Local SEO is one of the most significant facets of digital marketing. This is a popular opinion and before we blindly agree to this let us dig deep to this matter to get an exact idea of what local SEO is and its relevance in modern day business. This article will help you in understanding the dominant position of local SEO in online marketing and how it will help you grow your business.
What is local SEO?
Local SEO helps in promoting the business and increases its visibility on searches that are based on the location. It is a kind of variation to SEO and is aimed to get more traction in searches by the locals. The searches include geo qualifiers such as state, city, zip, etc. and also ‘near me’ searches. ‘Near me’ searches picks the location of the person searching and produces results from the very area itself.
Local SEO basics
The very first thing about SEO is that these are location based searches that requires a physical address as a prerequisite for the business to be on the local search list. In case, you haven’t yet updated your business on Google then do that as it mandatory to add it to an important business directory for the search to show up.
The next thing is to ensure that the NAP (Name, Address, and Phone number) is compatible throughout all the important business directories. You can use tools like Synup to manage the all local listings for you and saves you the hassle of manually updating the directory.
Another way to boost business is to use local SEO through citations. Citations are listed by third party website for you business as a point of reference. This may contain the details of business such as location, name and contact. And you don’t even have to back link your business website here.
Why is local SEO so important?
Local SEO is critically important, especially if your business is a brick-and-mortar store or a service provider at a certain locality. According to a study by Forbes, 95% of phone users have searched businesses online and 61% called and 59% visited the business.
And it is also found that 70% of phone users click and call a business directly from Google results. These numbers clearly state that the leads from location based searches are a huge source for potential customers and such numbers keep growing. These are generally qualified leads as the people are searching for specific products and services. And this also translate to better conversion rate as well.
For example, if someone is searching for “Insulation near me“, then your website would rank well for this search phrase only when you have taken care of local SEO well. That way, you will also stay profitable for a longer run of time.
The impact of Local SEO on your business
It will be an extremely rewarding to optimize your business in local SEO especially if it is a small business. Following are some of the benefits:
- Local SEO helps in making your business visible to the potential customers. A lot of searches that originate from locals and non locals as well and with local SEO done right you have a better chance at capturing audience.
- Local SEO gives the customer all the necessary information when and where they want it. Displaying added features like ‘free wifi’ or ‘pet friendly space’ in the listing will atrract more customers.
- Local SEO helps your business stand out even if you don’t have a website. Local SEO creates the required traffic from online leads.
- Local SEO also helps in driving the decision of the people in favoring your business. With on point and detailed information people will naturally trust your business. And this lays a strong base to build better customer relationship.
The article emphasizes in depth local SEO and information will help you in laying a good foundation for your business in online listings.