Local SEO helps you grow deeper roots in a particular location. While that might seem counterproductive to the notion of growth and expansion, doubling down on a particular location with local SEO strategies can actually open up possibilities for incredible growth.
To give you a clue, local search is going through the roof, ballooning an incredible 900% in the last couple of years alone. Local searches with ‘where to buy’ prefixes have leaped by a massive 200% within that period as well.
What’s more, you’ll face fewer competitors with even higher potential for returns with local SEO.
To help you secure your fair share of local search traffic, this guide will explore the anatomy of local SEO and why you should prioritize it in your SEO campaign. We’ll examine the key components of successful local SEO strategies together with some important stats showing the potential they hold for a business.
And if you’re wondering if it’ll work for your type of business, we’ll also be looking at the people who need local SEO the most.
What is local SEO?
Local SEO refers to the process of making a website more visible to local searchers. It’s a heavily location-dependent project, requiring a hyper-focus on a specific location in various aspects of your search engine marketing campaign. That includes emphasizing a specific location across your web pages, on and off your site, posting your NAP (name, address, phone number) citations across reputable local sites, and managing an active community of local shoppers.
It’s easier to succeed with local SEO compared to national or global SEO because there is much less competition and plenty of opportunities to get featured on top-page results. Top-page ads for local search are usually much cheaper, and there are many other search result page features that you can exploit to sneak into the top page results, from the Local Pack to the Local Finder, related search results, snippets, and the main organic search results.
To help you sneak into any of these spots, local SEO services will work on things like website localization, completing and managing your Google My Business profile, actively soliciting and managing reviews, and building backlinks on authoritative local sites.
How does local SEO work?
Local SEO is geared towards attracting any searcher looking for a business nearby them. Google has made it incredibly convenient for anyone to find the best businesses serving their area.
To position your site for local searchers, you need to understand how Google decides what websites to show to local searchers.
According to official statements, Google ranks local businesses based on three main factors: Relevance, prominence, and proximity.
Relevance:
Google always strives to match searchers’ queries with the most satisfactory results. The more relevant your site’s content is to searchers’ intent, the more likely it is to be included in the top search result page. To make your site look more relevant, a local SEO company does things like spreading location-based keywords strategically throughout your content, distributing your links across relevant authoritative sites, and posting relevant content regularly.
To make sure a site on display is up to par with the searchers’ requirements, Google prefers to rank sites based on their web prominence. That doesn’t mean that up-and-coming sites don’t stand a chance. Rather, once the site reaches a certain level of prominence, things get easier for them because they’ll be getting viewed favorably by Google, and that will accelerate their rise to the top.
As with enhancing your relevance, local SEO services can enhance your domain authority by generating backlinks, citations, positive reviews, and localized content. They’ll also research your competitors and monitor for any local SEO developments that they can explore.
Proximity:
This is simply the distance between the searcher and your business address. Your performance in this regard only depends on how far off you are from the searcher.
Why is local SEO important?
Local SEO is integral to any successful SEO strategy, even if your business is not domiciled in any specific location. The truth is that local searchers are everywhere looking for everything, so if your audience is based in any particular location, chances are you’ll need local SEO to reach and engage them.
To bring you up to speed on the growing importance of local SEO for businesses across the board, here are some remarkable stats:
● 46% of all Google search traffic come with a ‘local intent’
● 93% of customers often use local search to find businesses near them, and 1 out of 3 consumers use it daily
● Nearly 70% of all internet traffic originate from local search and organic search in general
● 76% of people who use their mobile phones for local searches end up checking out a physical store within 24 hours
● Google displays a local pack result in nearly 1 out of 3 search page results
● 61% of customers prefer buying from local businesses with both a physical store and an online presence
Who needs local SEO?
Local SEO can prove a high-value investment for you, even if you don’t serve any particular location. As long as you have prospects who live in certain areas, it’s never advisable to write off the importance of local SEO.
For instance, a graphics design company might serve online buyers who are not necessarily from a specific location, but tailored local SEO strategies can help them draw more buyer traffic from location-specific keywords like ‘graphics designers in palm beach’.
Businesses that could benefit the most from local SEO include:
● Restaurants
● Clothing stores
● Flower shops
● Thrifts and pawn shops
Professional service providers are particularly more predisposed to benefit from local SEO, including:
● Private health practitioners (doctors, dentists, gynecologists, etc.)
● Technicians
● Plumbers
● Electricians
● Cleaners
● Interior decor experts
● Etc.
Get ahead of the competition with local SEO
With SEO Services , you can get more buyers calling in and walking through your doors with less effort and fewer expenses. Also Local SEO services can help promote your brand awareness, improve the quality of your traffic, and maximize your funnel’s conversion rate, all at a cheaper rate.
Still not sure how to leverage local SEO in your marketing strategy? Get in touch with a seasoned local SEO company today.
