local seo is important for business

You’ve worked hard expanding your business. You’ve taken additional care to pay attention to every element of the quality of your products and services, the experience your consumers have when interacting with you, and the results and benefits they are receiving. You’ve spent uncounted money on marketing, putting up your brand awareness, and trying to make sure you are the first person customers think of when they are searching for a business that does what your business can do. So how are your competitors achieving more customer traffic, leads, and reviews than you are smart to generate for your business? 

The answer is they use local SEO for their business to generate more leads, traffic, sales, and profits by targeting local customers first.

Today we will look at what is local SEO and why it is important for a business.

What is Local SEO ?

Local SEO (Local Search Engine Optimization), also known as local search engine marketing. It is an incredibly powerful way to advertise your business online. It is dynamic because it helps businesses promote their products and services to potential consumers, near them at the right time they are searching for them online. 

If you see in the above example, if a customer search for “restaurants” or “best restaurants near me” on Google, then it will first show the results that are local to them and near to them, in this way you can target your local customers first to grow your business. 

Local SEO best practices and techniques differ from standard SEO practices, You need to make clear your business is build up and optimized for local SEO as well.

What is a “Local Search” and how does it apply to business?

According to Google, 46% of searches & 88% of people search for a local business on a mobile device and have a ‘local intent’ and they have optimized their algorithms for a local search query. If a potential customer lives in New York, Buffalo for example, and they type in “summer shirts store”, the first results they are going to get are which are local to them.

Take a step to set up your local SEO strategy otherwise, your competitors may get a chance to be on the top of the search list by setting up their local SEO strategy.

Even if you are ranking first on Google results for that keyword, Google gives a heavier weight on local results, so your competitors will be listed before your first standard results. 

So as you can see, based on local results Google will give first priority to local SEO, it is crucial that you engage both types of SEO strategy to make sure you get more traffic and new businesses. 

How do you know your local SEO is good?

Local 3 pack is referred to local search results. This is a block of the first 3 businesses that appear on Google search engine results page when a user searches with local purpose. To boost traffic to your business website, and to get more leads you need to appear on the 3 pack. 

To give you an idea this is how  3 pack looks like, below are the local pack search results for the search term “seafood restaurants in albany”

You can also go through some free SEO tools like Moz Local Listing score which shows how your business looks online.

How to optimize your business to Local SEO

First, know your potential customers want to work with someone local and are using local SERPs (search engine results pages) and find what they are looking for. Focusing their intent on the local 3 pack. Find out how can you support your local SEO strategy with the best practices to improve your placement?

For local SEO rankings, there are three main categories to do practice, online business listings, reviews, and social media.

1. Google My Business Profile

Whether you have a single business location or multiple locations, your Google My Business (GMB) profile is the most important step of your local SEO strategy. Google My Business is Google’s directory of local business listings and it’s where you submit your business appear in local results like Google local 3 pack.

Claiming and setting up your google my business page is a correct and right process and it authorizes you to make sure all your information is 100% exact. So many businesses have missing or incorrect local listing information. It is estimated that nearly $10.3 billion worth of sales out the window every year because of false online business listings.

Review your online profile frequently and make sure everything is proper and up to date. Always stay active with your listing. For better results go into your Google My Business listing and upload new photos regularly. 

Update special hours on holidays and log in hours into your listing and also when you get reviews or questions from your customer answer the questions and appreciate the reviews without fail.   

2. Reviews

Another important step to your local SEO strategy for your business is expertly regulating your customer reviews. Giving responses to reviews is one of the best stuff a business can do for its online existence. By replying to both positive and negative reviews, it shows customers you care and increase your search rankings.

It’s important to ask your customers for reviews. Ask them by sending an email directly for a review. Do it every time after completing a transaction with them. By doing this you will be fresh in the customer mind. 

3. Social Media 

Social media is a great way to promote your business to achieve brand awareness online. Social media is a great way to make your business presence online to get more customers.  

Passionately posting and engaging with consumers on social media is one of the finest ways to build up your business brand loyalty.

The obvious goal of your local SEO strategy is to improve your business local online business rankings. When it comes to local rankings, if your business is not in the top 3, you’re not relevant. Fighting for that top spot is not easy, which is why it’s so important to take these three factors into account when planning the best practice-driven local SEO strategy.

The overall goal of your local SEO strategy must improve your business local online business rankings and be in the top 3 rankings of Google search engine results. For best results, you may also go through Digital Marketing Agencies and grow your business.  

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