Local SEO: Why Does it Matter?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is critical to the success of your website and could be the key to your business's success as well. If you need to increase sales or grow your client base, improving your SEO can help yield the results you're looking for. Focusing efforts on enhancing your local SEO can improve your reach to potential purchase-ready consumers searching for your product or service nearby. Approximately half of Google's search queries pertain to inquiring about local information, products, and services – so it's important that your website and business are optimized for local search.
What is Local SEO?
Local search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your website’s online presence to show up in organic search results and local results. Local SEO focuses on optimizing your web pages with the goal of reaching the top positions in local search results and the Local Pack in specific areas. Achieving the top ranks of local search engine results pages (SERPs) requires a combination of techniques and tactics that we will discuss in this article.
Why Local SEO is Important
Local SEO is imperative to your business, as nearly 50% of all Google searches require local results. When consumers seek information on specific products or services, you must ensure your business is found on local search results to eliminate the competition.
For example, if a consumer is looking for a product or service that your business provides, but the entirety of the organic search results are dominated by name brands and the most prominent industry competitors, it can be challenging to find your business organically. However, if you focus on optimizing your local SEO, your website can appear at the top of the local search results and in the Local Pack, allowing you to cut out your competitors and provide your products to purchase-ready consumers nearby.
What Are the Benefits of Local Search Engine Optimization?
There are plenty of benefits and pros to focusing efforts on local search engine optimization. Some of these benefits include:
Reaching higher rankings in local queries
Increased relevant traffic
Trust built through your community
Fresh, local reviews
Increase your client base and gain loyal customers
Cut out the local competition
Increase in sales
Improved online visibility. Improving your local SEO means that you improve your brand awareness as well. Your business becomes more visible and discoverable when you reach higher ranks on Google’s SERP and become more noticeable in the Local Pack.
More customers in-store and online. Improving your local SEO can bring more foot traffic to your physical store and drive more online traffic to your website.
Targeted web traffic. Local SEO targets a specific audience that drives more targeted traffic to your website. Consumers looking for a product or service “nearby” are more likely to be purchase-ready. Targeting consumers at this