Local SEO in Luxury Marketing
Anyone involved with the corporate side of a luxury brand and its marketing knows that luxury consumers are unique in their habits. Typically, these shoppers prefer making in-store purchases for a tactile, hands-on experience, but still research a brand and its products extensively online before committing to a purchase. So, how can you meet them adequately in both places? The answer is search engine optimization (SEO).
Traditional SEO allows you to reach customers during their research phase while local SEO allows you to attract them to the store when they're ready to make a purchase. In this article, we focus on that second element, covering everything you need to know about local SEO and how to make it work for your brand.
What Is Local SEO?
Local SEO is a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy that tailors your online presence to attract local customers. The goal is to enhance a business's visibility in local search results, making it more likely for people in the local area to find and choose that business when searching for products or services.
For example, a jewelry store based in New York will want to appear in the local search results of potential customers who also live in New York and are searching for silver bracelets.
Why Is Local SEO Important?
Local SEO is important for luxury brands because their target audience enjoys in-store shopping. According to the Luxury Institute, 62% of affluent consumers said they preferred making purchases in person, rather than online, as it allows them to personally assess the quality and exclusivity of products. Nearly one-third of luxury shoppers visit a physical store at least monthly, with 77% of consumers expecting to visit luxury stores as or more often in the year ahead.
In short, things are looking good for brick-and-mortar luxury shops. But these customers’ sales journeys don’t start with them walking into a store.
Consumers’ online experience influences of all luxury purchases, according to 2023 research, with the majority of shoppers doing at least a little research about a brand or product before heading in-store—and that’s where local SEO comes in.
When consumers search for products or services in their area, a well-optimized local presence increases the likelihood that your luxury store will be among the top results. This makes it more visible to potential customers and provides them with essential details like your store location, business hours, and contact information, so they know where and when to visit your store and complete the sale in person. Plus, having a strong and up-to-date online presence with accurate business information, positive reviews, and high ratings contributes to the perception of trustworthiness and quality.
Optimizing your local SEO also allows you to tailor your online presence to specific geographic areas. When targeting luxury consumers, understanding the demographics and preferences of your local audience enables you to create targeted marketing campaigns that resonate with the tastes and expectations of high-end shoppers.
How Does Local SEO Work?
While local SEO and traditional SEO share some of the same principles—including boosting online visibility—the former is a little more specific.
Traditional SEO is geared towards a broader online audience, emphasizing global visibility and ranking in search results irrespective of where they are in the world. Local SEO, on the other hand, is far more focused on location-specific factors. It aims to optimize a business's online presence for specific geographic locations, in the hopes of increasing visibility in local search results for particular areas.
While both share common principles like on-page optimization and high-quality content, local SEO also uses strategies such as Google My Business optimization, local keyword targeting, NAP citations, and localized content creation, to cater to the specific needs of a local audience.
For local SEO, search engines like Google use three main local ranking factors:
Relevance. How similar is your Google Business Profile to the words that a user has plugged into the search engine?
Distance. How far is the user from the business when they do an online search?
Prominence. How important will this business be to the searcher?
Local SEO Ranking Factors Relevant to Luxury Brands
Let’s look at the specific ranking factors that are worth familiarizing yourself with when creating a local SEO strategy for a luxury brand.
GOOGLE MY BUSINESS
Google My Business (GMB) is crucial for helping people find your physical stores, with easy access to opening hours, location, contact information, reviews, and photos. While it’s simple to set up and maintain in the backend, it provides customers with a valuable and visually appealing platform for showcasing high-end products or services.
Luxury brands should ensure that their GMB profile is complete and optimized by regularly updating information, uploading high-resolution images, and encouraging satisfied customers to leave positive reviews.
When optimizing your account, make sure to include:
Business name
Contact number, including area code
Physical address or location
Opening hours
Service area, if there are boundaries for your business
Photos and videos
You can even use the post feature to share updates, promotions, or exclusive events, creating a dynamic and engaging GMB presence.
Let’s look at David Wedd, for example. A luxury jeweler with boutiques in New York, Beverly Hills, and Doha, they want to be found by customers living in those cities. That’s why their Google Maps listing for their New York store, for instance, provides a contact number with a local New York area code, the physical address of the store, as well as its opening hours. They’ve also uploaded their own videos and photos, which sit alongside those added by customers.
BUSINESS CITATIONS
Having all NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) information for your business and stores the same across all platforms is essential. Not only do you not want to misdirect people, but any errors may jeopardize your credibility as a brand.
Accurate citations are also important in bolstering your local SEO, as search engines use these citations to verify and validate a brand's location and authenticity. This doesn’t just include references on your own site and social media, but across other sites too, such as store finders, blog posts, articles, and online lists.
Brands should audit and manage their business citations regularly to ensure that NAP information is consistent across all platforms. Consider seeking mentions on authoritative and relevant industry websites to further strengthen local SEO. Note how David Webb, for example, have the same store opening hours, address, and phone number for their New York boutique on both their GMB page and their website.
LOCAL KEYWORDS
Creating unique content for your site that is relevant to your brand and readers is important for improving both local and traditional SEO rankings.
Using location-specific terms in website content like landing pages and blog posts, meta tags, and product descriptions ensures that the brand is visible to potential customers searching for relevant products or services within a particular area. Conduct thorough keyword research to identify relevant local terms related to your brand, then integrate these keywords naturally into website content.
Say, for example, you’re looking to improve the local SEO for a luxury skincare company based in London. Creating and publishing a blog post about ‘the best luxury facials in London’ will help build your local authority. Ensure you also have a ‘find a store’ page on your site. Even if you only have one physical location, the more places you can list your NAP, the better.
To continue with our David Webb example, they have an optimized boutique page on their website which allows customers to not only find their three flagship stores, but every store across the country that sells their jewelry, including Saks Fifth Avenue stores in California, Florida, and Houston, as well Neiman Marcus in Texas, and Betteridge in Colorado, among many others.
LOCAL BACKLINKS
Links from other websites to your own can be one of the most powerful parts of your local SEO strategy, as they contribute significantly to a brand's authority and credibility within a specific geographic location. These backlinks signal to search engines that the brand is endorsed by local entities, helping it to perform better in local search rankings.
Brands should actively seek opportunities for links through collaborations with local influencers, partnerships with other businesses, and contributing content to local publications or blogs. Just be sure that these acquired backlinks come from reputable and relevant sources. It’s always better to go for quality over quantity. David Webb, for example, have earned backlinks from New York-based publications, including The New York Times, the New York Post, and New York magazine.
How to Improve Local SEO
The best way to improve your brand’s local SEO rankings is to work with experts who know the market inside and out. Block & Tam is a marketing agency that specializes in luxury brands, with services including SEO optimization.
