Why is Local SEO Services Important to Your Business?
While SEO focuses on just ranking highly for any related keywords, local SEO pushes the focus onto the local area, making it a little easier to rank highly. Most businesses will find they can rank easier for their own location rather than compete with businesses trying to rank for more generic or global keywords. But, that’s not the only benefit of focusing on local SEO. Some of the other reasons why it’s important to look into local SEO include the following.
Gain Local Customers
Who is more likely to shop at a business? Small locally-owned businesses are frequently visited by local customers, not those who live out of state or out of the country. Taking advantage of local SEO services allows businesses to focus their reach on those consumers who are more likely to visit instead of those who are too far away to become consumers. Of course, it’s possible to shop online anywhere in the world, but local SEO allows businesses to reach those consumers who are close by.
Become More Competitive
Search engine rankings are highly competitive today, so focusing on local keywords can help businesses be more competitive. Studies have shown that the majority of searchers will click on one of the first few links – rarely do searchers go past the first page. So, for a business to get customers, they need to be in the top results. Focusing on local SEO allows businesses to do this, which means they’re able to better compete with other local businesses who are already using local SEO.
Reach Consumers Looking to Stay Local
There are tons of benefits with shopping local, so consumers today will often opt to shop at a locally-owned store instead of a big box store when possible. How do they find out about these stores? Most of them will search online. By using local SEO, businesses can make sure their website is at the top of the results, making it easy for customers who are trying to shop local to find out about the business.
Reach Customers Already Shopping
Consumers who are already out and about may think of something they need and look for somewhere close to purchase it. This means they’re going to do a search on their phone and, in fact, around 63% of organic searches are done on mobile devices. By using local SEO, businesses can make sure they’re at the top of the results, so customers already out and shopping will notice the business and stop by for what they need.
Boost Marketing for Less
SEO typically means a lot of competition and when there’s more competition, the cost to compete can increase. Local SEO, on the other hand, doesn’t have nearly as much competition. There may only be a few local businesses competing for the keywords instead of hundreds. This means it’s less expensive to take advantage of local SEO and to start getting a higher ranking for relevant keywords.
When you’re working on optimization for your website, are you focusing on local keywords? It might be time to start. Work with professionals today to get the help needed to start focusing on local SEO and really boost your business. A change in focus can have a significant impact on how effective your digital marketing plan is and how easy it is for customers to find your business.