Local SEO provides an equal opportunity for every business to rank higher in search engines, regardless of size. Not only higher rankings, but a proper SEO plan can straight away influence your business footfall.
According to Local SEO stats from GoGulf, 46% of Google searchers seek local information. At the same time, 97% of users rely on search engines to find a local business.
Local SEO plays a crucial role here, especially when you want to build your brand or expand your existing online presence.
If you want your business to succeed at a rapid rate, then having a proper SEO strategy is a MUST.
Why? Because your business can have enormous benefits from it. But before we dive into the advantage-part, let us first brush up on our Local SEO basics.
We are all aware that SEO can help us rank higher on the Search Engine Result Page (SERP). Then what makes Local SEO Services different? It is the same.
You can consider it as a variant of regular SEO to attract people in the vicinity. The main purpose of using local SEO technique is to boost your business reach on geo-location based [city/state/county/town] searches.
As the name states, local SEO focuses on attracting customers from nearby locations. According to Hubspot marketing stats, 28% of local searches result in purchases. It is like a treasure chest for Local businesses who aim to drive footfall to their physical store or develop business within a specific area.
Additionally, local SEO offers better visibility in Google Maps and a chance to feature in Google’s local pack without any charge. It means that consumers within a certain distance from your store’s physical location will find you when they search online.
Searches with either a city, state, zip code, or ones that include ‘near me’ phrases are considered as location-specific searches.
Whenever Google picks up such search queries, it provides results based on the geo-location of that person.
For example, if you are running a restaurant in Cortez Hill and someone searches for the ‘Best restaurant in San Diego,’ you are likely to appear at the top of SERP.
If you want to top such a competitive search query, your local SEO game has to be strong. If you are new to SEO, then the below guide will help you get started.
Over 96% of all searches across the Internet happens on Yahoo, Google, and Bing.
From these three, Google dominates the market. So, the foremost step is to register your business in Google My Business (GMB).
And we advise you not just to stop there! Directories like Yelp witness 70 million users every month. Yellowpages and Superpages get more than a million monthly visitors who are looking for info about local businesses.
You should submit your business information to as many high-quality directories as possible. If not, you miss out on a piece of that large pie.
Of Course, you will need strategic SEO planning to top the SERPs listings! But directory listing is the first step to climb this competitive ladder.
Once you’re done with it, your business will start receiving many of the advantages of local SEO.
The better the SEO strategies are, the easier it becomes for users to find your business online.
Then Why Should You Not Stick with That?
Why Should You Go for Local SEO?
Millions of new websites are built and published every year. Not all businesses can afford to bear the cost of an online marketing campaign.
Here is where Local SEO comes into play. Instead of competing directly against larger national brands, you can start from a smaller level.
You can first focus on generating local leads. Besides, Local SEO offers lots of advantages that can help you increase your sales significantly. Read on to know more.
Local SEO can help your business appear in Google Local Pack. It is the most desired spot where everyone wants their business to appear. But what is Google local pack or Local 3-pack?
Earlier, Google’s SERP displayed the seven most popular businesses related to a search called the local 7-pack. It featured NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) details and directions of those businesses. Later, Google reduced its 7-pack to 3-pack. It now displays only three results.
Most people click these three results, and only a very few tap on ‘other local results.’ It shows that most people who search for local listings find what they need within the local 3-pack. And that is why a spot in the local pack is highly competitive.
Getting a spot in the local search results could drive extensive traffic and potential revenue your way.
Everything comes at a cost except for the benefits of Local SEO. Google’s algorithms have made it trickier to appear in Google Local Pack. But if you have time, desire, and patience, then you can rule SERPs without spending a single penny.
Follow This 3-Step Process to rank higher in the local pack.
GMB is the best tool for local businesses to draw the audience to their website at no cost.
People prefer spending their resources on SEO. Digital marketing is considered more effective than traditional marketing. But why? Because it targets your industry-specific and location-specific audiences.
You will not know a thing about people who see your billboard advertisements. Chances are, they might go unnoticed. Now imagine the scenario with Local SEO.
You will know when people visit your website. Plus, this traffic is probably from the same location where your store is located. It means they are looking for your services in the same place as you.
These kinds of audiences are more likely to visit your website and recommend your business to others.
The term Organic SEO refers to the unpaid methods and strategies used to achieve high search rankings on SERPs.
Red Website Design team has found that 51% of website traffic and 40% of revenue comes from organic search. Meaning, you might achieve instant rankings with the paid advertisements, but you cannot neglect the impact of organic SEO.
