To help you leverage local SEO to your best advantage, we asked SEO specialists and marketing professionals this question for their best insights. From helping save money and time to making it easier to convert local users, several tangible reasons may convince you to take full advantage of local SEO to bring growth to your business.
Local SEO Saves Money and Time
You cannot underestimate the importance of local SEO when you have a limited service area. For example, if your hair salon is paying for ads seen by people all over the world that will never walk through the door, it’s losing money. If you have a limited service area such as only providing a service for a local community, you don’t want people outside of that service area to see the website. This is why local SEO is needed to generate more qualified prospects and sales from people in your area who are already looking for you.
Brenton Thomas, Twibi Digital Marketing Agency
It is Easier to Gain Organic Traffic
Organic reach is the number of people who see your content without you having to pay for it. When it comes to SEO, organic reach is essential because it represents the potential customers who are searching for your products or services online. According to a recent study, 63% of all Google searches are done to find local results. This means that if your business doesn’t show up in local search results, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to connect with potential customers.
Local SEO is crucial for business because it allows you to reach potential customers who are actively searching for what you have to offer. By optimizing your website for local search, you can make sure that your business is visible to the people who are most likely to use your products or services. As a result, you’ll be able to generate more leads and convert more customers, which will ultimately lead to increased sales and profits.
Sher Jan, US Installment Loans
Search Results Are Yielding More Location-Based Results
Over time, Google’s algorithm has gotten better and better at deciphering which queries have the most local search intent. Not only does the map pack change based on the searcher’s location, but the traditional results (the traditional ten blue links) are also now more likely to return an increased volume of local search results than in the past.
Businesses need to make sure they are providing enough locally relevant content on their website and have an optimized Google Business Profile to ensure they’re able to rank for queries that have local intent. Keywords that used to be next to impossible to rank for on the national level are now available to businesses in their local areas due to these changes, so if businesses aren’t focusing on local SEO, they’re leaving significant opportunities for growth on the table.
Ryan Jacobsen, LaneTerralever
Local Search Results Bring in More Revenue
There are many reasons why local SEO can be crucial for a business, such as better online visibility resulting in more traffic to a website, more in-store traffic at a physical location, more calls, and more emails. However, ultimately it all boils down to the most important metric, revenue. Due to the number of potential customers who use Google and Google maps, if you are being found in the map listings and the local search results, then you are going to make more money as a business.
Max Peters, Technical SEO Consulting
Boost Conversions in Your Community
Local SEO is crucial for business because people in towns and cities will often search on Google and other search engines for services or products ‘near me’ or with the location as part of the query. If your website isn’t optimized to take advantage of these local searches, then you could be missing out on inquiries from customers on your very own doorstep. As people prefer to deal with businesses local to them, having your website ranked high for your location will often lead to website clicks and conversions, be that online or in-store if you have a brick-and-mortar business. Not only that, it can help to build your brand in the community as being the business of choice for the products or services you offer (providing you’re reputable, that is!).
Steph Andrusjak, SEO Steph
Local SEO Helps You Stand Out from Your Competitors
Local SEO is crucial for businesses because it allows businesses to be found by potential customers searching for their products or services in a specific location.
By optimizing their website and Google My Business listing, businesses can appear in the top search results for relevant keywords, resulting in more website visitors and leads. That Google My Business listing optimization can be semi-automated with tools like Surfer Local. Worth to mention that it’s good practice for local businesses to incorporate at least one keyword in their brand name. For example, searching “Restaurants in Soho ”, you may see “Bob Bob Ricard Soho” and “Bill’s Soho Restaurant” in the top 3. Both contain the location in their names.
Additionally, local SEO can help businesses to stand out from their competitors who may not be investing in this type of optimization. Local SEO is integral to any comprehensive digital marketing strategy and can help businesses reach their target audiences more effectively.
Lukasz Zelezny, SEO Consultant London
Build Trust With Local SEO
People generally like to shop for products locally (where possible) and do business with local companies. This is because people are more likely to trust a company if they know it’s local, rather than if it’s on the other side of the country. Therefore businesses must invest in local SEO for their website. This way, when potential customers search for companies in their local area and your business is displayed in the search results, these potential customers will be more likely to trust your business and go on to contact you. I’ve personally found that local SEO campaigns are the most satisfying to run!
Sam Robinson, Web Spider
Local SEO Especially Makes it Easier to Convert Local Users
I find local SEO especially important because the user is already very far in the user journey and being located close to your shop, is far easier to convert. If you take care of local SEO you can appear for instance in the knowledge panel or on the google maps feature. Both of them own a lot of “search real estate” on the search engine result page”
In my opinion, Google my business is the most powerful local SEO tool. Use it intensively and wisely. Besides the basic (verify the profile, add address and opening hour), I recommend the following: add all services you offer and describe them; when you publish a new blog post on your website, share it on google my business; ask your clients to rate your service on google my business and take the time to reply to them individually, and add authentic photos of your business to the profile.
Corina Burri, Senior Marketing Manager
