There’s no doubt that local SEO significantly impacts local businesses’ online visibility in the digital marketing world, and brings to a business many local SEO benefits.
But what are the key benefits of local SEO, and how does it support local businesses to get more sales?
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO or search engine optimization is a strategy where you work towards search engine ranking factors to rank your website on the first page in Google search results.
The higher you rank your local business in Google, such as in the local pack results, the higher your chances to convert local customers.
For example, if a user searches for a location-based query such as “dental implant in Staten Island NY,” and if you’re a dental practice serving that area, you ultimately would aim to rank in Google maps of the top search results for this keyword.
You might think, ‘That’s great, but how do I know which keywords to optimize my website for’?
Before working on your website’s search engine optimization, a general rule of thumb is to do keyword research to find relevant terms for your niche with a monthly search volume.
If you want to uncover relevant keyword ranking opportunities for your website get a done-for-you keyword research product from our range of result-proven deliverables.
Related Read: Ultimate Dental SEO Guide in 2022: Your Way to #1 SERPs
Top 10 Benefits of Local SEO for Small Businesses
1. Your Business Gains More Local Searches
When you work on website optimization for desktop and mobile search keywords, you will drive more relevant traffic and attract potential customers.
Different local SEO factors come into play if you want to increase your website’s online visibility.
Some of the leading Local SEO ranking factors to work on are:
- Content optimization,
- Website technical fixes,
- Google My Business Profile optimization,
- Title and meta optimization,
- Link building.
2. Your Local Business Will Experience Foot Traffic
If you are a small business that operates in a local area, getting more foot traffic is a must.
Your marketing strategy should focus on targeted traffic from local searches near the physical location of your business address.
That’s why despite creating content that ranks, you must include call-to-action initiatives by sending your customers to your relevant services based on particular queries.
3. Organic Traffic Results for a Better Return on Investment
While digital marketing covers Google ads as another way of driving sales and conversations, the return of investment on advertising costs can lead to overspending compared to local SEO optimization.
You will get continual organic traffic if you spend your resources on local SEO services and boost SEO rankings.
That’s why focusing on a local SEO strategy will provide a better ROI than paying for ads.
4. Google My Business Profile Optimization Leads to More Sales
You must optimize your Google My Business profile to top the local pack search engine results.
One way you could check how to optimize your GMB listing is by looking at what other local businesses in your area have done with their listings.
Doing a complete Google My Business SEO audit can help you check through the list of local search engine optimization items and thus strengthen your GMB listing.
5. Build Trust in Your Local Business
As a local business owner, one of your main goals is to establish trust for potential customers.
The higher you appear in search results such as google maps, the more users will see you as the trustworthy option.
Your goal should ultimately be to increase keyword rankings for relevant terms important to your business.
You should create a local SEO strategy plan for content distribution and touch upon different stages of the marketing sales funnels:
- Top of the funnel,
- Middle of the funnel,
- Bottom of the funnel.
The marketing sales funnel works perfectly for starting to engage potential customers by educating them with information related to their searches.
After they have gained information from your content and learned what you offer and how you can help them, you start bringing them down to the bottom of the funnel where conversations happen.
6. Build Citations to Boost Local Traffic
Another important thing to consider to maximize the benefits of local SEO is building citations for your business.
Local citations will show people that your business exists and is available for shopping locally in your operating area.
Building citations in directories is pretty straightforward but pretty time-consuming and resource-hungry.
Local citations boost the authority of your site in two ways:
- Increases traffic – meaning that you will get extra direct traffic from local directories where your site is featured in your industry,
- Passes link juice to your website’s domain rating – the more authoritative links in your website’s backlink profile, the higher your potential SEO rankings will be.
7. Increase Website Authority by Building Links
For your website to beat other local companies in rankings engaging in link-building campaigns is necessary.
Search engines love seeing a healthy backlink profile with a lot of links.
This is how search engines distinguish authoritative sites from less authoritative ones and provide users with the most relevant organic search results.
8. Build Relationships with the Local Community
If your small business deals locally, it is vital to build relationships with other businesses that offer local services.
As a small business, you might not be able to serve a wide range of services or sell various products.
This will undoubtedly be the case with other local businesses, and this is where partnerships come to life.
You will start referring each other’s businesses to customers, increasing the in-person visit frequency to your physical stores.
9. Website Optimization for Mobile Devices
Local SEO’s benefits come in handy if your website is correctly SEO-optimized for mobile devices.
A study reveals that 76% of local searchers that search for businesses on mobile devices end up going into stores within 24 hours of their online searches.
That’s why having your website optimized for mobile is vital in today’s world, where smartphones are the go-to for committing online searches.
10. Get More Online Reviews in Your Google My Business Listing
Getting online reviews for your small business is one of local SEO best practices since it will build trust among potential customers.
In addition, having reviews will only encourage other loyal customers of yours to leave more local reviews on your listing.
People love hearing the opinion of others on a particular experience before they choose to become local consumers themselves.
Beat Your Competition with Local SEO
Since local SEO works magic for businesses in getting more sales, there are likely local listings of competing firms that still rely on traditional ways of marketing.
That’s where your business takes the edge by implementing local SEO strategies.
Traditional marketing has taken a downfall, especially during the struggling times of Covid-19.
That’s why the interest for local SEO has experienced an increase during Covid-19 since venturing into local businesses is not a preferred option by most online users.
Using a Content Management System (CMS) like Magento or WordPress is a great way to boost your local SEO efforts. By utilizing plugins and other SEO tools available through the CMS, you can optimize your website and content for search engines, helping you rank higher in search results. For example, with Magento SEO, you can use plugins to manage metadata, add structured data to your site, and improve page load times, all of which are important factors in search engine rankings. By taking advantage of these features and optimizing your site for SEO, you can improve your visibility online and attract more local customers to your business.
Conclusion
Local SEO has helped businesses small to large scale their offerings and increase customer base and sales.
The benefits of local SEO are long-lasting and provide a better return on investment than paid ads.If all of this sounds like too much work for you and you don’t have the time, then check our local SEO services to help you get started immediately.
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