Optimizing for search engine is important for businesses to reach their target market on the internet. However, for a few years now, professional SEOs and marketers have been emphasizing on the importance of optimizing for local search. Why is that? And why business should optimize for local search? You’ll find all that out in this article.
Search engine optimization is important for any and every online business. However, if your SEO is more generalized and not centered on the area(s) of your service, then let me tell you, you can do better. Your business can rank better, increase traffic inflow, improve conversion rates, and enjoy many other benefits as such. Have a great local visibility and reach can be just very helpful for businesses. Therefore, businesses are now increasingly moving towards localizing their SEO efforts.
Having a target approach is important in digital marketing. And it is pretty much the same for SEO. That being said, lets learn about how your business can gain from local SEO.
Reasons why businesses should optimize for local search
#Most business searches have local intent
Generally, most of the business-related searches made have a local intent behind them. This implies that mostly when people search for a certain type of business, they do it in relation to a certain geographical location. For example, searching for a digital agency, searches would likely use terms like:
- Digital agencies near me (searching in area the searcher is currently present and in)
- Digital agencies in New York (searching in the desired city)
- Digital agencies in Brooklyn (more specific location-based search in neighborhood)
By optimizing for local search, you will be able to make sure that your business appears in the top result if query for your business type is made in relation to the area it is located in.
#Get a chance to appear in Google Local 3-Pack
Google Local 3-Pack is basically that rectangle type figure you see at the top of the SERPs when you search for a business. It displays the three best local business options in that. It has been found that the businesses who manage to get ranked in Google Local 3-Pack enjoy immense SEO benefits—higher CTR, more traffic, better lead generation and conversion rates, increased sales and revenue, and so on. And the only thing that can help your business rank in Google Local 3-Pack is local search engine optimization.
#Get web traffic for users in the area
One of the biggest advantages of having a local reach for a business it that it helps it get web traffic for users in the concerned area. This is especially beneficial for local and small businesses that service within particular geographic area and want to promote their business in that are specifically. Hence, local SEO helps businesses get web traffic from their concerned area(s) of service.
#Increase your in-store traffic
Unlike general SEO, local SEO not only helps you improve your web traffic but also in-store traffic. Businesses that rank high for local business search tend to greatly improve their offline footfall along with the online one. Let’s say you are a bakery owner and someone searches for a bakery in your area’. If you do local SEO right and get your business ranked for such search, your business can improve offline inflow of customers.
#More qualified leads
The leads you get from the local traffic are more qualified and more likely to convert into customers than the general ones. This is so since their search is quite specified which narrows down the number of competitors and increases the chances of leads turning into customers.
#Quicker conversions
There are a number of stats and studies proving the fact that local SEO leads to quicker conversions. In most cases, people convert into buyers within a day of searching for a business. This is especially so in the cases of restaurants, local stores, shops, and so on. Therefore, if you want to enjoy quicker conversions, you should optimize your online presence for local search.
#Knock off competition with bigger brands
When it comes to local search, Google is more interested in showing people best local results rather than best business options overall. Hence, as a small clothing store, you can have better chances of getting ranked high on the SERPs than other clothing giants like HM or Zara with the help of local SEO.
#It is critical for location based businesses
If your business is largely dependent on its brick-and-mortar establishment—like is the case with restaurants, grocery shops, automobile services, and so on—then your business really needs local SEO. This is so since your customers are mostly based on the particular locality. If you can’t rank for local search of your business in your area, you will have a hard time attracting more customers. Therefore, such businesses have to optimize for local search.
Final Word
Local SEO is basically a more targeted approach in SEO that focuses on getting local traffic relevant to a business. And targeting is very important in digital marketing, SEO being no exception. So apparently with local SEO, you enjoy benefits like increase visitors, more qualified leads, more closed deals, and so on. Moreover, it can also help your business rank in the Google Local 3-Pack which further has even more benefits. Not to mention how you can knock off competition with big brands. And these key benefits are what makes local SEO so important for small and local businesses.
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