It goes without saying that consumers are more likely to look for information or services offered in their specific geographical area. This means that keywords that help a business rank locally are often more beneficial than keywords that help businesses rank nationally. In fact, 76 percent of people looking for a nearby business on their smartphone visit them within a day, and 28 percent of these searches end in a purchase. That’s why the ability to target local keywords is crucial if you want to reach a local audience.
A few decades ago, consumers might have searched for local businesses in the yellow pages or on the map. Today, they use search engines to find contact information, location, schedules, and other details about a business. Did you know that 50% of users visit a store within a few days of performing a local search? If you want people to walk in at your company’s door, you need to optimize for local search engine optimization.
While you’ll always find software like Rank Math, Ahrefs, and Semrush at the top of all reputable SEO software lists, there’s also a specific subset of SEO software that specializes and focuses heavily on local SEO. Everything from local listing tracking and rankings in organic search to managing reviews and conversion tracking. This includes everything from claiming a list of businesses to making sure a franchise’s location shows up in a local Google search. It also extends to managing online ratings and reviews, participating in locally targeted social media, and more. One of the basic principles of SEO is the number of quality sites that link to your site.
Apart from dating, another important concept in terms of local SEO is map pack results. It’s clear from these metrics that location-based web searches are an extremely lucrative avenue in terms of leads, and these numbers are likely to grow even more. Since these are qualified leads from people who are actually looking for the exact product or service your business offers, it can be safely assumed that these leads are very likely to convert into sales. Local search engine marketing means applying typical search engine marketing strategies such as SEO or PPC on a local business website. People search for your services on search engines like Google – the purpose of SEO is to use Google as a source of free inbound leads for your business. That said, setting up your site for local search success in areas will have a greater impact on the actual results of your business, as you focus on the area you serve.
Unlike other forms of advertising, local SEO can target both desktop and mobile users. Given the rise of mobile search for local services, this can be especially cheap for local businesses. According to Search Engine Land, an estimated 79 percent of all mobile phone owners and 81 percent of tablet owners use their devices to run local services. This means that for local businesses looking to promote their products and services, local SEO optimized for mobile search can be particularly lucrative.
If you’re the restaurant they discover in the search results, you have a significant chance of winning your business. This, of course, applies to all local businesses; Local SEO allows you to reach local customers who are likely to need your products or services right away. If a web user with an immediate need sees your local listing, they will likely choose to buy from you.
This presentation focuses on strategies that can make your landing pages useful and interesting to search engines and site visitors. We’ll discuss ways to incorporate first-party data, third-party data, and user-generated content to create local landing pages that aren’t lacking. If your business has multiple locations, each location can be optimized for its own local search results.
One of the biggest benefits of using local SEO is increasing traffic to your website and specific web pages. Local website traffic can optimize your website’s visibility, instantly increase your sales, and make your brand more recognizable to a local audience. This is especially useful for local small businesses that want to promote their business from a small geographic area. Another benefit of local SEO that can be overlooked is that it helps build ties with local businesses.
That’s why Google’s local search algorithm includes a proximity factor, which is a fancy way of saying that Google takes your location into account when searching for a local keyword. This happens even when the search engine doesn’t include the name of a city or Local SEO “near me” in its search. No matter what kind of local business you manage, a little SEO work can help you master the local searches and continually grow your business. It makes it easy for people to find you as they search online for your specific products.