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Whether you have a physical store or serve a specific location, local SEO can help make a huge difference for your business. Partnering up with local SEO services can help you position yourself as a go-to brand for people in the areas you serve.
While that might not sound like a big deal compared to national or global visibility, it holds incredible potential for your marketing campaign. 81% of customers looking for businesses near them turn to Google for help. That tells you just how much buyer traffic you’re missing out on if you don’t have effective local SEO strategies in place.
That’s just the tip of it. The fact that local search has increased by over 900% in the last couple of years alone speaks volumes of the growing importance of local SEO for business.
If you’re yet undecided about where to place it in your marketing campaign, here are some of the most important benefits of local SEO to help you make up your mind.
Improved online visibility
Local SEO can shorten the route to success with your overall SEO campaign. Not only does it help you secure online prominence in your location and niche, but it also increases your site’s overall domain authority and ranking potential.
Let’s talk first about the potential for greater visibility in your niche and location. An excellent local SEO company will help localize your website (sprinkling your location and contact details naturally across your website), build citations and backlink networks across reputable local sites, and develop engaging local content for your local audience. Using local citation software is also a great opportunity for SEO pros to increase rankings. All of this sends hyper-specific ranking signals to search engines, maximizing your ranking potential for local keywords.
The improved performance with local keywords raises your site’s overall ranking potential, further fueling success with your search engine marketing.
Exploit the explosion of local online shoppers
Did we mention that the volume of local shoppers who find businesses through Google search has grown astronomically over the past few years?
For starters, Google has made it incredibly convenient for people to find the best local business near them. Second, this easier access to local businesses has led to a major shift in consumer behavior. People are now more willing (in fact many prefer) to do business with local businesses compared to major national and international brands. They just love businesses that work with a strong community-centric and customer-centric approach. 56% of customers say they actively shop around for locally-sourced products and services. A staggering 76% say they plan to patronize more local services over the coming year.
More high-quality organic traffic
Organic search traffic usually comes with high conversion potential because most times, the searchers have it in mind to buy a product or service. Local search traffic is even more valuable.
Local searchers are usually more predisposed to buy from you. People visit a business within a day 76% of the time when they do a local search on their mobile phones.
When people start seeing your business name and location on their Google Maps or Local Pack results when shopping for your type of product or service, you’ll most likely experience a surge in the number of prospects contacting you and turning up at your doorstep.
Promoting your image as a thought leader
One of the reasons people are increasingly drawn to local businesses is because they can easily find a friendly face and listening ears there. They’re more likely to enjoy direct access to the owner of the business, and that means their voice is more likely to be heard.
The best local SEO company will use highly engaging local content to position you as the go-to expert in your niche and locality, helping you build and grow an active following. They can portray you as someone who understands the unique needs of the local people, local trends, and community dynamics.
Increased credibility
By distinguishing you as a thought leader in your locality and niche, local SEO services make you look more trustworthy and credible in the eyes of your local audience.
In fact, they can boost your credibility in many ways. They can help manage your online reputation, soliciting and responding to reviews proactively to boost your image.
95% of customers base their purchase decisions primarily on online reviews. What’s more, to make it to the Local Pack you must have scaled Google’s rigorous quality checks and are deemed worthy of searchers’ trust. Local Pack results take up 45% of all clicks from local search traffic.
A vibrant community outreach
Local SEO services can help you leverage a strong community to bootstrap your business. Besides helping you generate loyal customers, an engaged community can also help you:
- Mine insights to develop a better product-market fit,
- Find partners and sponsors who’ll assist you with resources for growing your business,
- Boost your overall reputation and ranking potential.
Top-notch local SEO services will help you leverage all of this by finding and exploring opportunities to engage audiences on online communities, local listing sites and directories, and authoritative local sites.
They’ll also promote community interactions by posting local content on and off your site.
Increased conversion and retention and retention rates
When you attract a high volume of highly qualified leads, you can expect an increased conversion rate. Most of your visitors are already seriously considering buying and aren’t far off from making the decision to buy from you. Consider hiring the best SEO company you can find near you for optimal results.
To highlight the amazing impact that local SEO can have on your conversion, sales, and retention, here are some interesting stats:
- 1 out of 4 local searchers is actually looking to buy something
- 88% of all local searchers turn up at a local store within a week, and nearly 1 out of 3 will go on to make a purchase
Wrapping up
Local SEO might not sound like much of a big deal, but it might be your legitimate shortcut to surge ahead of the competition. Local SEO service can help enhance many aspects of your SEO, maximizing your potential for generating and engaging leads, converting them, and securing their loyalty.
Leverage robust local SEO strategies today to maximize the returns on your marketing investments.