Positioning of companies operating locally: geo sitemap

Geolocalisation and its meaning for SEO strategy

Local search optimization is all about targeting your website to be found by people in your local area. To do this, you have to ensure that Google knows what your business is, what it’s offering, and where it’s located. 46% of all searches on Google include local intent. 97% of users searched online to find a local business. And what is more, every month, searchers visit 1.5 billion locations related to their Google searches.

Geolocalisation or geotargeting is a strategy to promote one’s business on the web by taking into account where their customers are. It implies for instance that you’ll use your website’s language and currency in order to communicate with customers from your targeted country. It can help make sure that your website is found by people searching for services close to their location, and can increase your chances of being ranked higher on Google Maps.

What is a sitemap?

A sitemap is a file containing a list of subpages of a given website along with its updates and modifications. It is a list of valuable addresses that we care about during the indexing process by search engine robots. One of the components of a site map is also a graphic map – a collection of visual elements (images, video) placed on a given page. The map is invisible to the user, but it is accessed by search engine robots.

Why is it important?

Having a well-optimized site map is important for any website, but especially for local businesses. A site map helps Googlebot know what pages are available on your site and how they connect to one another. This information helps Googlebot crawl your site more efficiently. In addition, a well-organized site map will help visitors find their way around your website more easily. It also provides you with an opportunity to highlight some of your best content by placing it higher up in the hierarchy. And, if you’re using XML sitemaps to tell search engines about changes or updates to your site, then an optimized site map will make this process much easier as well.

How Google uses sitemaps for creating ranking?

In search engine crawlers, a sitemap is a file that contains metadata about your website. When you create a sitemap, you’re providing Google with information about how to index your website. If Google can’t find out how to index your site using an HTML or XML document and the content on the page itself, it will use the sitemap to figure out which pages are worth crawling and fetching data from. A well-maintained and up-to-date sitemap gives Google more insight into your site’s content, helping it return better results for your site’s users.

Is sitemap important for local SEO strategy? Why?

A sitemap is a tool that is often overlooked by small businesses. Yet, it’s one of the most important aspects to local SEO. It is a detailed guide to your website that helps search engine crawlers better understand how your website works. This helps them index your site, which will make it easier for searchers to find you when they’re looking for information about your products or services.

Geo sitemap

It is important to make sure that your site has a geo sitemap. The geo sitemap displays all the pages and posts on your website, which are relevant for a specific geographic location. When you create one, it tells Google and other search engines what content should be shown to someone who is looking for something near you. This can help improve your rankings with local search results.

What can we gain by positioning on geo sitemap?

One way to establish your business as a local business is to show up on Google Maps. By filling out your geo-sitemap, you’re telling Google that you want your website to be indexed for every place where you have a physical presence. As well, by being visible online, you’re telling potential customers that they can find your products and services anywhere.

Create geographic sitemaps

The first step is to register with Google and add a new place to Google Maps. You must include information such as:

• name;
• data (place of business, contact telephone number, opening hours, photos);
• description (about 200 characters);
• categories (select only categories that are compatible with your business);
• photos or videos (add a tag, description, comment to them);
• additional information (links to company directories with our entry and company accounts).

For a geographic sitemap, the Sitemaps protocol is used along with additional geographic tags as defined below. You can submit a sitemap file that you create to Google in the same way as you can submit a general sitemap.

Last words

Ultimately, your sitemap is one more way to communicate with Google about how you want your website to be indexed. Once you understand how this document works, you’ll find that it’s an easy and valuable step in your local optimization strategy. Take advantage of the place where you run your business and let it appear on the web. Believe us, this will also translate into traditional offline marketing strategies.