Imagine this, you’re looking for a new dessert shop to check out nearby so you run a search online of “local dessert shops” but all the results you receive are located in random locations across the country. Not very helpful! If this were everyone’s online search experience, not many people would use online searches to find nearby businesses. All the major search engines understand this dilemma and have therefore taken a measure to counteract these kinds of results. They employ local SEO.
Now, if you are a business owner, you want to make sure that you connect with and draw in local customers. Using online search tools is one of the fastest and most efficient ways to do this. But in most cases, it doesn’t just happen. You must optimize your online presence to rank in local search results.
Is it really worth the effort though? Can it really help your business that much to use local SEO? Here’s a quick breakdown of some reasons why focusing on local SEO can benefit your business.
What is Local SEO?
The point of a search engine is to connect searchers with the information they seek. Part of this connection is ensuring that the most accurate and appropriate information appears when a search is conducted. To accomplish this, search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo use AI to scour the internet, search, and index every page of information, and then produce that information when a search is conducted that matches the information. So how do you ensure that your information shows up in a search for products or services that you supply? By implementing SEO.
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the strategy of curating your online content and presence to match what search engine AI is looking for. By using specific language, link building, and digital media you can strategize so that your website appears at the top of search engine result pages (SERPS). For local business purposes, search engines also use geographical location as a search point. Therefore by implementing location-specific keywords and linking to local event pages nearby, an online search will pick up your content as information to return in a search when someone searches “near me.”
All popular websites use this digital marketing strategy, but if you run a local business, it’s important to additionally employ a local SEO strategy. This ensures that you reach your targeted audience in your local area.
Key Benefits of Local SEO
So you know that using local SEO will allow your website to rank higher in search results, but how does this boost business? Here are 5 keys benefits of local SEO and how using it can grow your business.
Online Visibility
Having a well-crafted website is a must in today’s market. But it’s not enough to simply have a website. You must have a website that people can find. Did you know that the top 5 results in a Google search receive over 60% of traffic clicks? This means that if your website doesn’t appear within the first 5 results, you’re likely not seeing any traffic from a search. And if people don’t know you exist, how can they shop with you? By optimizing your content for local SEO, you increase your likelihood of ranking high, and therefore your likelihood of increasing brand awareness.
Relevant Traffic
In our opening scenario, our searcher received results from and wide. While this works for online businesses that use shipping or who provide an online service, it doesn’t work for local businesses with a brick-and-mortar store or localized product. Therefore, it’s not enough for your website to receive lots of visitors from halfway across the world, you need traffic on your page that is relevant and likely to be a potential customer. Using local SEO strategies allows you to target an audience that is nearby rather than far away.
Decreased Advertising Costs
One of the greatest benefits of local SEO for your business is that it allows you the opportunity to save on advertising costs. While print and radio ads, billboards, pamphlets, and flyers have been successful advertising avenues in the past, the present and future of advertising are online. Nowadays, if shoppers wish to find a product, they search online. Therefore, your advertising strategy should adjust to fit this new technology. Ranking high in a search is must less expensive than paying for expensive advertisements. Additionally, using social media to advertise your product and link to local events helps to boost your website traffic without paying crazy ad fees.
Increased Sales
Of course, the number one point of business is to sell your product or service. Using local SEO improves conversion rates and increases sales because it ensures that customers who are looking for your product or service can find it more quickly and efficiently. Driving organic traffic to your site through a local SEO search has a much higher chance of garnering a sale than a browser randomly coming across your page.
Business Growth
Increasing your online presence, and therefore sales, only help your business to grow. When you target a local audience and deliver a needed product or service, you create a loyal community of repeat customers which increases your brand reliability and reputation. By ensuring that locals can easily find your brand, your store hours, your phone number, and your geographic location information online, you ensure that your business is easily accessible and easy to support.
How to Take Advantage of Local SEO
Are you ready to take your business to the next level with local SEO? Doing so can grow your business through online visibility, drive relevant traffic to your site, decrease your advertising costs, and increase sales. But how do you get started?
While it is possible to do the work of developing an SEO strategy and implementing changes yourself, it is a huge task to undertake if you want to do it well. Therefore, it’s best to bring in experts who have proven strategies and know-how.
At Sting Marketing, our team is just that. Expert strategists with a proven track record of implementing SEO strategies to help businesses grow. We can do it all from website design and search engine optimization to marketing and technology integrations.
Partnering with Sting is your best path forward to growing your business with Local SEO quickly. Give us a call today to discuss how we can help you.