Organically appearing on the first page of SERPs is difficult. And if you are an SME, then it is by far the most competitive task. So what to do?
Instead of competing with MNCs that have huge marketing budgets, you should focus more on Local SEO. Less competition means a higher chance of ranking ahead.
For instance, if someone searches for ‘simple wedding,’ Google will first show the highly-popular websites.
But if someone searches for ‘simple wedding organizers,’ then the results are displayed based on the user’s location. If you have a locally optimized website, you can easily rank for these searches at the top.
Local SEO facts show that 78% of location-based phone searches result in offline purchases.
If you have an SEO optimized website, you will not lose these precious customers. But if you want Local SEO to work, you have to make your website mobile-friendly in the first place.
Earlier, people used to search for local products and services from desktop computers. However, with time and technology upgrades, many people now prefer to browse the Internet from their smartphones.
Mobile devices account for over 52% of online traffic. From which, most of the people are looking for local services and products.
Plus, mobile phones have the added advantage of location services. It means you can appear in someone’s search even if they don’t live in the area. All you have to do is, optimize your business for Local SEO.
You neither have to be an SEO pro, nor you need extensive research to learn local SEO. Even if you take baby steps in Local SEO, you can rank higher on local SERPs. You can use several tactics to maximize your local SEO, and none of them is complex.
For instance, You can begin by simply listing your business in directories or creating area-specific content on your website. Once you are done with these steps, search engines will take care of your business from then onwards.
You can do Local SEO entirely online without making physical efforts. Who wouldn’t love such easy marketing! You have to focus on optimizing your site, and it will drive people automatically to your physical store location.
Additionally, there are already many local SEO tools that can ease the job for you. You don’t need to put extra effort into buying new tools/ software for Local SEO. If you are already familiar with traditional SEO tools, they work just fine for local SEO.
People rely on directories and reviews to learn about a local company before contacting them personally. So, your local business must have high online visibility.
About 97% of people learn about a local company on the Internet. So, not having a locally optimized website will mean potential customers will walk past you to your competitor.
When a user searches for your services or industry, your website must appear at the top. Even if your website ranks on the second or third page, it will not receive any organic traffic. Very few users are likely to go past the first page of search results.
Local SEO is less competitive, and it will help to beat your local competitors. Also, it will help you to increase your sales and market share quickly.
Local SEO is essential. Let us understand with an example. Imagine someone searching for clothes while walking in the neighborhood. Theoretically, your business will pop up along with all of your local competitors.
However, if you haven’t optimized your website for local SEO, your business will not rank among the local searches. So even if you have a better collection or quality products than your competitors, you might miss out on a sale.
Pick local SEO before the users pick your competitors.
Maintaining product quality is one of the hardest challenges a company has to face, but it is not the only factor determining its success.
Today’s consumers pay attention to every detail. They analyze what you are selling, how you are selling, and how you respond to their problems post-purchase.
Customers are precious, which makes building a strong customer relationship crucial. Local SEO can ease this part for you.
Search directories such as GMB allows your customers to review your services. Here, customers can write and rate their experience in Stars (Five being the highest).
These reviews can take you towards building a good customer relationship. Positive ones will encourage you to do better, while negative ones will allow you to improve. This feedbacks give you a glance at how the customer thinks of your business. So the next time, you will know how to treat them.
Local SEO makes review-writing easier for your consumers. You can easily earn more local reviews as it brings you closer to your customer.
The websites that rank closest to the top of search results receive more traffic than the organic results ranking further down the page.
People indeed rely on search engines for honest answers. But they prefer to see the answers instantly. When they make ‘near me’ searches related to your industry, you will want your business to appear first every time. And your best shot at that is when you have a locally optimized site.
Consumer search habits are ever-evolving. But optimizing business listings that fit your audience’s search behaviors is in your hands.
Local SEO will help you stay on top of local search results. Also, it will help you in achieving the traffic you desire.
If you’re investing in digital marketing, local SEO should be a part of your strategy. It strengthens your overall campaign in many ways.
If your local SEO strategies turn out to be successful, and you achieve a top rank on SERP — you will get abundant leads. But even if you manage to reach the first page of local SERPs with local SEO tactics, it’s worth it!
SEO is free, but due to the high competition, it decreases the chances of higher rankings. Local SEO narrows down the competition and increases these chances exponentially.
Moreover, if you have a durable digital marketing strategy, you can give a strong fight to your rivals in the online market. Say hello to bigger ROI already.
The ultimate goal of any marketing, including SEO, is to increase sales and customers. All the fancy SEO terminology is fine, but you don’t consider it worthy until it starts giving new customers.
