What is Local SEO?
Local SEO for Business, which stands for “local search engine optimisation,” is the process of making a business more visible in local search results by improving its online profile. This means that your business should be near the top of the search results when someone looks for a product or service in a certain area.
To do this, local SEO for business strategies use a variety of methods, such as making your website more search engine friendly, building and maintaining online business listings, and asking users for reviews. When you own a business, you should look into ways to enhance your SEO in your area.
Why is local SEO important?
Now that you know what local SEO for business is, let’s talk about why it’s important. Local SEO is important because it’s a good way to sell your business online if you want to get more people in your area to come into your shop.
People use search engines like Google to discover services and companies close to them.
That’s why it’s crucial for your business to have an effective local SEO plan: that way, your business will be one of the first ones customers encounter when they search for your products or services online.
Not conviced that you need an SEO plan for local searches? Just look out these statistics:
“Near me” searches have surged by more than 500% in the previous several years 200% jump in mobile searches for terms like “open near me now”
30% of all mobile searches relate to location
The 5 Benefits of Local SEO for business
Better Online Visibility
Many of the activities connected with local SEO for business will not only help you to improve your visibility in local search results but also help you to build better online exposure overall.
Citation building, for example, is a staple of local SEO for business work. This involves building references of your company’s name, its physical address (ideally including zip code), and phone number via search listings, social media accounts, and online review platforms.
It is simpler for your business to be discovered by the appropriate people (those in their local region who are interested in your particular product or service) at the right moment (when they are actively searching for a business like yours) since you will be doing this in as many various locations as possible. For instance, if you own a bed and breakfast in Upstate New York, a TripAdvisor NAP can direct potential customers to you and encourage them to book.
More In-store Foot Traffic
Greater local exposure can help to bring more foot traffic to your bricks-and-mortar location, whether you’re a cafe, dry cleaner, or hardware shop. If you’ve invested heavily in specialist equipment, created an innovative space, or have a bricks-and-mortar location because your goods are best experienced in person, growing the number of people Dropping by might enable you to build a buzz about your space and earn additional revenue.
Tap Into the Local Shopping Boom
Recent years have seen broad changes in buyer buying habits. One of the most noticeable is that today’s consumers increasingly value local companies when it comes to making purchasing choices.
Research shows that consumers are thinking smaller and choosing to value small, local, independent companies rather than bigger, brand name goods or experiences they may have chosen previously.
56% of consumers say that they consciously give their custom to local shops and actively seek out locally sourced goods.
76% of consumers also say that they plan to shop more locally over the next 12 months, meaning a chance is emerging for smaller, independent businesses to boost their sales. One of the core benefits of local SEO is it puts you in front of local customers exactly when they need your goods or services. As a result, this can enable you to fully leverage this change in buyer behaviour to grow your business.
Targeted Web Traffic
As a small business, every minute you spend working with unfit leads or people who aren’t likely to make a purchase or book a service is money lost.
Local SEO can help weed out useless traffic and remove those time saps which prevent your business from running efficiently, helping ensure your business is only visible to search users in your local area.
With 59% of search users going to Google to study a purchase they plan to make in-store, this can be a significant advantage as it allows you to focus your resources on those customers most likely to convert. .
More Calls and Visits from Maps Users
Optimizing your Google Business Profile can lead to improved exposure on Google Maps. This, in turn, can lead to more calls and more in-person visits, since Google Maps was specifically built to help users find local businesses and plan their travels.
Google Maps is filled using information that Google gleans from Business Profiles, so any Google Business Profile improvement you carry out will directly help your Maps exposure, increasing your number of calls and in-person visits.
How Google determines local search rankings
Whether you’re a contractor, healthcare provider, plumber, real estate agent, or any other local business— it is important to know the answer to the question, “what is local SEO,” and to understand how and why your local business will show to searchers.
As you’re building your local SEO plan and learning what local SEO is, it’s important to understand the factors that influence local search. Three important factors that affect how Google determines local search rankings are:
- Proximity
- Relevance
- Prominence
Proximity
Proximity is how near your business is to the the researcher. . Google likes to create results that are closest to the user. This factor isn’t something you can control, but it’s important to take into consideration when growing your Google Business Profile for local search.
Listing your business area in your Google Business Profile is a great way to ensure you show up local searches in your surrounding area.
Relevance
Google also produces results based on relevancy. Your relevancy relies on the search term and the goods or services you offer. If someone looks for a digital marketing institute, Google creates a list of businesses that offer digital marketing course.
Prominence
Prominence focuses on what other customers say about your goods or services. On the Google page, this comes in the form of one- to five-star scores, plus user comments or reviews. Google wants to show places with excellent reviews to help people find the best business for their needs.
When creating your local SEO plan, you must keep these three things in mind.
Your local SEO impacts your business’s ranking in local search results. It’s also important to know these factors so you can better improve your local SEO plan to drive more foot traffic to your business.
