Local search SEO uses various techniques and strategies to improve a business’s position on local search rankings.
Local search rankings occur when a user includes a local keyword phrase in their search engine and concludes a location from the user’s device.
An example of a local search phrase would be “car wash services in Ampang, Kuala Lumpur.” These can be business to consumer type with a physical location, or service area businesses that run throughout a specific geographic area.
As a whole, Search Engine Optimization for local businesses helps improve online visibility as many local customers use local search engines and directories to search for a local firm.
And 50 percent of searchers visit businesses within 24-hours of doing a local search.
In addition to improving your overall online brand awareness, local SEO gives an essential boost to leads, sales, and in-store foot traffic for local businesses.
But the benefits of local SEO don’t end there.
Local search marketing is all about putting your company on the map when customers are searching for a business like yours.
This article will further discuss the importance of local SEO and local SEO tips on how to utilize SEO local strategy to improve your brand’s online credibility.
And if you’re an SEO beginner, this article could give you an idea of how local SEO services work and what is local SEO marketing.
Read also: What is Local SEO?
Why Does Local SEO Matter?
Importance #1
Boosting Foot Traffic to Websites
With local SEO marketing, your business earns more visibility in that it gets found by the right audience interested in what you’re offering.
The higher your site ranks, the more likely people will see it, and when your site becomes visible, that means more sales and leads.
Importance #2
Increasing the Number of Phone Calls, Bookings, and Leads
When a customer finds your site and caters to what they need, i.e., geographically and language availability, they will keep in touch.
You can convert an inquiry to a sale when you can persuade the potential customers that you’re the best in town for the services that they’re looking for.
Importance #3
Building Trust, Loyalty, and Engagement with Searchers
When customers are happy and have a good experience with your service, they will likely come back and build a long-term business relationship with you.
If someone is searching for a business and sees favourable online reviews of your company, without a doubt they’re more likely to shop there and recommend it to others.
14 Benefits of Local SEO to Your Local Business
Local SEO Has Serious Longevity
Paid advertising and promotion is essential to all businesses, but it has short-term effects. It means if you stop paying for the advertising for more than six months or more, your business key awareness metrics will drop, and it will affect the business brand image and credibility.
But that’s not the case with local engine optimization, as your business will continue to receive the local SEO benefits even if you’re not doing any paid advertising.
With the right strategies – your site has built-in authority, and you have the appropriate categories set; you can claim Google listings as early as 4 to 8 weeks after your site is online.
And as long as you’re keeping your site updated, you’re helping towards getting your site ranked.
Improve Your Online Business Visibility
Every time your customer searches for your type of business in their area and you rank on the top of the page, you’re placing your business information to them. Even if they might not be getting your services at the time, they will consider your business in the future.
If you implement local engine optimization correctly, your business could beat your competitors even if they’re in business longer than you or even if they are a big corporation.
Investing a lot in advertising won’t get you far if you don’t know how to capture the right audience and they can’t find you. And that is the power of SEO for small businesses.
Build a Local Community
Local search engine marketing is all about keeping things local. If a business caters to its target locality, existing and potential customers have an opportunity to be more familiar with and understand what your brand is all about.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to let them know that your business resides within their location.
The perks of appearing in local search results could provide you with sponsorship opportunities. Having your brand in a local newspaper or mentioned by a local celebrity can help your business go a long way.
More Relevant Traffic
When your business targets local customers, you are encouraging your site’s visitors to come and visit your business. Practicing a more comprehensive SEO approach for your company allows for targeted and relevant customers.
Otherwise, you’ll be opening your site to many dead-end visits. Your products or services might not be suitable for them due to location wise.
For example, your business is located in Johor, but because you neglected local targeting, your site traffic might be from worldwide visitors. This is counter-productive to your goals, especially if you need them to visit your business location physically.
Also, even if you ship your products worldwide, the chances for overseas customers to buy from you is slim as they can also get the same products or services nearby their area.
Gain Possible Repeat Customers
Focusing on customer loyalty and encouraging repeat customers creates long-lasting and profitable business relationships. Not only do your repeat customers purchase more over time than new customers, but they are also likely to trust you enough and consider you the go-to brand for their specific needs.
Local business SEO helps your business to capture return customers thanks to mobile searches. This is because not every shopper is willing to travel for miles to get what they want. Instead, they opt for what is near them, and if they like what they receive, they will continue to buy from you.
Read also: Guide to Mobile SEO
Constantly updating and contacting your existing customers is also a great way to maintain a positive relationship with them.