SEO is undoubtedly one of the most successful digital marketing tactics. But where Local SEO comes into the picture?
Your location-specific keyword content will directly land you on the first result page (if not on the top) at least.
Ranking at the top will give you good business exposure. More people will look at your website and enquire. From then on, it is up to you to convert that lead into your customer.
Let us assume you have a well-optimized GMB listing as a part of your local SEO campaign. Then, this listing will appear in local searches and specific searches related to your business.
GMB provides users with details about your company, along with reviews from other consumers. These reviews are critical to influencing other users, as well as to drive more sales.
Here is how:
Shoppers place a lot of trust in reviews. That is why 82% of consumers say they read online reviews before trusting a business.
That’s immense, right?
Here is where local SEO can help. You can ask your frequent customers to leave their feedback on GMB. Or they can also provide some sort of promo codes in exchange for reviews.
In short, with local SEO, you can maximize the impact of your company’s reviews and increase your sales.
Local SEO benefits you by building brand awareness among valuable shoppers.
No one buys a product without doing multiple searches these days. They go through the entire buying funnel.
If your company continues to appear in every part of its search, it raises its brand awareness towards your business. More importantly, it builds their trust in your brand.
Consistently create engaging content and leave it on SEO from there. Strong local SEO tactics will promote your social media posts and videos from thereon.
Once locals like your content, it won’t take much time to become viral. It will boost your brand identity and increase your sales.
Here is another cool benefit of local SEO. You don’t have to perform extensive research; GMB makes the tedious part as easy as pie. You can see the exact terms people are searching for when they see your business listing.
Here is how it’s done in just three steps:
You will find a list of search queries along with the number of users that used it. This data is very important. You can analyze the data for any key terms. Pick these terms and create a long-tail keyword out of them. You can utilize them to optimize your website further.
If these keywords work, you can have an added advantage. Your website might receive more viewers than usual. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.
You shouldn’t miss any chance to connect with other businesses even if they are your rivals. Connections in the business world are priceless. And local SEO provides the golden opportunity to build relations.
Appearing in multiple local directories will keep you competitive with other local businesses. But you need to form alliances with them to get exposure in local searches.
For instance, maybe a local business like yours is looking to cross-promote their products and services. Or maybe they’re planning for a collective marketing campaign that profits multiple businesses within the area. If you’re listed locally, they will easily reach you.
Once another business knows about you, you are likely to get referrals from their customers looking for services/ products that you offer. You can strengthen such ties by returning the favor.
People always run a quick online search before buying anything new. This search includes local reviews as well.
These reviews can help them determine a lot about your business, including your services, staff, products, store ambiance, customer relations, and more. This local feedbacks are important, and it can help your business grow.
Consider yourself buying Thanksgiving presents from a local market. You would love to recommend good shops and complain about the bad ones.
The best way to share your experience with other locals is online. Your honest review will undoubtedly influence their choice. They would more likely shop from your recommendations and suggest them to others.
You, as a business owner, do not have any power over customer reviews. For both positive and negative reviews, respond to them personally.
Never leave a rude reply to negative feedback. The reason is that people want to know what you, as a brand, have to say about a bad experience.
These local reviews will help you to improve. It is an opportunity to be liked by the locals.
Use this valuable opportunity with the advantage of local SEO wisely.
They say keep your marketing budget high. But what if you are just an entrepreneur and lack enough funding? Or even if you run an MNC, you would want to save money wherever possible. Local SEO is considered one of the most successful marketing tactics.
One of the most mentioned advantages of local SEO is increased sales, leads, and market share. Local SEO is way more effective than any other marketing. You would start seeing perks from the very beginning.
If you manage to rank higher in search result pages, you will notice a huge difference in traffic to your site. You will earn clicks and visits from the customers that matter most to you.
To put the value of local SEO into a better perspective, consider that the #1 listing in search results has over 34% click-through rate.
If you target a specific keyword with a search volume of 1400 a month, you will earn 450+ visits a month. Not all of these visits will convert into a sale. Even if half of these gets converted, you will get 200 new customers every month.
Imagine the final number after the successful completion of your entire digital marketing plan. You are saving a lot of marketing expenses.
Typically you can’t promote your business all day, every day. But local SEO can! Google performs more than 70k searches every second and 5.8 billion per day.
Imagine the huge probability of your business appearing in one of these. It is possible when your local SEO is tirelessly promoting your business.
Plus, you are reaching the audience at prime time. Your search listing isn’t that annoying TV ad during a show. You are reaching them when they are searching for you. That strengthens your brand value as you are answering their search query.
