Local search has become increasingly crucial for businesses of all sizes. Users are increasingly turning to their local search results when looking to buy something. They trust their local search results more than those from businesses they don’t know. Approximately three out of every four consumers (76 percent) will look for a company’s website before determining whether or not to visit their actual physical location, and 45% of those searches result in people visiting physical premises.
Small businesses need to take advantage of local SEO like their larger counterparts. That’s because small companies can have a much smaller presence in their local area than larger businesses. This means that they need to take local SEO more seriously than their larger counterparts.
To help you understand why you should be focusing your digital marketing efforts on local search, we’ll explore the advantages of doing so and how you can start implementing local SEO in your business.
Understanding the Power of Local SEO
The importance of local search is simple: people are more likely to buy from a business in their local area.
Research has shown that people trust their local search results more than those from businesses outside the area. Four in five users say they trust those results more.
For a small business, it’s important to take advantage of local SEO because you have less competition and have the opportunity to reach your ideal customer base. Many small businesses don’t have a significant presence in their local area which means they need to focus on getting found online using tools like Google My Business or Trustpilot.
Local SEO also allows you to compete with larger businesses on a level playing field because you can provide information about your business that’s not available on other websites. This means you can use social media and blogs as sources for contact information and product descriptions, which many more prominent companies cannot do.
Why Should You Care About Local SEO?
Local search is becoming more and more critical for all businesses, but it can be even more so for small businesses. One of the biggest reasons local SEO is essential for small businesses is that they have a smaller presence in the physical world than larger ones. This means they need to do everything possible to ensure that people find them in the digital world.
Compared to older generations, younger consumer groups are more likely to conduct information searches on mobile devices. Customers under the age of thirty-five (57 percent) claim that at least half of their internet searches are operated via a mobile device, compared to 53 percent of consumers aged 35–54 and only 31 percent of consumers over the age of fifty-five (53 percent).
Large businesses may be able to receive foot traffic from around their area, but this isn’t always the case with smaller brands. You may not have a physical location in certain areas of your town, so it’s up to you to make sure that people know about you digitally.
Another reason why local SEO can be so vital is that there are specific kinds of products or services that need a local presence. Say, for example, you own a bakery and only sell your goods at specific times on certain days. People might be searching online for where they can buy your pastries online or when they will be available again. This is just one example of how people might use their local search results if they’re looking for something specific like this.
In a nutshell, some of the benefits of local SEO for small businesses are:
- It can help you attract more customers from your area.
- It helps you rank higher on search results pages, bringing in more traffic and boosting sales.
- It can help you establish an authoritative presence online.
- It increases brand awareness by as much as 80%.
- It helps fight against competitors.
Tips for Implementing Local SEO
There are a few simple steps to improve your local SEO.
- Make sure your website is optimized for mobile devices. This will allow more people to find your business when they’re on the go and looking for local companies to visit.
- Ensure your business information is up-to-date and correct. This includes phone numbers, addresses, and contact details, all listed clearly on your website.
- Create or update your Google My Business listing with details such as opening hours and contact information.
- Use keywords related to where you are located in the content you publish online. For example, if your business specializes in interior design in London, then be sure to include those keywords in any blog posts about home buying that you publish on your site.
- Make sure your homepage has a map with pins pointing to your store locations and directions from other popular places like schools or government offices. Customer reviews and testimonials are great ways to generate more online traffic for your small business.
- Promote these fundamental changes by updating your social media profiles with links to the new pages that you’ve created or updated.
It can be worth looking for an experienced SEO company to assist you in implementing an effective SEO strategy, such as Enterprise SEO solutions, as this will allow you to avoid making mistakes that could impact your strategy.
Perfecting your local SEO campaign can be time-consuming and tricky if you have no knowledge of the industry and are simply grasping at straws. Making mistakes can have a considerable impact, but getting it right and hitting the ground running will mean you have a marketing campaign that will continue working for you every day.
In conclusion
For many small businesses, getting that all-important online presence can make all the difference to their success. But implementing local SEO effectively can further boost marketing efforts and get the word out to those who need to find your company and gain new customers easily by harnessing the power of search engines.