Having an online presence is more important than ever before. The internet and how we use it has changed so much in just the last few years that not utilising this tool can be the difference between business success and failure.
The majority of consumers use search engines to find local businesses, check opening times, read reviews and ultimately decide if they want to use your business.
To help you be discovered in the organic search listings we recommend a strategy that heavily involves Local SEO.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO is the process of optimising a website to appear in local search results. Local search results show businesses that are located near the searcher and are relevant to their search query. For example, if someone searches for “coffee shops near me” or “garage near me” Google will show a list of businesses that are located near to the searchers location.
Why should you care about Local SEO?
Increased Visibility
These results are typically displayed either as a Google Business Listing or in the local pack directly in the page listing itself. These results are more visible than typical search results, and often more eye catching than Google Ads, these listings are a real opportunity to engage with your audience and are worth targeting.
Increased Sales
Local SEO also helps small businesses achieve higher conversion rates and sales. When someone searches for a local business, they are often ready to make a purchase, looking for a business that will solve their needs as soon as possible. By appearing prominently in the local search results, you can attract these ready-to-buy customers and turn them into sales far easier than if you were trying to attract customers that weren’t ready to make a purchase.
Competitive Advantage Over Big Business
Local SEO can give small businesses a competitive advantage over larger businesses, it’s a fact. While larger businesses may have more resources to invest in marketing overall they have to target far larger areas with that resource, local businesses can compete by focusing the majority of their marketing efforts on their local market for a greater impact.
As a local business you’re more likely to attract a converting audience as people tend to prefer a local business that’s trustworthy instead of a larger chain where there’s nobody for them to talk to about their needs. You can use this to your advantage!
Cost-Effective
Local SEO is also a cost-effective marketing strategy for small businesses. Unlike traditional advertising, which can be expensive, local SEO can be done for a relatively low cost. This is why SEO is often one of the best performing marketing channels in terms of return on your investments. Once your business appears in local search results, it will continue to do so as long as it maintains its local SEO strategy. This means that you can continue to attract new customers and generate revenue from local search results for years to come for a relatively small investment.
How We Optimise For Your Local Audience
It’s easy to see why it’s important to invest time and effort into your local SEO strategy. Now let’s take a look at some of the ways we can help you achieve your goals and improve your local visibility:
Optimise Your Website: The first step is always taking a look at your website to see where we can make improvements. To have success on a local level there are a few basics that need to be covered, it needs to be very clear where you’re based and which locations you cover.
Create Local Business Listings: To make sure you’re eligible to show when a user makes a local search query on search engines we would ensure that your Google My Business, Yelp, and Facebook profiles are all correctly optimised.
These listings can become challenging to manage over time, especially if you’re focussed on running your business day to day. We can help you keep on top of these listings by keeping them up to date, monitoring your reviews and posting relevant offers. Ask our team for more details on our local business management services.
While there are lots of similarities between the strategies we employ, no two are identical. We tailor our local SEO strategy to your business and your needs. We create custom plans to work to your individual needs and requirements.
If you only need someone to help manage your business listings we can support you with that, if you want to hand over your entire strategy so you don’t have to think about it we’re happy to help!
If you’re thinking about taking your SEO strategy to the next level, why not give our team a call? We offer a free consultation service where we’ll go through your needs and objectives before putting together a custom strategy just for you.
Tue, 23 May 2023