From this perspective, local SEO is advertising your business every hour, but in a non-promotional and better way.
The very first stage of optimization requires you to identify both your competition and target audience.
Now, instead of going through the tedious process of identifying, categorizing, and analyzing ways to market your products effectively — you can simply benefit from local SEO.
It will help you compete against large international companies to get your local business in front of local consumers.
In a world where retail giants such as Walmart and Amazon exist, local business owners have to fight smartly for better positions in SERPs.
Fortunately, local SEO favors smaller businesses and features you in Local Pack. The local consumers who are ready or willing to invest in your business can find you easily.
Further, Google itself recognizes the value of local businesses. Google uses a set of local ranking factors as a measure. It categorizes businesses geographically.
Google will only show specific location-based results for a ‘near me’ search query. That means you will reach your nearby target audience when they search for you.
Local directories are nothing but online listings that mention your company’s NAP. NAP plays a crucial role in Local SEO. It affects your local rankings and hence your sales.
Registering your business on relevant local directories such as GMB or Yahoo Small business gives your business more online visibility.
Additionally, it would help your business reach the right audience at the right time. If you are offering homestays in Chicago, let’s say, an TripAdvisor (or probably some other local directory) NAP could help interested travelers find you and make a reservation.
The more local directories you are registered in, the better will be your local rankings and even better will be the sales.
Paid advertising certainly has its advantages, but they aren’t lasting. It means that, once you stop spending money behind ads, they will no longer appear. Your rankings will go down along with your reach, which will affect your online sales.
On the other hand, local SEO focuses on organic rankings. It means your business can continue to reap the benefits well into the future.
Just as a motor vehicle needs a tune-up for best performance, local SEO strategies require revising every once in a while. But otherwise, these strategies are way more lasting than any other advertising methods.
Voice assistants such as Alexa, Google Home, and Siri are dominating this era. They convert voices into text and assist you in performing searches without typing.
The new generation is loving this trend and conducting more and more voice searches. With time, these voice searches are likely to get more popular and necessary for your local business. Already, 46% of voice search users are regularly using voice to find local businesses.
With a local SEO strategy, you can attract these voice searches towards your business. Let us suppose that someone while driving a car, conducts a voice search near your neighborhood. Then local SEO will make sure that your business listing appears in their search result.
A good reason to implement local SEO strategies is that your reputation will improve. To do this, you will require positive reviews for your business.
Why?
Because online reviews are the new ‘word of mouth.’
People place more trust in what consumers have said about the business than what the business itself says. According to Bright Local, 73% of consumers trust a business after seeing positive reviews.
So if you are ranking high on Google Search, you have good reviews from your customers — you have everything you need! People will find you and trust you.
Local SEO is very useful for businesses that have a brick-and-mortar store or provide services in limited areas. It helps you drive traffic to your physical store location by making your business details visible to searchers in your local area.
According to a Forbes study, 95% of smartphone users have searched for local businesses. Out of which, 61% have called the business, and 59% have visited the store.
These numbers are huge. They tell us that leads from location-based searches are a great way to earn potential customers.
Additionally, these leads are from people who are searching for particular products. The same products that your business offers. So it is safe to assume that these are quality leads that have a higher conversion rate.
Marketing and advertising are the game of numbers (investment, leads, and sales). And it is very important to keep track of them. They tell you about your success and failures.
A massive perk of local SEO is that you can measure your success in real numbers. It will help you analyze when your strategies are working effectively and where it is going wrong.
There are plenty of readily available tools to assess your strategies, one of which is Google Analytics. It records many data, including website traffic, lead conversions, bounce rate, and site time. In other words, these data will help you monitor your business’s success for you.
A good digital marketing strategy always includes social media marketing. While you hustle hard to increase numbers on social media, local SEO is already paving the way for you. It helps you in two ways.
Way #1 - As we discussed earlier, local SEO increases brand awareness. That means you are on your way to become a locally famous brand. And quite a lot of people are already familiar with your brand name. These people are more likely to search you up on various social media channels and follow you.
Way #2 - With higher local rankings, people will easily find you on top. They will go to your website and click on your social media icons to know more about your products and services. That’s it, Boom! Local SEO has done its part. Now here’s your chance to lure these people with your creative content.
A key benefit of local SEO that people often overlook is how it improves your credibility among local consumers.
Ranking on the first page of search results itself is a reason enough to trust your website. It signals to users that Google trusts your business. They believe that search engines will eliminate spammy websites and filter the right results for them.
