Are you starting a new business site and unsure if you should put effort into local SEO or not?
It’s becoming more of a necessity for your business to survive, with more and more people relying on their mobile devices to find businesses. You need to know everything there is to know about local SEO.
Are you confused about the importance of local SEO in the first place? Why should you worry about it anyway? Well, keep on reading to learn more about local SEO, it’s importance, and how it can help you and your business.
What Is Local SEO?
Local SEO is all about optimizing your website so that it reaches more and more people in your local area. It’s focused around the ranking of your website in comparison to your competition. You’ll want to have a higher ranking in your local area, especially if you have a shop or building nearby.
50% of people who look up local businesses, will end up going to the store within one day. An optimized local SEO is what brings in more customers to your storefront. This is how people who aren’t yet aware of your business are going to find you in real life.
Having good local SEO means that people in your area searching for your services will be more likely to come across your website. It’s the process of analyzing the data from your content, titles, and keywords to make your website higher up on search engines.
So when people search for things like “doctors near me” or “lawyers in my area” or “restaurants in (city name)”. With local SEO, it’s more probable that they click on your site.
Why is Local SEO Important?
60% of Americans conduct searches for services or products in their local area. So, if there’s a high rate of people looking for businesses in their local area, you’ll want to be one of the options they see. When done right, local SEO will push your website above others also in your area.
If you’re just starting with your business, traditional marketing might be way above your budget. You also can’t be sure if you’re going to get a return on your investment. The best bet is to take advantage of this growing online awareness.
You have to remember that people don’t go out of their way to get a certain product or service. Unless it’s something extremely specific and they can only find it in other places. They’ll most likely turn to a business near them, not only for convenience but for accessibility too.
When people search for any online business, Google helps them find your shop. It automatically gives a map of your local area and directions to get to your business. If you want to keep bringing in more customers to your local store or make people more aware of your business.
What Are Its Benefits?
We’ve defined what local SEO is and tackled its importance. Now you’re probably wondering, how will this benefit you?
Gain More Sales
Once more people start finding your business easily, it will start attracting their interest. The potential for getting more customers to your store is big when they see it ranked high on Google.
People are less likely to look past the first search page on Google. So, if yours has a higher position in the search engine, more people click on it. The more people click on it, the more inclined they are to do business with you. Meaning, more sales for your business!
Have A Competitive Edge
Businesses around you might not have realized the potential and importance of SEO. If you have a higher rank on the search engine compared to your competitors. Or they haven’t even invested in having local SEO, you can have the competitive edge on them.
This is because, with good local SEO, your target audience will be seeing your business rather than theirs. Get ahead of the heard and optimize your local SEO
Builds Online Visibility
There’s a high chance that people might now be aware of your business. How many times have you discovered a new restaurant or clothing boutique in your area? It’s important that you let people know about your business and what it offers.
The best way to do this is through local SEO. Online visibility and prominence will also help enhance your Google Maps visibility. This means that Google Maps will show your business on an overall map of your area.
Grow A Following
As soon as more people discover your business, if enough of them like it, you can grow a following. Activity on your site and social media can even pave a way for engagement. Customer reviews also boost getting a good following.
After enough people stand by your business, they will be more likely to recommend it to other people. This will lead to a bigger following an maybe even turn into regulars.
These are only a few of the plenty more benefits that local SEO can bring to you and your business. But these are more than enough reasons to think about optimizing your search engine marketing.
Of course, many factors will affect your success with local SEO. One of them can be your locations and how many businesses there are around you. But you can always look up local SEO optimization in your area to help you, like this Orlando SEO company.
Don’t Ignore the Importance of Local SEO
We hope that you’ve learned everything there is to know about the importance of local SEO, as well as how it can boost your business and bring more people to your shop. Hopefully, you can use this article as a stepping stone to your online success and make the most out of your website.
If you enjoyed this article and want to learn more, why don’t you check out the rest of our guides? Read more articles, just like this and expand your knowledge to help you and your website thrive.
