All businesses need SEO and over the past few years, the need for good SEO has been at an all-time high. As the majority of consumers have shifted online, even the most traditional businesses needed to adapt and shift to digital marketing, as opposed to more traditional methods. SEO is perhaps the most viable and budget-friendly way to not only understand your audience but reach your customers in the moments that matter.
A lot of businesses and brands believe that SEO is reserved just for online services and whilst SEO does improve your website’s overall visibility and searches, it also offers local brick and mortar businesses the chance to appear above their competitors in the industry. Local SEO especially is particularly beneficial to local businesses, regardless of the industry or business size. With that in mind, here are 3 reasons why local SEO is important for your business.
Organic Search Is Often The Primary Source Of Website Traffic
Organic search traffic forms a huge part of most businesses’ websites. It is a vital component of the overall user experience and the journey of getting users to visit your website and then complete a conversion or engagement. As a lot of marketers know, Google dominates a particularly large portion of the overall search market, therefore it’s important to follow their guidelines to ensure high organic traffic levels.
SEO works by optimizing your website and the content on it to make it more appealing to Google, which then, in return, grants you a higher ranking position. Organic traffic is formed by users who have found your business by searching on Google with a keyword, so ensuring that your site is well optimized is hugely important.
Local SEO forms a huge part of organic traffic, especially for local businesses that provide a service or who have a brick-and-mortar store. As a local business, you want to make your site as appealing to local searchers as possible so that you appear on the SERPs (search engine results page) higher than your competitors. Your position on SERPs increases your CTR (click-through rate), which then equates to increased organic traffic. If you are a local business, you ideally would want to optimize your site using both local and national keywords, so that you’re not only appealing to local users but are competing with national competitors too.
Local SEO Is Cost-Effective
Whilst setting up an SEO strategy does have an initial cost, it is a relatively inexpensive form of marketing and is a long-term investment. A well-optimized website can benefit a website for many years and, with further attention and changes, it can only get better. In terms of local SEO, there are many free tools and services that you can utilize to further boost your SEO efforts.
Things such as Google My Business, a highly useful tool in terms of local SEO, are a must-have for businesses that are targeting customers and clients locally. GMB is free to set up and is a panel that appears when users search for a keyword or service related to your business, or your full business name. This panel then displays your contact information, reviews, and further information about your business, such as the services you offer or operating time. It has long been known that having a GMB panel is a ranking factor in the eyes of Google, so making the most of this is a must.
For example, if a user is searching for a highly specialized service, such as “pigeon guano removal” and are in the local area to where your business is located, you want to ensure that your business appears towards the top and displays your GMB panel. This improves the CTR and, more often than not, conversion rate too.
SEO Means A Better User Experience
Usually, when people are searching for a local business or service, they want results quickly. User experience plays a huge part in this and it is important to consider user experience when it comes to your website. Whilst everyone wants better rankings and maximum visibility, very few business owners and even marketers realize that user experience is a huge part of this. In the latest Google updates, user experience has been a huge part of these, and SEO is now largely focused on the overall user experience of the website, so much so that it is a huge ranking factor.
If a local user is searching for certain services and click through to a website that has a slow load time, isn’t optimized to the device they are using, and is frustrating to navigate, they will likely click off very fast. This then results in a high bounce rate, low traffic figures, and poor conversion rates. Remember, customers know what they want and if they can’t find it on your site, they will simply look elsewhere.
Ensuring that your website is optimized using local and general SEO provides better results overall. There is no aspect of your business or website that wouldn’t benefit from it. If you are a local business, then local SEO absolutely must form part of your marketing strategy if you want to rank amongst your competitors and increase your traffic and number of inquiries.