Businesses based within a vicinity need local SEO to attract customers online. Mainly because it is one of the easiest ways to grab customers for your business willing to buy from you. And in case you are looking for a definitive guide on local SEO, you have arrived at the right place.
In this article, we will explore everything about how a local SEO works. So read on to explore more about it.
What Is Local SEO, And Does It Work?
As the name describes, local SEO is search engine optimization for your local area. For example, if you are based in Maryland, you must ensure that your business is visible to people searching for it in Maryland. Just like on-page SEO, local SEO matters a lot.
It’s a quick and easy way to ensure your business is visible to people looking for it. In fact, since 2017 – Google searches that involve the word “near me” have increased massively. This is because people prefer to ask Google before buying from a local business.
Therefore, applying local SEO to your website will make your business pop up on anyone searching for services or products in that area.
The best thing about local SEO is that it attracts definitive customers. For example, if someone is looking to hire a dry cleaning service in Maryland and searches for it on Google. If your SEO is on point, your business will appear as the first link on Google. Unless someone else beats you to it by their service, your business will take the lead.
How To Use Local SEO?
Now that we have explored the Basic concept of local SEO. Let’s dive deeper into how local SEO works and how you can use it.
Set Up Your Google Business Profile
Google Business Profiles has become an essential tool in local SEO. This is where it all starts. Therefore, setting up your Google Business Profile should be the first task to ensure your business is optimized for local SEO.
Once you have an account, it’s time to share posts on your Google Business profile page. After that, encourage your customers to leave positive reviews for your business.
To ensure your business is rated well on Google, improve your services (it’s as simple as that). Other than that, check your reviews and politely respond to customers.
Now, you must be thinking, why should businesses do that? Well, it’s simple. Several options will pop up whenever someone in a specific locality looks up a business. First, the customers will go through Google reviews and check the business’s digital footprint before ordering a product or service. It doesn’t matter how good you are at your job. You must be able to market it properly to find customers online.
Add Proper Address And Contact Details
Sometimes businesses lose customers because the phone number they have added on Google needs to be fixed, or there is no number. In this case, you must be particular about your contact details on Google.
Ensure that the details that you have added are correct and in line. It’s important because, more often than not, when people are looking for a local business, they call up the venture to ask for further details. Therefore, businesses with correct contact details are more likely to grab customers.
Verify The Presence Of The Business
Map data aggregators like the express update provide data for popular map services like Google and Apple. Therefore, to ensure that your business is local search engine optimized. You need to make sure that you are visible in these directories.
This is mainly because if Google cannot verify your information, your business will not appear on Google search results. So avoid this unfortunate situation and sit down to verify your presence on all the map aggregators online (it will do wonders for your business).
Audit Your Progress
One of the most redundant mistakes businesses make is that they tend to slow down on their hard work when they are done with the basic steps of local SEO.
Therefore, every once in a blue moon – consider carrying out an audit to track your progress. Here is a checklist that you can follow.
Step One: Ensure that your business appears on Google my business SERPs. And whether the details are correct. Also, check for any spelling discrepancies.
Step Two: Make sure your website is crawlable for the customers and free from any indexing errors.
Step Three: Hire a team to optimize the on-page SEO of your site.
Step Four: Check how the competitive business is performing. Are they appearing at the top of your Google search? If yes, find out how you can take that position.
Improve Interlinking
SEO’s main idea is to ensure that your website is accessible to your customers. However, external linking is essential. But, interlinking your website Is also crucial to ensure that your customers can navigate the website easily.
Optimize Your Content
Gone are when you could upload anything on your website and expect it to do good. Because of a highly saturated market, you need to ensure that your content is SEO so that it can appear on the local Google search.
To do that, ensure that your meta descriptions, titles, and content are equipped with the right keywords.
Create A Mobile-Friendly Website
Creating a mobile-friendly website for local SEO is very important. It is because if someone is looking for a local service, they will likely use their phone and do a quick Google search instead of opening up the laptop.
So, if someone opens up your website and all they can see is a blank, spaced-out page, it will not be a good user experience and not be good for your business. According to a report, more than 50% of google searches are done on a mobile phone. And if your website is not optimized for it – you will lose more than 50 percent of clicks. So do yourself a favor and spend some money making your website mobile-friendly.
Benefits Of Using Local SEO
Suppose you are still not convinced why you should optimize your website for local SEO. Here are the benefits of using local SEO to boost your business.
Organic Traffic Boost
When a website is SEO optimized for your locality, it will get an increase in organic traffic. It is because people searching for the services are most likely to buy from you. Hence, most of the people who will come across your website on google will convert into customers.
Other than that, local SEO will also help you gather relevant traffic. You may get 10-15 clicks in a day, but those 15 clicks will translate into 15 sales. Isn’t it better than getting 100 clicks in a day but just five sales?
You Can Save Up On Marketing Costs
When your business gathers enough organic traffic through local SEO, you will not have to spend more on marketing costs. Furthermore, as your business will appear in almost all of the Google searches done in your locality, you will have a sufficient number of customers. However, you might have to hire more staff to cater to the demand.
And yes, you guessed it right. Local SEO will boost your profits and reduce your operational marketing costs.
The Increased Trust Of Customers
Although people are aware that Google runs through a specific algorithm, they are more likely to trust the recommendation of Google over anything else (trust me, mate, I googled it).
Therefore, when your website is optimized with local searches. People will have increased trust in your business.
And, you guessed right – it will increase your customer base. It does sound weird – but that’s how the world works now. But there is a very important thing that businesses need to understand. SEO will help attract new customers and make them stay is the quality of service they provide.
User-Friendly Website
Suppose you are on a website with no reviews, pictures, or social proof. The text is all spaced out and looks like a plain white canvas. Will you trust this website? The answer is probably no.
However, on the contrary, if your website is decked up with social proof, there are enough good reviews on Google, and the website looks good with several inbound and outbound links. Moreover, it will make people trust your services more than your competitors.
Takeaway
Local SEO is a great tool to gather customers for a business in a specific area. It works because whenever people search for a service near them, Google’s algorithm quickly looks at all the websites with local SCO. And just like that, your website and the business will get organic and relevant traffic. You do not need to spend hundreds of dollars advertising your business on TV and putting up billboards in your area. All you need to do is ensure that your local SCO is on point. Then, people who see your website pop up on Google search results will buy from you without hesitation. It’s as simple as that.
