If you own a business and are investing in digital marketing agencies then you must be aware of the various benefits of SEO for your business. However, as more and more businesses have started investing in SEO services, it is fast becoming highly competitive
As competition in SEO is fast rising, local SEO can offer great potential to drive more business to the stores. Local SEO Company can help in increasing awareness about their business whereby increase the number of footfalls in the store. Local SEO can play an important role in generating sales from the local area.
If the online listing of a business is not optimized for local searches, there are high chances that the listing is missed by residents of the local area who may be looking for products or services as offered by your business.
We all know about the SEO hacks which help in boosting the search engine rankings based on specific keywords.
However, just by introducing keywords or just because your business or store is located in the same area or street won’t help in automatically ranking the business on the first page of the search results when someone from your area searches for a particular product or service which you deal in.
This is where the role of local SEO comes in. So what is local SEO? What do you understand by local SEO? What is the importance of local SEO? Let’s understand better
What is Local SEO? How does Local SEO work?
Local SEO takes SEO strategy one step further, it helps people searching online for a product or service to find the closest to their location.
Local SEO strategy includes adding geographic information and location to a search engine listing. This allows a suitable business to be easily found depending on the customer’s location.
The purpose of Local SEO is to focus on drawing the attention of customers located in smaller areas in a particular town or city.
It is practiced by local businesses who want to reach out to their target audience to attract them to visit their store, hence grow business within a service area.
Importance of Local SEO
Below mentioned are some of the key benefits of Local SEO for a business.
- Easy, hassle-free listing
Google My Business has replaced almost all local directories across the globe. With Google, My Business listing the business online has become very easy and hassle-free. It is completely free.
- Visibility
Converting customers is the main goal of any business, but for higher conversions, people need to know about your business.
If your business is listed online, each time a user in your local area searches for a product or service related to yours, with local SEO you are putting your business name and information in front of the user. Local SEO helps in improving your business visibility on Google Maps and Local Search Results.
E.g. you run a restaurant, and a user in your area searches for “restaurant near me” or “restaurant”; Google will list out all the restaurants in the area including your business.
Even if the user does not choose to visit your restaurant at that time, they will be aware of your restaurant and may choose to visit it the next time.
If Local SEO is done in the right way, it can help put even small business on the top of large companies dealing in similar products or services in the search listings.
- Competition with other local businesses
If you own a shoe shop and a person passing your neighborhood does a mobile search for shoes, theoretically speaking your business should show up in the search results.
However, if you are not using local SEO, then your business will not be ranked among the local searches.
Even if your products are better or equivalent to the competitor, you will miss out on the customer if you are not listed in the local searches.
- Higher Conversion Rate
If you own a hair cutting salon or a medical store, and a person searches for “hair cutting salon near me” or “medical shop near me” they will find your listing in the searches.
Since your business listing provides all the important contact details like number, address, etc. they can contact you and get more information on the salon rates or if a specific medicine is available at the store.
By providing direct access to your contact details, you can successfully convert a local search query into a successful sale.
- Build Trust
We all know that when an individual searches online they probably trust only the first few listings. It is assumed by most people that businesses being listed on 3rd or 4th page are not good enough to do business with.
Local SEO helps in ranking your business higher for local searches for your product or services. Higher your rankings, higher is the trust the visitors have in your business and brand.
Hiring a local SEO company
Trying to get your business noticed online is not easy, the competition is high. Focusing on local SEO can help you improve your search rankings and get noticed by customers online.
SEO (search engine optimization) takes a comprehensive approach for improving the website’s visibility, whereas, local SEO helps in placing your website where internet users in a specific geographic location are more likely to looks for such as Google Maps listings in search results.
Hiring an experienced local SEO company can help you plan the strategies which can get your website noticed.
Specialized local SEO companies can help improve your web presence to take you to the top of the search results when your potential customers are in the market looking for your products or services.
