Why Local SEO Matters For Your Business?

Significance of local SEO for the success of your business

Today, the world is using digital platforms to reach places, people and much more. Digitising everything has not only helped in making lives easier but has also introduced the world to a lot of advancements. With a click, you can access any information about anything.

Printed phone books or traditional marketing approaches are now outdated, as the world is embracing digitisation. People are searching for everything under the sky on the internet. At this online age, if you are running a business, your presence on the internet will help you reach your business goals faster and more effectively. The traditional ways of marketing are now getting replaced by new digital marketing ideas and tools.

Anyone who runs a local business should not only be online but also make the most of these opportunities for leveraging SEO ( Search Engine Optimisation). Optimising pages for local searches can dramatically improve your sales, your online visibility and brand value. There is no doubt about the fact that in a world so digital, Search Engine Optimisation plays an essential role in the growth of your company.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO emphasises on effective local online marketing tools. For businesses, the most important aspect is their website or their existence showing up in local searches to the relevant audience. The targeting results are based on geographic location. In other terms, we can say Local SEO is a term used to SEO on a local geographic location. Any small big business can make use of this local SEO.

Now, if any person searches for your products or services online (say ‘good tailors in Pune’), if your local SEO is on point, your website will appear on top. Thus, it not only helps in promoting your website but also helps in branding your business i.e. your name, services, address etc.

• Here are some statistics depicting the importance of Local SEO:

• 96% of PC owners conduct local searches.

• 46% of all Google searches are local.

• 64% of local customers use search engines and directories as their main way to find local businesses.

• 50% of local mobile searchers look for business information (like a company’s address or phone number).

• 78% of local mobile searches lead to an offline purchase.

• 71% of people look up to confirm the location before going for the first time.

• 56% of local mobile searches were made right before a store visit.

(Sources: Searchengineland.com and Business2community.com)

Why is Local SEO Important?

Google and other search engines are paying more attention to the local searches. If you are mentioning a specific city or area, Google will narrow down their search and will look for specific locations, boosting your rankings. There are a lot of reasons why local SEO is important for your business.

People tend to search everything online. In the online era, everybody searches everything on the internet to be able to know about the best options available. They save time, energy and money to go to an area physically and search for options. Local SEO helps you be visible when they are searching for the products and services you are offering.

Now that you know why local SEO is important, let’s find out what else it brings to the table for you!

Benefits of local SEO

1. High Conversion Rate

Local SEO brings in targeted traffic to your website or online leads, giving a conversion rate of 33%. According to research, 61% of people end up calling the business after a local search. There are higher chances of the customer contacting your business if they find you in their close vicinity. It influences decisions also.

2. Create Your Brand

Local SEO helps you build your brand and create awareness about your existence. It helps you target the potential customers who are living in and around your establishment. Your website will help you increase the authenticity and will help you to reach more customers.

3. Know how to help your business

A website is known to be the virtual office of your business. Local SEO increases customer interactions through feedback, suggestions and reviews, helping you understand the needs of the market. People prefer looking at existing reviews and feedback to make sure they are buying the right things. Suggestion forms are also a new trend that is being followed. This feature has often helped in incorporating new ideas and expanding business for the better.

Also Read: Why Is SEO Important For Your Business?

4. Build Long Term Networks

Local SEO helps you to be more aware of your audience and customers that stay closer to you. Opening up opportunities for expansion. Build a network in your locality!

Wondering how to achieve all of this? We got you!

8 Local SEO Strategies for your business

1. Local Content

By focusing content on local keywords and intent, you effectively narrow the competition and your reach to your target audience. Make sure you are consistently publishing content where you can organically including your key term and location. For example, write about local events, share efforts to raise funds for a local charity, etc. Whatever makes sense for your brand.

2. Mobile-First Indexing

Mobile-first indexing means Google predominantly uses the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking This is done to evaluate the relevance of a page to a user’s query.

3. Customer Review/Testimonials

Businesses with more reviews are likely to rank higher. Get reviews from existing customers about your services. You can then respond to reviews as an owner response could boost the ranking. Some reviews are on the website where the existing customers give their feedback. There are google user reviews as well that help in improving business ranking.

4. Google Map Listing

Google My Business(now called Google Business Profile) is the key, enabling business owners to list their business that may appear in Google search results. Virtually any type of business can claim a Google My Business listing, which will display information that searchers may want to know, such as an address, opening hours, and customer ratings.

5.Local Signals

Consistently adding the name, address and number of your business to your website content helps in giving you visibility. This also makes your business relevant when people are searching for your services or products. Organically gained high-quality links improves your SEO as it validates your website’s authenticity.

