Why is Local Search Important?

Pull out your phone, open Google, and type “best Italian restaurant” into the search box. What do you think you see? The top results aren’t always the best Italian restaurants in the country, and they’re unlikely to be part of a large chain. It’s usually a locally owned restaurant in your city that’s close to where you’re at the moment. That’s how effective local SEO can be. How can local SEO help your small business stay ahead of competitors online? Continue reading to find out more! 

What Is Local SEO?

Local search engine optimization (LSEO) is a type of SEO that focuses on increasing the visibility of a local business in local search engine results. The results that surface in local search results usually answer a “near me” intended question, implying that the searcher is looking for something “in [CITY]”—or that the search engine has recognized that the search is limited by geographic limits.

Businesses can increase their presence in these local search results for phrases related to their business and their products or services by employing local search optimization tactics. 

Why Local Search Is Important?

Here are some statistics that demonstrate how crucial local search remains for businesses:

• Within one day, 50% of consumers who used their phone to do a local search went to a physical store.
• The same was true for 34% of those who conducted their search on a computer or tablet.
• Within one day, 18% of local mobile searches result in a transaction.
• 60 percent of adults in the United States use tablets and smartphones to look for local services or product information.
• 50 percent of people who conduct local searches on their phones are looking for things like a local company address.
• On a mobile device, 78 percent of local searches result in offline purchases.
• 71 percent of those polled said they look up a business’s location to check its existence before visiting for the first time.
• One out of every three smartphone searches were often from right before entering a store.
• In 2017, 97 percent of consumers checked online for local businesses, with 12 percent doing so daily. 

Why Is Local SEO Important for Small Businesses?

Local searches now account for nearly half of all Google searches. Even when conducting a standard daily search, the chances of Google displaying local companies in the area remain high. What is the significance of this for small businesses? Google reported a 900 percent spike in searches for the keyword “near me today/tonight” from 2017 to 2019. To better serve its users, Google began giving additional results for geographically related searches based on:

• Proximity
• Relevance
• Prominence

That is, if your business is near to where someone is searching, offers services or items they might be looking for, and has well-optimized local business listings, you’re more likely to be found online by potential clients. 

What Are the Benefits of Local SEO?

Small businesses might benefit from investing in local SEO in addition to improving their exposure in Google’s search engine results pages (SERPS). 

1. A Cost-Effective Marketing Solution

While managing your business information in online directories takes time and effort, technologies like Google My Business and Facebook allow you to put up local business listings throughout the web for free, making local SEO a more cost-effective alternative for online promotion. 

2. Helps Local Customers Find You

Consumers who seek a local business visit a store within five miles in 72 percent of cases. So, if your small business starts to appear in local search results or on Google Maps, you’ll have a better chance of collecting new leads. 

3. Reaches Customers Who Are Ready to Buy

Local searches made on mobile devices translate to sales in a stunning 80 percent of cases. This is attributable to the fact that local SEO places you at the front of the consumer at the exact moment they’re looking for a product or service, making them far more inclined to buy or at least ask. 

4. Delivers More Qualified Search Traffic

Local search can assist you to filter out people who are unlikely to contact your company. This isn’t because search engines are trying to keep companies out of customers’ hands; it’s because they want to give relevant local results based on proximity and purpose. Someone searching from 50 miles away is unlikely to find your HVAC company, while someone searching from five miles away will. 

4. How Can Small Businesses Use Local SEO?

The steps your small business may take to improve its presence in local search engine results pages are easier than you would imagine. Here are a few simple techniques to boost your local SEO efforts. 

5. Create Accurate, Consistent Local Citations

Local citations are internet mentions of your company’s name, address, and phone number, such as a local business listing. Also, make sure that your material is correct and formatted consistently wherever you add local citations on the internet. This increases the trustworthiness of your data in the eyes of search engines. 

6. List Your Business in Online Local Directories

Putting up local business listings in leading search engines and online business directories including Google My Business, Yelp, Yext, Bing Places, and Facebook helps search engines confirm that your business is authentic and that your data is correct. Also, make sure your data is correct and consistent once more!

 7. Set-Up & Maintain a Google My Business Profile

You can input your small business info directly into Google Search and Google Maps by creating a Google My Business page for it. Not to add, having your business listed on Google My Business allows you to keep track of client evaluations, make rapid changes to your hours, and even communicate with them via Google Posts. 

8. Respond Regularly to Reviews (Both Good & Bad)

Taking a minute to react to online reviews tells clients that you care, and it can help your local search ranking. While obtaining more company reviews may take some time and work, once you do, you should be prepared to respond—whether the evaluations are positive or negative. 

9. Add Hyperlocal Content to Your Website

Including local keywords in the material of your website might have a significant influence. Having business identifiers in your website text, such as “dentist in [CITY, ST],” might assist search engines in better comprehending not only what you do, but what local locations you service. This implies if somebody in your region searches for a “dentist near me,” you’re more likely to appear.

Who Won’t Benefit from Local SEO?

While we would love to see everyone profit from local SEO and sell these services to more clients as SEO specialists, the reality is that certain businesses simply do not lend themselves to local SEO efforts.

Local SEO services are unlikely to benefit businesses such as online-only eCommerce shops, local writers, firms that don’t want to reveal their local information, and private internet sellers that wish to keep their information secret.

What’s the Future of Local SEO?

According to current statistics, facts, and trends, local SEO is on the verge of a paradigm change that will result in much-increased context and understanding. The widespread availability of gadgets such as smartphones, Amazon Echo, and Google Home suggests a trend toward the development of machines that mimic or exceed human cognition. It’s even possible that these gadgets will use higher-quality, quicker, and overall improved algorithms to provide users with better voice search results. Google’s algorithms are always being tweaked and updated. It’s unclear what will happen, but it’s hoped that it will improve all search results.

Do you need assistance with starting with local SEO? To get started with Zenerom on a smooth local path, contact our SEO Specialist immediately. 

How can we help you?

We can assist you in claiming, managing, and optimizing your local search visibility. Zenerom is a top local SEO company situated in Edinburgh, Glasgow, that offers businesses all over the world comprehensive local SEO packages. We recognize that local SEO is critical to a company’s success. That’s why we’re here to help you with your local online marketing and search engine optimization projects. We don’t simply provide local SEO reports and perform local SEO services as your committed local SEO firm. Our specialists will also go over all there is to know about local SEO. We construct a local SEO checklist that details each local SEO tactic within your packages. Thus, it will ensure that we’re on the same page.

Our local SEO agency can help your business get higher ranks in local SEO search results whether you have a single location serving a local community or many locations across the state or country. So, partner with our local SEO agency and take advantage of our tried-and-true local SEO techniques and tactics to go ahead of the pack.

Know how to optimize your landing page to attract more traffic.