What Is Local SEO?

SEO is the technique used by the business to rank higher on the search engine. It is the pulse of any online business. Without proper SEO, your business won’t thrive.

Local SEO which is also referred as Map SEO is the branch of SEO that helps small and medium-size businesses to grow. It is a unique type of SEO that has gained popularity in recent years.

With the help of local SEO, you are targeting the public in your area. For instance, you own a salon shop, so whenever people in your area search for “Salon shop near me”, your business would appear in the listing if you have optimised the local SEO.

How Local SEO Helps Local Businesses?

Back in the day, it was nearly impossible for local businesses to keep their heads above water on the internet where all the national brands were ruling. This is why people weren’t spending much money on the online world when conventional approaches were doing fine for them. But then, in 2014, the first edition of Google’s Pigeon upgrade was released, allowing local companies to compete for search results on a regional basis. In brief, Google started to take companies in close vicinity to seek a ranking boost in place searches.

It helps companies to reach out to their targeted audience near them. And you don’t believe what’s the best part of local SEO that makes every local business fond of it. It’s effortless to optimise. All you have to do is backlinking to local events sites, and using location-specific phrases in keywords that can help you gain a bigger footprint based on your region. When nearby visitors browse for your service or product, this will increase your ranking position and will also lead to more foot traffic to your store.

If you want to get complete knowledge on Local Seo, you can give Guide for Local SEO a try.

Benefits of Local SEO

Now you must be excited about local SEO, and you want to know all the incredible benefits of local SEO. So, hold your horses for a while; as below, we will talk about the advantages of local SEO.

1. Enhanced Traffic

Do you know that local information is the subject of 46% of all Google searches. Every business shines on traffic. Whether you are the owner of a big company or running a salon down the corner, you will stay long upon traffic if you have registered your business digitally. Local SEO allows enhancing your traffic. When you focus on local potential customers, you’re encouraging individuals to visit your website who could come to see you. When you use a thorough SEO strategy for a local firm, you risk getting a bunch of slow traffic. And you surely don’t want that. Targeting local people will redirect local traffic to your site, which eventually results in sales.

2. Better Conversion Rates

One of the benefits of local SEO is it drives potential customers to your site and improves conversion rate. According to Joel House Search Media, 28% of the local searches result in sales. So there is no denying that local SEO results in better conversion rate—increased traffic flow results in increased sales. Presenting yourself as an expert in your region when local clients are ready to buy can enhance your odds of becoming the anchoring spot for their sales. Most local searchers like to understand local business rather than searching for companies miles away or making a random purchase online.

3. Less Advertising Costs

Local business flourishes on a local audience. That’s why they invest more in advertising channels such as banners, pamphlets, local tv advertisements, hoarding and all. This all costs a chunk load of money. But what if we say you can save a whole lot of money by just optimising your local SEO. It has been proven that over 80% of smartphone users select the “near me” choice when looking for a particular type of company. So by improving your local SEO, you can reduce or lessen up all advertisement costs.

4. Continuous Business Growth

Local SEO initiatives always focus on increasing traffic while also boosting search engine results. As an outcome, marketing and sales prospects increase. More sales means more interested consumers, resulting in a conscious business growing period. As a result, if you need to develop your local company, spending resources and time on local SEO metrics is a critical success indicator.

5. Long-Lasting Rankings

If one would ask you the advantage of having SEO over old marketing, what answer would you give? You would reply that doing a one-time thing has a long-lasting effect compared to traditional marketing strategy, where we waste a lot of money every week to increase sales. One of the main benefits of local SEO is you will get the long lasting rankings.

6. Bypass Competition

Having local SEO benefits you over your competitor who relies on traditional ways. For instance, different companies are selling the same thing, but one focuses on local SEO while others use traditional methods. No doubt, people will redirect towards a business that is ranking higher on SERP results because as a buyer we would love to explore the product. And a search engine is where we do all our search, so without any second guessing we would pick the solution which appears on the search result. Practical SEO efforts enable your company to gain a long-term competitive edge that propels you far ahead of the competition.

7. Gain More Local Reviews

According to Bright Local, 87% of users read online reviews before purchasing through local businesses. If you are offering good service, people will love to give honest reviews, which will help you generate more clients. But that won’t be possible if you don’t have your business optimised for local SEO. By executing local SEO, you can attain more customer reviews. And responding to feedback provided by the customer will help you rank higher on the search engines. As Google sees it as a sign of better customer experience. Getting local reviews can benefit your business in many other significant ways too.

8. Get links with Neighbouring Business

Having healthy competition is how business works these days. But local SEO provides you with an opportunity to build up a relationship with your competitor; you must be wondering how? By cross-promoting products and services, you will get links from your neighbouring business. It is a win-win situation for both as it will help both the companies to get the recognition they are looking for. Not just this, it will also increase your online visibility.

9. Get Enlist in Google’s 3 Pack

Another benefit of local SEO is it can help you appear in google’s 3 pack. Appearing in Google’s 3-Pack is a great deal; it simply means showing up on the first three results of local searches of a keyword. As per Report Garden, Google’s 3-pack goes to the top of 93% of queries with regional intention. If you are already using local SEO, then you can test how your business is doing online. The three-pack is different from the seven-pack as it displays more information about a company, such as business hours, business description, business address, and much more. So appearing in Google’s 3-Pack is crucial for local companies.

10. Mobile Optimisation

Mobile devices contribute to many online purchases as people find it is way more convenient. Considering this, it is important for businesses to optimise their sites for mobile and tablet. The goal of optimisation is to make the navigating process on a site simple. If a user would be satisfied with your site then he is more likely to make a purchase.

11. Build-Community

Building a strong community is an advantage local businesses have. Many individuals love to support the local community by shopping locally. This kind of behaviour encourages local business owners which results in building the community. It would be helpful; if you let potential clients know that you are destined within easy reach of them.

Conclusion

That’s all! Now here we have mentioned all about the benefits of local SEO for business. We are in the digital era. And it is essential to make an online presence irrespective of where you are from or how big or small your business is? To make a strong presence of your business in your local area, check out our local SEO checklist.

Every other person is using a smartphone and is familiar with Google. Before paying a visit to the store, they love to do online searches. So having an online appearance is a must. We know that being a newbie or rookie in the digital world can be an uncomfortable task for you. In that case, you can consult hiring local SEO companies who can look after your online presence while you manage your store physically.