Search engines understand this responsibility, which is why they use quality raters to scrutinize your site. These factors help search engines (and hence the users) determine how safe and trustworthy your website is.
The trend of Online retailing is booming like never before. Online shopping stats from Bigcommerce shows, over 75% of people shop online at least once a month. Now you can imagine how many times they will be just randomly searching for something to buy.
While some people search on the Internet for inspiration, some perform a search to purchase products in the future. Some users are looking for a ‘right now’ purchase. These users are ready to drop some money.
These users will instantly buy your products/services. It’s just a matter of time once they perform a local search and local SEO lands their search on your business ground.
Local SEO reinforces your email marketing campaign.
Let’s see how:
As per our earlier discussion, we have now established that local SEO drives your website more traffic. Now, if you have assigned an email sign-up form to your website, they will notice it. And since you’ve built your brand reputation with local SEO already, people will go ahead and fill that form. It will increase your subscribers’ list.
Or, if we look at it from another point of view, local SEO will drive qualified traffic to your site. These people are most likely to be interested in your business and join your email list.
One of the greatest advantages of local SEO is that you can earn transform searches into purchases. This statement explains it all by itself – 28% of local search queries result in purchases.
Hence, the users clicking on the website’s link are already interested in your products, which eases half of your work.
You will not have to convince them to try your products extensively. They will easily become your customers.
Google is the most used search engine. So, ranking at the top of its search results requires a full-proof strategy. Sorry, we are just pulling your leg; it’s not true! You just need to list your business in GMB.
Google will take your business to Google maps from there. What is the big deal?
Well, above 70% of smartphone owners use Google Maps. So your local SEO strategy is putting your business directly where your customers are.
A business needs to be ranked in maps so that searchers with intent can find your business, especially on smartphones.
On a small screen of phones, searchers want quick results. Google knows this, so the local results in map listings are put above organic search listings.
After reading these advantages, we know you want to start implementing Local SEO techniques right away. So, we have compiled some keep-in-mind tips to make your local SEO strategy more effective than ever!
Search Engines change their algorithms periodically. And you would probably find over a million blogs about successful SEO strategies, each one advising differently. But here are some of the tips we consider most useful when it comes to Local SEO:
Related : Effective Ways to Improve Your Local SEO Rankings
Whether you are running a small shop or a renowned label, you can not run your business without local support. Similarly, you ought to focus on Local SEO to run a successful digital marketing campaign.
Hubspot stats show that ‘near me’ and ‘close by’ type searches have grown over 900% in the past two years, and they are still growing exponentially.
The statement itself is enough to elaborate on the importance of Local SEO. It is one of the most effective marketing tactics. It is certainly impossible to overlook tons of benefits a business can attain from local SEO! Then what are you waiting for?
You already know the key to unlock these advantages!
Drop us a message if you need any help with Local SEO for your website.
He has spent more than 12 Years in strategising and executing SEO campaigns. He is interested to writing Digital-marketing, PPC and Social Media Marketing related topics.
Questions to Ask to a Local SEO Agency
Grow Local Business Using Local SEO Services
Benefits of Blogging for Local Businesses
Local SEO When Moving to a New Location
Why Choose Our Local SEO Services
Industries That Benefit From Local SEO
Local Landing Page Tips for SEO
Facebook Page on Local Searches
Local SEO With No Physical Locations
Content Marketing and Local SEO
Create Content for Local Search Results
Effective Content Localization Strategies
Local Link Building Strategies
Link Building Benefits for Local SEO
FAQs on Google My Business Issues
Influential Female SEO Experts
Social Media Marketing for Local Businesses
Facebook Recommendation Tips for Local Businesses
Importance of Localized Content for SEO
He has spent more than 12 Years in strategising and executing SEO campaigns. He is interested to writing Digital-marketing, PPC and Social Media Marketing related topics.
Questions to Ask to a Local SEO Agency
Grow Local Business Using Local SEO Services
Benefits of Blogging for Local Businesses
Local SEO When Moving to a New Location
Why Choose Our Local SEO Services
Industries That Benefit From Local SEO
Local Landing Page Tips for SEO
Facebook Page on Local Searches
Local SEO With No Physical Locations
Content Marketing and Local SEO
Create Content for Local Search Results
Effective Content Localization Strategies
Local Link Building Strategies
Link Building Benefits for Local SEO
FAQs on Google My Business Issues
Influential Female SEO Experts
Social Media Marketing for Local Businesses
Facebook Recommendation Tips for Local Businesses
Importance of Localized Content for SEO