Local SEO: What It Is and Why It Is Important for Business
Local SEO is a strategy that enables you to optimize your online presence to boost local leads and traffic to your store. Research shows that 97% of shoppers go online to look for local services, and 50% of users visit a store within a day of a local online search. You must capitalize on your local SEO efforts if you want more people to step through your business door.
This post will delve into all you need to know about local SEO and how to approach it from a professional standpoint.
Local SEO Explained
Among the long-term marketing strategies you should have, local SEO should be among them. The process allows you to make your company more visible when online users make geographically related searches. More specifically, local SEO enhances the chances of your business appearing among the top results of search engine results pages within Google’s Local Pack or map listings. The strategy also:
- Increases your company’s local online visibility
- Enables your business to outrank local competitors
- Generates more organic traffic to your website
- Boosts leads and sales from within a specific service area
An effective local SEO campaign is critical for the success of any home service business that wants to drive leads and sales from the neighborhood. Think of it as a phone book that enables you to generate more calls and online contact forms from your website.
Contrary to traditional SEO, which primarily boosts a brand’s ranking on a national or global scale, local SEO targets the customers nearest to your business location. The goal is to promote brand exposure past the storefront to a broader audience in the local online community.
Why Local SEO is Important to Your Business
Today’s business world is highly competitive, and only businesses that invest in search engine optimization services can stay ahead of the pack. Here are a few statistics that point to the importance of the local search for businesses:
- 61% of consumers conduct local searches daily
- 30% of all searches Google produces are related to location
- 28% of people who visit a store within 24 hours of a local search make a purchase
- 84% of consumers read online business reviews during a local search before deciding whether to purchase
Given these figures, you can’t afford to overlook the importance of optimizing your business for local searches. It’s a critical strategy that enables you to acquire qualified leads and convert them into sales. If you don’t have a local SEO plan for your business, you could be doing more harm than you realize.
How Does Local SEO Benefit Your Business?
The benefits of having a local SEO strategy are numerous, but here are just a few:
- Better online visibility for your company, making it more discoverable by new customers
- Increased in-store foot traffic
- Attract more targeted web traffic for more leads, sign-ups, subscriptions, and sales
- Enhanced Google Maps visibility can lead to more calls
- Established thought leadership position that gives your business authority in the field
- Better trust levels among your customers
- Increased sales based on informed decisions
- Better conversion rates through email subscriptions, phone calls, and form submissions
- It makes your business more competitive.
While Local SEO isn’t a one-off strategy, investing in it could mean the difference between a thriving online store and a failed one.
FAQs
- What is local SEO?
Local SEO is a strategy that improves search engine visibility for local businesses, especially those with brick-and-mortar locations. It helps them enhance organic traffic from searches by nearby customers.
- What is the difference between SEO and Local SEO?
Traditional SEO focuses on improving a site’s discoverability and visibility nationally or globally. Local SEO focuses on capturing the local search territory and connecting with searchers within the business locality.
- Who needs local SEO?
Any business that serves a geographic area or has a physical location can benefit from local SEO.
How SEO Experts at Agency 310 Can Boost Your Local SEO Efforts
Local SEO is an ongoing process that combines various strategies to achieve the desired effect. Entrusting the task to a professional team can enable you to yield results within a shorter time.
Agency 310 specializes in delivering the best website design, social marketing, user experience, and paid advertising solutions to our clients. One area of fundamental interest is local SEO, based on the understanding that each customer is unique and has unique needs. So, we start with a foundation of industry best practices and benchmarks, then customize the strategy based on the client’s unique needs.
We avoid giving prices for our services until we have an in-depth understanding of your needs. While some businesses have an extensive budget, others only need essential, affordable local SEO services.
Our package includes:
- Completing a market analysis of the competition
- Building and monitoring local citations
- Publishing and optimizing localized website content
- Optimizing and managing your Google My Business account
- Tracking the local SEO campaigns
- Tracking and reporting analytics
Our work doesn’t end with implementing the above steps. We take it a step further to measure the success of our local SEO campaigns.
How We Measure Success
At Agency 310 , we leverage the following tools, among others, to measure growth in local SEO:
- Google Search Console
- Google Business Profile
- Google Analytics
- SEM Rush
- BrightLocal
We combine all the reports from these tools into a 24/7/365 real-time dashboard. That way, you always have visibility into the progress of your campaign.
Hiring a Local SEO Company for Your Campaign
Running a business requires that you wear many hats as the owner while still trying to create time for personal issues. That leaves you with little time for anything that requires constant attention and monitoring. That’s where we come in to help.
Agency 310 wants you to be proactive. We’re an award-winning online marketing company that delivers results in getting more traffic, leads, sales, and better rankings for clients. Our local SEO campaign managers are experts and have in-depth industry knowledge to take your business to the next level. Contact us to schedule a consultation on boosting your local SEO.
