Are you a local business owner? If you are, then you should know local SEO is no longer something you can ignore. As a local business catering to customers in your area, you want your target audience to find you with ease. This, however, can be difficult to achieve if you don’t pay attention to local SEO or have the right SEO tools.
With nearly 50% of all Google searches having local intent, local SEO is no longer a luxury. Still not convinced? Here are more reasons to show you how essential this online marketing strategy is for businesses.
More people are searching online
Potential consumers are constantly conducting local searches. Rather than going to the market directly, most people prefer to do a pre-search (i.e., Google local products and services). If your business is ranking in top search results, it will help you to get more local customers.
Competition is increasing
Each year, competition rises, business owners will have to target smaller niches to achieve relevant visibility. By establishing a niche area for your business, you’ll have higher chances of competing against even larger companies that often dominate the results in the search engine results pages.
Local SEO results in improved rankings
Search engines regularly update their search algorithms to give the most relevant results to users’ queries. By developing a local SEO strategy for your business, you can land a spot on the first page of search results and increase web and store (yes good old brick and mortar) traffic. If you aren’t optimizing for local SEO, your website’s search engine rankings will be affected impacting your business’s visibility on the web.
It’s a cost-effective approach to reach customers
Unlike traditional advertising, you never have to worry about wasted exposure. It’s not like paying for an ad in a local newspaper that may or may not be seen by a potential customer that’s actually interested in what you have to offer. With local SEO, your prospective customers will see that your business can provide them the product or services they are searching for.
Having a local SEO strategy will benefit your business. The best way to achieve this is to optimize locally by using a variety of techniques that strategically position your business on search engines. Local SEO strategies such as consistent NAP citations, claiming local listings, using locally modified keywords in your content and regularly soliciting for reviews as well as engaging in review-building tactics on social and search profiles can make your business more visible for local search.
