Intro
Have you been coming across the term “local SEO” lately? Local SEO is a search engine for any business having a ground presence in a region. In simple words, local SEO is a marketing strategy for local businesses. When your website is ranked in a local search engine, it will have more familiarity among locals; consequently, your brand’s visibility, awareness, and sales will boost.
Are you wondering how? That’s what we are exploring through this blog. Why do businesses need to rank on a local search engine? And how it is beneficial for a business’s flourishment. This blog answers all your queries and concerns regarding local SEO.
Why is Local SEO Important for The Business?
If we talk about the significance of local SEO for businesses, it is an essential part of business marketing strategy. It includes all your business credentials, your potential customers might need – for instance, contact number, address, city, area, etc. To rank on local search results of a specific region, you need to rank on GMP (Google My Business Profile). These local search results include Google Map Pack or Local Map Pack and local directories.
There are numerous reasons why local SEO is significant:
1. Easy to Find
When a business has a physical presence, it must be ranked on a local search engine. This way, it becomes easier for the customers to locate. And it will directly pull foot traffic to your place. For instance, if you are a retail store owner, registering on Google Business Profile and getting your site ranked on local search engines will do the trick to bring more customers.
2. Improved Visibility
The more you rank on top in the local search engines, the more people will get to know about you. This way, not only will your brand’s awareness increase, but you will also get heavy traffic to your website. And ultimately, interested people will call you. As a result, your foot traffic boosts.
3. Increased Credibility
In this modern era, people assess companies before relying on marketing techniques or others’ recommendations. They make sure to check every site the business is ranked and see the feedback given by customers on Google. Then, they decide to become a potential customer. This is why your credibility is directly linked to your local search engine presence.
Do You Need Local SEO?
Brick-and-mortar businesses having high foot traffic, like retail stores, can get the most out of Local SEO. Having an online presence has become the need of the hour for businesses. Whether you are a restaurant owner or working as a handyman – an online presence on local search engines can make or break your reputation. Ranking your site on local search engines will make your business more visible and credible.
In this digital era, anyone would google a business before purchasing something. This in-depth exploration includes everything from searching about your physical location to the Google reviews from your customers. Therefore, you must rank your company at a location where you are targeting people or where your company serves.
What Types of Businesses Need Local SEO?
We can’t deny that every business needs an online presence today, whether it’s about ranking on local search engines or having a social media presence. However, there are some types of businesses for which local search results are mandatory. Let’s go through these:
1. Brick and Mortar Businesses
There couldn’t be any better business benefiting from local SEO than brick-and-mortar businesses. These are the businesses that sell their products or services in person. This includes retail, departmental, grocery, and superstores. Moreover, factories or warehouses also fall on this list.
These businesses rely on local customers and foot traffic. Therefore, local SEO is a direct medium to attract local clients for them and make a positive reputation in a specific area.
2. Service-Based Businesses
Service-based businesses include handyman services like plumbing, electrician, or general contractors. Even these services are not left behind to get an advantage from local SEO. Anyone searching for “best plumbing services near me in —– area” will rank on top of that area’s local search engine results. And due to its top ranking – a regular scroller will consider your company credible and top-notch.
According to a search report by Think with Google, there is a tremendous turnaround of 200% of people using terms like “where to buy” and “near me” from mobile devices to search on the local SEO.
3. Healthcare Providers
That’s one thing people often Google in the local search engines, i.e., “best healthcare clinic nearby” or “cardiac doctor near me,” etc., and doctors, dentists, clinics, or even pharmaceutical stores can powerfully attract traffic from the local search engines.
4. Home-Based Businesses
It is surprising knowing that local SEO also helps home-based businesses like freelancers, and online stores, even though they don’t have a ground presence. These businesses target customers in their local area and attract more businesses from their immediate community.
5. Tourism Businesses
As tourism is increasing day by day, its business also flourishes. Tourism businesses like resorts, tour guides, hotels, and attractive places can benefit from local SEO. These businesses target people searching for things to do in a local area and increase their visibility to potential customers.
The Benefits of Local SEO
There is a good deal of local SEO from which you can turn your just-started business into an established one in days. According to “Small Business Stats & Facts,” 46% of google search results are locals. It means you must rank your business on local SERPs before considering gigantic options. Here’s a rundown of some of the many benefits you can expect from local SEO
1. Reach Ideal Customers
Targeting the exactly right customers for a website is a job better left to local SEO. Local SEO brings the result according to regular terms, used by the local searchers. This way, it attracts customers searching for a product or service in your nearby area. Hence, by optimizing your website for local search, you can attract more customers from your local community.
