Why Local SEO Matters
How do you market your business on the web?
Most business owners think first of the Yellow Pages and specialized sites like Angie’s List. Some companies advertise in the local newspaper’s online edition and hope prospects find them.
Unfortunately, these strategies don’t really cut it. They fail to get your business website on the first page of search.
Your site needs to be optimized for Local SEO, so the search engine spiders can find you and rate you. To get any traction on the web, you need to be on the first page of search.
By the way, one thing you CAN do is to claim your Google My Business page. Make sure your name, address and phone number (NAP) on Goggle My Business is the way you want it shown. Then, be sure it shows up exactly the same way everywhere. And that includes your website, as well as any directory listings.
And be sure to get local reviews! 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, according to BrightLocal’s 2014 Local Consumer Review Survey.
Also, don’t ignore local directories. They can provide you with links to other local websites. Although not as vital as it once was, link building still has its place in rankings.
Why LOCAL SEO?
We know Local SEO helps rankings, but why does this matter? Because being highly visible in web search brings increased revenue and more customers. What business doesn’t want that?
Local SEO is aimed directly at customers in your geographic locale. Unless you do a mail order business (which means location is not very important), you want to be reaching customers nearby. How do we know those potential buyers are searching the web? There are numerous organizations who track this information. For example:
According to comScore, 54% of Americans have substituted the internet for phone books. And that number keeps growing.
93% of online visits begin with a search engine and 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results, per imForza.
Google says 4 in 5 consumers use search engines to find local information, and 98% of searches choose a business on page one of search results.
Moreover, according to other Google research, local searches lead half of mobile searchers to visit stores within one day, and 18% of local searches produce sales within one day.
You DO Need to Rank at the Top
According to data from a Dec. 2015 by Advanced Web Ranking, close to 30% of all searchers click on the #1 search ranking. Nearly 20% click on #2, and roughly 12% click on # 3.
Good Local SEO is like a perpetual motion machine, endlessly pointing consumers to your site. It never quits and it never goes away. And studies have shown that searchers equate high ranking with quality. Organic Local SEO is cheaper than paid search (although the two in combination may pack a powerful sales punch.)
When we build you a website, we include basic Local SEO as part of the package, and are happy to discuss ongoing Local SEO work with you.
Want more information, or ready to get started? Contact us.