Build Trust and Authority Through Higher Rankings
Many of us often visit sites that appear on the first five or six listings, and that’s the truth. You might think businesses that show up on the third page of results are not doing enough SEO.
But the truth is, they might be doing everything right, but they skipped on the local SEO optimization part. Once you start ranking higher, people are more likely to trust you, even without making any changes to what you’re offering.
Minimize Advertising Costs
Having effective local SEO is more cost-effective and gives a higher return-on-investment in the long run compared to investing in ads. This guarantees your business shows up in local search results.
Having a Local Online Presence
Local SEO is vital to all small businesses looking to establish themselves online. There are ways to optimize web content for local visibility online, and the few basic steps include:
- Featuring what your company is offering and where it is located visibly on your homepage
- Optimizing your website features like the meta title and meta descriptions to have targeted locations
- Creating separate web pages for products or services focused on specific areas
- Adding your business to local directory listings and resources
Small businesses with a solid local SEO online presence will benefit from support from their local consumers.
They are better positioned to appear in consumer searches and word-of-mouth referrals within the community that will generate more business and exposure.
Read Also: How To Write Perfect Meta Title & Meta Description for SEO
Higher Users Search Engine Rankings
Small businesses should use local SEO strategies to boost their search ranking — especially for mobile searches. Small business owners that optimize their digital marketing blog have more opportunities to close a deal.
Once your business is ranking for your location, you should consider strategies that drive in-store sales as they will bring massive business opportunities for your business.
This can be done by taking advantage of an excellent SEO WordPress plugin that will also improve your local SEO strategy efforts.
Stay Competitive with Neighboring Businesses
One of the local SEO benefits is that it allows your business to stay competitive with other local businesses. If someone is nearby your business location and searching for something that you’re offering online, your business will appear on their searches along with your competitors.
But if you’re not implementing local SEO to your business, then your business won’t be ranked, and your customer won’t know about you.
So even if what you’re offering is better than your competitors, you might miss potential customers, and they will go to your competitors that enforce local SEO work for their business.
Build Links with Nearby Businesses
Competition is always part of any business, and competition amongst small business owners can help spur new and better products and services, or create even better google local search marketing strategies.
Another benefit of local SEO is that it lets you establish alliances with other local business owners. A business might be planning for a cross-promotion to promote their product with other companies in their neighborhood or trying to organize a campaign that could benefit your business.
If your business is listed locally, they can find you. And this type of opportunity will help build your business potential because more people will know about your business.
And of course, you can also return the favor to build a healthy and positive business relationship with your competitors.
Related: How to Make Money with SEO
Get More Local Reviews
Local shoppers love to rave about a good business and a bad one online. If a customer is searching for a business and notices other regional customers have approved it, they will be more likely to shop there and recommend it to others.
When a customer leaves feedback on your business through your Google business account and you respond to it, that will help boost your SEO ranking. And that means more business and leads coming your way!
Generate More Leads & Sales
As we come to the last point, you can start to understand why local SEO is essential for small businesses.
This is because the local audience you can reach is already interested, and with a little bit of persuasion, they will buy from you. And all you have to do is ensure that you appear when they search for the specific product you’re offering.
A study run by HubSpot found that over 75 percent of consumers never scroll past the first page of the search result. You can run your page diagnostic and check your page performance in Google Analytics to know how many visitors you receive from local and organic searches. And from there, you can also calculate the conversion rate.
You can also learn how much a conversion is worth to your business on average. The amount will rely on what product or service you’re offering.
From there, you can start predicting how many conversions, foot traffic, and sales you’ll get once your site is on the higher rankings in local searches, compared with other local businesses.
You also see a graph that shows your site’s foot traffic with rollouts to significant updates. Also, it’s crucial to check for any Google penalty with Google Search Console because your site might not be ranked if you incur a penalty.
The Bottom Line
We hope this local SEO guide is informative and helpful for your business. As we established, when you are a local business owner, whether it’s an auto shop, dental clinic, or bakery, local Search Engine Optimization plays a vital role in generating conversions and customers.
Investing in local SEO service is your chance to get found by your native customers who are ready and willing to invest in your business. In simple terms, local SEO is all about improving the search visibility of your business that serves a local area.
As we discussed above, better visibility means more engagement and revenue for your business.
Local SEO business owners can engage, entice, and experiment with their prospects by offering the best offers and taking maximum advantage of the local business listing.
If you need help with your SEO for local business, or local SEO solution contact us at One Search Pro, our local SEO pro team is happy to assist you with all your marketing needs.