6. Schema Markup

You can use schema markup for local businesses in the contact pages to ensure the search engines can show the shop’s physical location whenever needed. Other details like opening times and the type of business help in increasing the chance of the knowledge graph, presented for a brand search of your local business.

7. Lead Tracking

Lead tracking is the documenting and categorizing potential customers based on individual actions and sales rep touches. By documenting customer and account-related actions, you can pinpoint prospects at each stage of your sales pipeline.

8. Local Citations

A local citation is any online mention of the name, address, and phone number for a local business. Citations can occur on local business directories, on websites, apps and across social platforms. Citations help Internet users to discover local businesses, positively affecting local search engine rankings as well.

Case Study: Our comprehensive SEO charm worked for Ziba Beauty!

• Our Approach:

Our team of SEO specialists applied their technical expertise and data-focused methodology to Ziba Beauty’s organic search strategy. To get an idea about the website’s performance on search engines, a thorough audit and competitor analysis was done.

We worked in close collaboration with Ziba Beauty’s team so that they were aware of the SEO process that was being followed. The SEO approach we undertook for Ziba Beauty was benchmarked against industry standards in order to ensure the edits and modifications are according to relevant, contemporary trends.

We optimized onsite elements of ziba beauty’s website using activities like website content review, keyword density and proximity check, content suggestions and optimization as per the finalized keywords, spell check, duplicate content fixing, website pages meta tag optimization (title, description, keywords) as per the finalized keywords. Web pages speed optimization / performance optimization / load time, and image optimization. All the on-site optimization helped ziba beauty’s website become more search engine and user friendly, ensuring correct crawling and indexing.

Also Read: Importance of keyword research in SEO – Complete guide

For a more holistic approach is required, we underpin onsite work by off site actions. We built Ziba Beauty’s offsite presence with blog posts on High authority web 2.0 platforms, Quora Q/A – Answers, Search Engine Submissions, Social Bookmarking, and Image Submissions. With the help of off-page activities we were able to rank Ziba Beauty’s website on 1st page for targeted keywords which helped us drive more relevant and quality organic traffic to the website.

• The Outcome:

Through various on page and off page optimization activities, keyword analysis, and research, we were successful in helping Ziba Beauty to supercharge their online presence and increase their SEO rankings. Within 3 months our search strategy increased organic traffic by 28.67%, page sessions and keyword ranking was drastically improved, page views increased by 27.15%.

Build Best Digital Marketing Strategy For Your Business With Us

BrightBrain Marketing Technologies is a digital marketing company provides top-notch SEO services that cater to your needs. Now, reach a wide audience across the globe and an increase in the probability of finding better opportunities with the targeted audience. At BrightBrain, we implement the best of local SEO strategies to help our clients grow digitally. We stay up-to-date on how local SEO works best so our clients can meet customer demands and stay competitive.

Dive into a new decade, armed and ready to take the internet by storm with BrightBrain! Create and strengthen your online presence with our expertise and get more time to focus on other important aspects of your business.

Do doubts still linger? Click on ‘See Our Work’ to get to know us and our services better.

FAQ

1. What’s the difference between SEO and Local SEO?

Traditional SEO focuses on driving organic traffic to your website on a national or global scale, local SEO allows you to easily connect with local searchers in your area. Both the methods ultimately serve the same purpose – improving your rankings in online search results so more people can find, contact, and purchase from your business.

2. What Kind of Businesses Need Local SEO?

While all business have something to gain form the local SEO efforts, there are that benefit the most from it, to name a few: -Real Estate -Restaurants & Bars -Hospitals & Pharmacies -Pet Services -Law Offices -Home Repair / Renovations

3. Is Google My Business free?

Yes, Google My Business is a free and easy-to-use tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps. To help customers find your business, and to tell them your story, you can verify your business and edit your business information.

4. How do I access my Google Business Page?

To create or claim a Business Profile, you have to first sign up for Google My Business. After you verify the business, you can make changes to your Business Profile wherever it appears, like on Google Search and the Maps mobile app. Verified users can access their Google Business Page by logging in with the use of the right credentials.

5. How do I verify my Google business account?

Most local businesses verify their Google Business account by mail. However, you also have options like verification by email, phone, or Search Console. After you verify your business, they may ask you to review your information and make any final changes.

Suhail Bajaj

Suhail Bajaj is the CEO of BrightBrain Marketing Technologies LLP that has now grown into a full-fledged digital marketing agency with 55+ employees and clients from 7+ countries – all under his supervision. Graduated with an MBA from the esteemed Cass Business School, he brilliantly puts his learnings into practice, helping brands meet their business goals and succeed in a digital-first world.

Suhail Bajaj