2. Generate Web Traffic
Besides getting the physical presence of customers, who wouldn’t want to generate web traffic and earn from it as a side hustle? Local SEO can help drive more traffic to your website. When your business appears in local search results, customers click on your website and learn more about your products or services. According to a report by BrightEdge, SEO generates 1,000%+ more web traffic than organic sources like social media.
3. Improve Your ROI
If you knuckle down to local SEO for your business, rest assured that it’s a golden ticket to an ever-growing return on investment (ROI). If you team up with a local SEO company instead of sweating on a bigger deal- SEO, you will have more opportunities and avenues to explore.
4. Increase Engagement
By optimizing your website for local searches, you can attract more relevant traffic and engage with potential customers actively searching for products or services like yours. It is not only beneficial for your web presence, like clicks, engagements, customer response, and purchases but also for physical foot traffic. According to Think with Google local SEO statistics, 76% of people visit the places they search to make a purchase.
What Are the Factors of Local SEO?
Many factors influence SEO and help you show your website on the first page of Google. Some of the important local SEO factors that play a huge part in ranking your website high are as follows;
1. Local Keywords
No doubt, keywords are the backbone of search engine optimization. But when we narrow down to local keywords, searches take an exciting turn. Using local areas, and keywords in your website content, meta title, and meta description will target a storm of a highly relevant and ideal audience to your site.
2. Google My Business (GMB) Listing
GMB helps a business to appear in Google’s local search results. As GMB contains your business name, address, and phone number, google shows your website when a user searches for the services you provide in a specific area. In other words, it helps you rank on Google Map Pack or local Pack and directories
3. Local Backlinks
Relative Backlinks are crucial for your website and the SEO content you need. They bring good traffic to your website. High-quality backlinks from reputable websites can help to improve your website’s authority and local search rankings. In addition, you can build strong local backlinks by building relationships with other relative businesses around you.
4. Citations
Citations are the mentions of your NAP (business name, address, and phone number) on other websites. Consistent and accurate citations help to establish trust and authority with search engines.
5. Location-Specific Landing Pages
Creating location-specific landing pages on your website or area pages, can help you target specific areas and improve your local search rankings. In other words, you are introducing the same services for each area so you can rank in each locality.
What Are the Three Pillars of Local SEO?
Are you on the fence regarding local SEO and assume it to be complicated? We suggest considering its three pillars and going through them step by step. These pillars ease the process for you. Let’s see into this:
1. Local Listings Management
There are various online platforms and local directories from where you can create and manage listings. It includes Yelp, Facebook, and GMB. According to a report by Fresh Chalk, Yelp shows in the result pages in response to 92% of local searches. These listings contain essential information about your business, such as its name, address, phone number, and hours of operation. If these listings are accurate and latest, your company will be more visible in local SERPs. Consequently, the turnaround of potential customers into regular shoppers will increase.
2. On-Page Optimization
On-page optimization is the key to improving the relevance and authority of your website in local search engines. It includes optimizing your content through local keywords, meta titles, and meta descriptions and making your site mobile-friendly. According to a Statista report, 58.99% of world web traffic comes from mobile phone users. Therefore, make sure to optimize your website for mobile devices.
3. Reputation Management
As mentioned earlier, online reputation can make or break your business. Many companies take a step and run campaigns for reputation management. Positive reviews can help boost your visibility and credibility in local search results, while negative reviews can harm your reputation and potentially deter customers from visiting your business. Responding to reviews, positive and negative, help build trust with potential customers and improve your overall online reputation. Online reviews on social media platforms, Google, Yelp, and other platforms are integral for reputation management.
Conclusion
Any business that wants to attract more customers from their local area can benefit from local SEO. Whether you have a physical location or serve a specific geographic area, local SEO can help you increase your visibility and attract more business from your immediate community.
FAQs
1. How Long Does It Take for Local SEO to Work?
The harder you work, the more it pays off eventually. We cannot define a time for local SEO to rank your company. The time it takes depends on various factors, for instance, the competitiveness, the current state of your website, and your local SEO strategy.
2. Which is Better Local SEO or Paid Search?
The answer to this query depends on your intent and business goals. Although local SEO needs time to implement, it can drive tremendous traffic. On the other hand, paid search or PPC advertising needs a huge budget. Although it will result instantly, we can’t say anything about its duration and reliability.
3. What’s the Most Important Factor of Local SEO?
Although the points mentioned earlier are vital factors in local SEO, if we still need to put forward one, then GMB (Google My Business) listing is the one. It is free to use and improves your chances of appearing in local search results.