites into lead generators. Visit designbox.com.au to get in touch.

SEO Tips
SEO Tips
Digital Basics Part 4: Local SEO for Melbourne Businesses
Loading
/