How to use AI In Local SEO

Intro

As we move deeper into 2024, you will notice that there is more and more talk of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in business, especially in digital and social media marketing. In fact, it has been reported that 9 in 10 businesses now leverage AI in some form to gain a competitive edge. When it comes to improving local SEO, the use of AI is increasingly prominent. After all, its ability to analyse data and automate what were once lengthy processes has changed the way businesses approach local SEO entirely. Plus, with 46% of Google’s daily searches, involving localities, this means any business that markets their goods and services online will need to know how to leverage it for best effect.

What does AI do for local SEO?

AI can help small businesses understand and predict user behaviour. It can also help to enhance local search listings and automates various SEO tasks. Essentially, the evolution of AI in SEO allows local businesses to more easily manage their online presence, making sure that their business appears in local search results when they need it to. By using tools such as voice search optimisation to create personalised search results, AI now enables businesses to approach local SEO in a more tailored and effective manner. At Brand Nova Digital, we are experts in helping clients reap the benefits of using AI in local SEO, along with the tools that are leading this charge.

Source: https://www.cynet.com/platform/user-behaviour-analytics/

What AI tools can be used for local SEO?

There are a variety of AI powered tools that can change the game when it comes to local SEO. The following can help to provide valuable insights into strategy, simplify complex processes and enable businesses to spend less time on local SEO but still achieve great results.

• Bright Local – Offering comprehensive local SEO audits as well as reputation management and rank tracking, Bright Local helps businesses understand where they are at and what needs to be improved.
• RankTracker - Easy to use, simple and effective, RankTracker’s AI Article Writer can easily put together local SEO-optimised content; perfect for the small business owner with little budget or time to undertake this themselves. In addition, RankTracker provides tools for analysis, monitoring and improvement within your local SEO rankings, as well as a helpful SEO glossary.
• Yext - Putting in information into various online directories can be laborious and time consuming. Yext uses AI to manage and optimise this information, ensuring it is accurate, which is crucial for local SEO.
• Moz Local - Moz Local streamlines local listing management. Again, this ensures that your business information is accurately listed across the web. Not only this, but it also provides insights into your website’s performance and recommends improvements.
• Answer The Public - While Answer The Public is not solely AI based, it does use AI to look at search queries and provides insight into what your customer base may be asking. This means you can create content addressing specific local search queries as well as other already-identified keywords.

Source: https://answerthepublic.com/

How is AI changing local SEO

AI has had a significant impact on local SEO that extends beyond the tools used, however. In fact, it changes the strategies businesses use to optimise their business for local search. For example, AI algorithms can now analyse user behaviour and preferences. This means they can deliver highly personalised search results. Think of this as something similar to Netflix’s AI powered recommendations, which they believe now influences a staggering 80% of what people watch on its platform. Apply the analytics gained via this method for a local user that often searches for vegan foods near them, and a business could use this within their local SEO strategy. For example, they could ensure any relevant searches take them to the specific pages of the restaurant that appeal to their preferences, such as a vegan menu, instead of to a main menu which includes meat dishes.

Businesses therefore need to focus on creating extremely relevant localised content to have a chance of performing well in such searches. AI can help with this by creating locally-focused blog posts and social media content. However, it will be vital for humans to assist with this type of content to avoid being penalised by Google for using too much AI content.

In addition to this, voice search optimisation is becoming ever more important. As more and more people use voice activated assistants such as Alexa and Siri, and it becomes more reliable (On average, voice assistants can now answer search queries with an accuracy of 93.7%), AI tools can help businesses understand natural language used in such searches and this enables businesses to optimise their content accordingly. Its ability to analyse the conversational nature of voice search is likely to pick up on more long-tail keywords related to the locality of the requests.

Furthermore, predictive analytics now gives businesses ever more information about anticipated search trends. This means that businesses can adjust their strategies proactively, staying ahead of competitors and meeting evolving demands.

And finally, as mentioned, AI obviously automates some of the most repetitive SEO tasks such as content optimisation, keyword research and performance tracking. Not only does this save time, but it also ensures that local SEO efforts are more data driven and therefore more precise.

The future of AI in Local SEO

While the above sections explain how AI is working when it comes to SEO now, as many business owners know, things change quickly in search engine optimisation. So what are we likely to see in the future?

AI and customer reviews - Many businesses are only as successful as their customer reviews say they are, which is why business owners should certainly shift some focus to analysing and responding to such reviews. As we move forward, AI will be able to analyse and respond to customer reviews, allowing you to free up valuable time, while keeping on top of what your business is doing well, and perhaps not so well. It will also confirm to your customers that their views on your business matter to you. This, in turn, will likely lead to more reviews being left, which can do wonders for your SEO and your sales figures. With statistics revealing that a third of consumers see reviews as the most important purchasing consideration, the importance of handling reviews well cannot be understated.

Source: https://tagembed.com/blog/google-customer-reviews-examples/

Competitor analysis - As we deepen AI’s capabilities, there will be fantastic opportunities for businesses large and small to dive deeper than ever before into what their competitors are doing right, and wrong. AI tools can already provide insights into competitors' SEO strategies, and the focus on what and how they’re doing on local SEO will be even more illuminating.

Ethics - Of course, the ethical concerns about responsible AI use will increase the more AI is used. Business owners will need to ensure they are always on the right side of AI usage for local SEO, ensuring data privacy is front and centre of any strategies they implement.

Strategy - As more tools and strategies evolve, business owners will need to be selective about what they use. For those uninitiated to AI the advice is to start small and build slowly, to create robust and flexible strategies that can evolve as the technology does.

AI in all, local SEO is obviously likely to evolve quickly, and business owners will need to be on top of this to remain competitive, particularly within their local area. While this represents a challenge, it is likely that those who embrace the SEO tools we mentioned above will be in the right place to reap the benefits of this fascinating technology.