Optimizing a website for local search is about reaching local customers and turning them into buyers. Take Southern California businesses, for example. They might make ample use of ‘San Diego’ or the 92101 zip code as their baseline. What they do not know is that search engines evaluate geographic references far more deeply.
To establish authentic, hyper-local or regional authority, modern search strategies incorporate easily recognized landmarks. These are commonly understood anchors that can be integrated into a website’s digital footprint signals so that algorithms can pinpoint them more easily.
The Role They Play in Local Searches
We typically think of landmarks as points of interest to human beings. It turns out that search engines are interested in them as well. Google and its competitors rely on complex entity relationships to understand the physical world. An entity can be anything from a person to a business to a neighborhood. Landmarks are entities too.
When search algorithms analyze a local business’s website, they look for data points that link the business entity to known geographic entities. Algorithms expect to find data points in website copy and location schema. They expect to find it in a company’s Google Business Profile. Here is a three-point summary of how those data points help:
- They confirm a business’s physical proximity to well-known focal points.
- They capture hyper-local ‘near me intent’, aligning business websites with user inquiries.
- They build consumer trust by reassuring consumers that the business is familiar with the local area.
Landmarks tie businesses to a specific neighborhood. A San Diego business serving customers in dozens of neighborhoods can tie its business to different landmarks in each one.
All Landmarks Are Not Equal
Pixsan, a local San Diego SEO specialist, says it is worth noting that not all landmarks are equal in their value to search engine algorithms. Landmarks carry different algorithmic weight depending on their prominence, geographic scope, and relevance to consumer intent. SEO experts tend to divide landmarks into three primary categories:
- Tier-1 (Regional) – The landmarks in this first tier are the major landmarks in a given area. In San Diego, they would be things like Balboa Park, San Diego International Airport, or even the Convention Center. All by themselves, they possess massive digital authority.
- Tier-2 (Community) – The landmarks in this second tier are still well known, but they are more associated with specific communities and sub-markets. Examples include Belmont Park and La Jolla Cove.
- Tier-3 (Neighborhood) – Landmarks in the third tier are highly specific to local neighborhoods. They are things like intersections, transit stops, public schools, and parks. They do not carry as much global search volume, but they offer high conversion potential.
The tricky part for local businesses and their SEO partners is figuring out which landmarks to apply to each service area. Get it right, and landmark data points can catapult a website to the top of the Google Map Pack.
How to Strategically Integrate Them
The best way to strategically integrate landmarks into a local SEO strategy is to partner with a firm like Pixsan. Small business owners who prefer to keep things in-house can lean into some well-known strategies that professionals use regularly:
- Mentioning landmarks in driving directions and on location pages
- Utilizing geo coordinates and amenityFeature schema fields
- Incorporating landmark references into customer case studies and testimonials
Believe it or not, landmarks are as important to search engines as they are to people – just for different reasons. If you are struggling to dominate local SEO in San Diego, perhaps it’s time to start thinking about integrating landmark data points into your content and schema.