The Local SEO Guide For Entrepreneurs

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Despite spending a lot of time and money on strategies, you may still face issues as it's tough to generate leads or get new customers as an entrepreneur.

As an entrepreneur, you want to make the most out of your little. For the longest time, it has always been a struggle to compete with bigger brands, especially when you’re just starting. This is because you might be ignoring the core values.

Any startup can convert to a massive business by capturing the local audiences. So that's why entrepreneurs should be familiar with the importance of local SEO.

10 Reasons Why Local SEO Is So Important For Entrepreneurs 

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Around 88% of smartphone users search for local services. Also, 46% of Google searches are related to local searches.

Over the past two years, "Close by" or "Near me" searches have increased by almost 900%.

That's why a business must focus on local SEO to stay ahead of the hurdle.

1. It Increases Local Presence

A startup needs to generate leads for a successful business. Being an entrepreneur, you must be capable of making your business visible to the local audience.

In recent years, the number of online searches for local products and services has risen. Webfx has an interesting stat on local searches. 

This ensures that it is possible to build a local presence. 

Your discovery rate grows if you rank higher than your competition on relevant local searches. 

Importance Of Local Presence 

• Local company helps a business to capture the local market.
• Over 95% of consumers read business reviews before making a purchase. And 88% trust online reviews as personal recommendations. 
• Online presence provides an excellent opportunity for businesses to get customer feedback. 

2. It Reduces Advertising Cost

Businesses prominently rely on organic traffic to reach their target audiences. You can pay for ads to gain high visibility.

But local SEO will allow you to improve your visibility without spending a single penny. Local 3-pack is the best example of this. It’s ranked organically, for which the CTR, engagement, and conversions are more. 

Organic traffic has overtaken paid traffic in terms of value to businesses. It can increase your business's visibility and get valuable clicks. That may go above and beyond what you could get through paid advertising. 

Importance Of Reducing Advertising Cost 

• Every company wants a high return on investment, which you can achieve by optimizing local search engines.
• It's adequate to optimize local SEO and attract customers for your business. Thus, it's a long-term game. 
• According to research by Search Engine Land, more than 80% of mobile phone users choose the "near me" option while searching for a specific type of business locally. 

3. It Helps In Building Community 

Business Community building is an essential part of local businesses. It erects trust, economic prosperity, and a sustainable society. Although Hubspot is a world-class business, yet allows its audience to build local communities to share their ideas, problems, solutions, and more. 

Setting up relations with other business owners will result in better exposure. Backlinks from reputable local sources can increase your local search rankings. Also, it can open doors for positive working relationships. 

Importance Of Community Building 

• Involving in an active community will result in better referrals to potential prospects. 
• Cross promotions will help you gain links and referrals from your nearby businesses. It is mutually beneficial! 
• Community building for local businesses can help companies gain the recognition you seek.

4. It Drives Relevant Traffic 

More than 72% of consumers who conduct local searches go to a local store within 5 miles. So local SEO can open the doors for new buyers and capable clients. 

Importance Of Driving Relevant Traffic 

• Local SEO ensures that you remain visible to the local audience for a long time. You can track this using Google analytics whether or not your site is receiving a targeted local audience. 

• You'll encourage people to turn towards your business if you target local prospects.
• Driving relevant traffic to your website can help you rank higher in the SERPs.

5. It Ensures Repeated Customers 

Customers increasingly see the value of supporting their local economy. 

But as mentioned earlier, they prefer local business. Moreover, these repeatable customers find the local market more convenient and trustworthy. 

By using local SEO, they will locate your business for a visit. Take a look at the below screenshot; only local SE optimized businesses, capable of pulling the converting the audience, appear on the search results. 

They can quickly transform into loyal customers over time. So, make sure their experience is smooth each time they visit you.

Importance Of Repeated Customers 

• You don't have to make the customers understand your business as they are already well aware of what you are doing.
• Through repeated customers, the scope of getting new leads increases by manifolds.
• Repeated customers will trust your business more than new ones, and perhaps they will spend more money on your business.

6. It Builds Trust And Authority 

Google-ranked companies are assumed to be trustworthy businesses by consumers. Therefore, if your business appears at the top of the results page — you will gain the trust and respect of the audience. 

By securing high rankings in local search results, you demonstrate your authority within your niche. For example, Google shows up below names when users search “SEO tools”; thus, these are trusted as authentic tools. 

Importance Of Building Trust And Authority Within Your Niche

• Any business that wants to generate new leads is supposed to build customer trust.
• Most users who search for local services choose an established brand with a solid reputation.
• Building the business authority of a local site can positively affect the campaign as a whole.

7. It Attracts Smartphone Users Primarily 

Local SEO can target mobile and desktop users alike, unlike other paid marketing strategies. 

In addition, local search on mobile devices is becoming increasingly popular. Also, as per the stats below, mobile searches will increase yearly due to quick and easy access availability. 

It can become particularly beneficial economically for local businesses. 

So by optimizing local SEO for smartphone users, an entrepreneur can generate leads for startups. 

Importance Of Targeting Smartphone Users Primarily 

• According to reports, the majority of internet users are smartphone users. 
• Smartphones have a better conversion rate as it's easy to operate information here for the readers. 
• Your business becomes accessible all the time as people carry smartphones with them.

8. It Improves Online Visibility 

Most internet users visit those websites in Google that come in first. For example, the visitors click through the below link to find their required information.

It does not include any paid advertisements displayed at the top. So, if your site is not appearing on the first page, your audience is probably unaware of your existence. 

Importance Of Improving Online Visibility 

• You can create a scalable market with a broader audience. 
• Local exposure will prompt word-of-mouth advertisement.
• It increases the chance of B2C marketing due to direct influence. 

9. It Increases Sales 

Sales will automatically increase when relevant traffic increases. 

Your chances of landing a customer ready to buy will increase if you appear as an authority in your area. 

For example, out of several clothes stores in Seattle, only three could fetch a spot on SERP. So, these businesses are gaining real customers ready to buy while other stores are missing out on the opportunity. 

Your proximity and optimized availability will encourage your local searchers to close the deal because people are keen to visit and build a relationship with them. It is more effective than an online purchase from a company hundreds of miles away. 

Online delivery still takes time, and issues like return and exchange are irritating. 

Importance Of Increasing Sales In Business

• More relevant consumers are great for offline marketing for local businesses.
• A head-on-head conversation offers higher sales chances. 
• Reading consumers' behavior at a personal level will become easy for you. 

Read: 15 Tips to Increase Your Sales Using SEO

10. Increase Business Competitiveness 

Most small local businesses in your niches are doing local SEO, and you can't stay behind. 

No matter how innovative and the best your company is, it won't make you profitable if people cannot find you. So, try to maximize your business presence in the local circuit using local citations, press releasing to local media, earning local backlinks, and many more. 

Local search engine results are dominated by businesses that appear on the first page. So with local SEO, you increase the chance to outplay them. 

Importance Of Increasing Business Competitiveness 

• You get the opportunity to stand ahead of the competition and even steal their audience by appearing above them.
• Having a competitive advantage sets a company apart from other companies. 
• This allows a company to charge higher prices, attract more customers, and build a strong authority. 

Key Takeaways 

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• Register to Google My Business with relevant information, including contact information, business hours, and photos.
• Utilize online business directories.
• Target long-tail keywords to generate quality leads.
• Make your website SEO-friendly by incorporating voice-search capabilities.
• Get as many customer reviews as possible.
• Ensure that your NAP is the same across all business listings.
• Make sure the site is mobile-friendly and optimized with CTA buttons.
• Get the most out of social listening to identify what people in your target area ask for.