If you’re one of the thousands upon thousands of small business owners spread across the country, you need to be sure that your website has been optimized for local search. Local Search Engine Optimization or Local SEO allows small businesses to pinpoint users in their designated marketing area who may be actively searching for the products or services that your company or business offers.
Local SEO is used to drive large numbers of local users to your website to garner higher rankings and to optimize your Google My Business company profile. When users enter a specific keyword into the search box, a locally optimized website has a much better chance of showing within the top of the local listings. When your company is ranked on the first page of local listings, you have a much better chance of both converting views to online sales, but also to drive qualified local traffic to your physical location.
Local SEO is an Important Marketing Tool
If you’re a small business targeting a local customer base, you need to know that nearly 50% of all Google searches are looking for local information. If you don’t have Local SEO, you could miss out on reaching potential customers ready to shop for the products or services you sell in your area. And, by getting your business ranked in your local online search listings, you can help strengthen your local economy, including your own cash flow, instead of pointing your customers toward a big box or chain store.
What are the Key Benefits of Local SEO?
- High rankings in local business listings for local queries.
- Local SEO is critical to keep your business relevant.
- Improved visibility in your industry segment and market.
- Increased qualified traffic right from your town or city.
- Strong local community presence.
- Highly effective marketing campaigns.
- Cheaper and more directed ads.
- Credibility, trust, and authority.
One of the biggest benefits of Local SEO is that you’re directly marketing your business to friends, neighbors, and others in and around your community. It helps to convert local users to online customers, and it can drive users right to your physical location as well. In fact, the most recent Local SEO statistics from Google reveals that 86% of Google Map users search for the address and location of local stores and businesses after they’ve viewed their websites.
If customers are already online searching for the product or service your business offers, having Local SEO can help you connect with these qualified customers and give you the chance to convert them to completed sales. Local SEO brings your website highly targeted, ready-to-buy user traffic. OK. Not all these potential customers will buy. But as you increase the traffic to your local business or service website, your percentage of sales conversions will go up in direct proportion to the larger number of people pointed to your site.
Local SEO uses keywords to market your business or service. Time tested keywords can improve your chance of reaching your target customer. Local SEO can actually point a search user in your area directly to your website or online store. All it takes is technical know-how, knowledge of the best keywords to use, and a dynamic website.
And think about this. If your website is using Local SEO and your competitor down the street is not, imagine how many more potential customers you can garnish. Think about how many times per day you search for something online. Now look at the number of Google searches in the United States every single day: 8.5 billion. 63% of Google’s U.S. organic search traffic originates from mobile devices. And Google’s share of the online search engine market accounts for 84% of the total U.S. share. So, what are you waiting for?
We’re in the Digital Age
In this age of digital connectivity, online search, mobile devices, how can you fail to realize the importance of Local SEO? If you’re looking for a sustainable competitive advantage, Local SEO is a must.
What else can Local SEO accomplish for a small business? Total brand awareness. A brand is the collective impact or lasting impression from all that is experienced, seen, or heard, by potential customers who encounter a company and its products and services. In creating a brand, or “branding,” a business is literally in charge of the effect that the product or service is having on the customer.
Local SEO can extend your brand by driving traffic to your website on a daily basis. It can introduce, reinforce, and solidify, your company’s reputation. Implementing a successful brand strategy, combined with Local SEO, can increase awareness, brand loyalty and trust. You’ll want to be sure these things are in place before you perform a Local SEO:
- Strategize and implement your brand identity.
- Create a strong brand image.
- Establish a positive brand culture on your website and in your stores.
- Make sure every time you “touch” a potential customer, whether it’s through your website, via your customer service reps, or with your sales staff in your store’s location, your brand personality is obvious.
When you compare the cost of Local SEO customer acquisition to other traditional advertising or marketing media for your business, your cost per thousand customers acquired or CPM is quite low. Using the proper keywords, carefully designed algorithms, and proper coding, an SEO company can help you create a direct path from search engine to your website. And that’s how you make your business grow.
The best part is the fact that a digital SEO company can measure your results and tweak when necessary. You can actually see what’s working and what isn’t on a real time basis. These valuable measurement insights can improve your conversion rate, help to produce higher rankings, and let you know how your website is functioning. And that’s the way for you to boost your bottom line. Data is king!
Looking to put a spotlight on your business? Drive potential customers to your website? Turn views into sales? Local SEO is the perfect investment to make all of this happen. The best website in the world can’t help grow your business if it isn’t seen. Relevant marketing strategies, using specific tools, targeting the best local customers is what Local SEO can do for you.
