What is Local SEO and How Can it Benefit Your Business?

In today's digital age, consumers looking for products or services start with an online search. So, if your business has a physical location, it’s equally important to have an online presence so that potential customers can easily find you. This is where local search engine optimization (SEO) comes into play.

What Is Local SEO?

Local SEO (aka Map SEO) is a branch of SEO that focuses on optimizing your business profile pages and website content to rank high for local search queries.

Let’s use an example: you own a coffee shop in your city. So, you want your business to show up at the top of search results when someone in your area types any of the following in a search engine:

• Coffee shops in [your city name]
• Local coffee shops
• Coffee shops near me
• Coffee shops close to me

Research shows that search queries including “near me” or “close by” have risen by more than 900% over a two-year period. Out of all the results, 92% of searchers will only check out business pages that appear on the first page. And 72% of searchers actually visit a store within a five-mile radius.

This means if you are not implementing local SEO, you are missing out on business growth opportunities and falling behind your competitors.

How to Get Started With Local SEO

Now that you understand the importance of local SEO, here are five simple steps to help you get started.

1. Create a Google My Business (GMB) Account

This is a very essential component of your local SEO strategy. GMB is a free tool by Google to help you create a business listing, which will be displayed in search results. Here are the basic details you need to provide for your GMB account:

• Business name
• Business address & Location on map
• Business category & Description
• Contact details

Once you set it up, you need to keep the information updated at all times.

2. Build local citations

Local citations are mentions of your business NAP (Name, Address, and Phone number) on business directory sites such as:

• Yelp
• Facebook
• Yellow Pages
• Bing Maps

Target business directories with high domain authority and ensure consistency of business details across all platforms. This helps to improve your online visibility and boosts your local SEO.

3. Collect reviews from customers

Encourage your customers to leave a review of your product or service on your GMB profile or other relevant business directories. You should also take the time to respond to all customer reviews (positive or negative) in a polite, professional, and timely manner.

4. Publish local content on your website

Research keywords your target audience is searching for and create a content strategy around them. Some ideas include:

• Sharing local news, activities, or events
• Directly answering questions asked by your audience
• A compilation of local resources your audience will find helpful

Ensure each piece of content is optimized to rank in search engines. Tools such as Yoast SEO, RankMath, and SurferSEO can help with this.

5. Optimize your website for mobile

With the explosion of smartphone usage, more and more people use them for online searches. So, you need to ensure your website looks great on mobile screens.

Otherwise, people will get frustrated and immediately leave your website. If more people spend a very short amount of time on your website, it will hurt your ranking in search results.

Benefits of Local SEO for Your Business

Let’s take a look at how implementing Local SEO benefits your business.

1. Reach more customers

Local SEO is centered around optimizing your business pages and website content for relevant keywords used by your target audience.

This means you can reach people who recently moved to your city or just visiting for the first time. In other words, you get your products and services in front of the right people at the right time.

2. Increase in sales

The more your business ranks in search, you increase the potential of your audience making a purchase in the future. Since local SEO focuses on gaining targeted traffic, conversion rates are much higher since people are already interested in the products or services you offer. The more people you reach, the more sales you make.

3. Low advertising costs

Local SEO is mostly free if you can dedicate the time to do it yourself. You can also hire a professional to handle it for you. Either way, it is the most cost-effective option compared to other advertising channels such as pay-per-click (PPC) ads, social media ads, and influencer marketing.

Once you set it up, you enjoy high-quality organic traffic for free. All you need to do is continuously update your business and website details.

4. Build trust and authority

These days, there are many products and services for consumers to choose from. As a business owner, it is your job to make it easy for them to choose you. When a buyer sees that your business ranks highly in local search results, they are more likely to perceive your business as trustworthy and authoritative.

Additionally, implementing local SEO makes it easy to gather and manage business reviews in a centralized location. If you have the most number of reviews, and they are mostly positive, you stand out from your competitors and make it easy for customers to choose you.

5. Connect with other local businesses

In addition to potential customers, local SEO makes it easy for other local businesses to find you. This opens doors for new business relationships and collaboration opportunities. For example, you could cross-promote each other’s products or services to expand your local customer base.

Conclusion

If you are a business owner, adding local SEO to your marketing strategy gives you a competitive edge. It is a great way to stand out from your competitors, attract potential customers in your area, and drive business growth.

While this requires ongoing effort and attention, the rewards are well worth the investment. So, start optimizing for local SEO today and reap the benefits of a thriving online presence for your business.

You can check out my previous article here.