In digital marketing, standing out from the competition is key to the success of a small business. Unfortunately, many are still trying to figure out the route to online success. With the days of traditional marketing behind us, small businesses should embrace local search engine optimization (SEO).
Learn how local SEO can help small companies improve their online marketing campaigns.
Understanding How Local SEO Works
Local SEO is a specific type of SEO effort that helps businesses become more visible for geographically related searches. It can be a tool to market your products and services to your local customers online. While it uses almost the same principles as organic SEO, keyword use and backlinking in local SEO are directed to local audiences and optimize its influence in a smaller pool of competitors.
Search engines employ artificial intelligence to crawl, index, rank web page content, and filter out to provide people with the best results for a user query. For small business owners who are not familiar with how SEO works, things can get tricky. Many think that ranking high in SERPs is only for bigger businesses. In reality, many potential customers are looking for small local businesses near them. For instance, a person struggling with a painful tooth will be looking for a dentist nearby. With the right content formation, the search engine will put you in front of high-intent customers who need your services. Hence, local SEO helps potential customers notice your business and compels them to click on your website.
How Local SEO Benefits Small Businesses
Local SEO proves to be an essential tool for many small businesses as search engines use the key phrases for searching specific products and services in their local area. Google reported that 46 percent of the total online searches have local intent. It only shows that your target customers are searching for businesses that offer the products or services they need within their area. Focusing your efforts on local SEO helps your business stay in front of your prospects.
Here is what a successful local SEO campaign can do to your business:
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Drives More Foot Traffic
Not all products and services are purchased online. Foot traffic is essential to all brick-and-mortar businesses. You need to encourage your customers to come to your physical location to buy your products and services. The more customers you attract to your store, the better your business sales are.
But first things first. Establish your online presence so your target customers can easily search for your business online. These days, when people look for local businesses, such as ‘local SEO company in Lisbon’ or ‘coffee shop near me,’ you need to make sure your business is ready to stand out for these types of customer queries. So, having an effective local SEO strategy is crucial to solidify your online presence in your service area and increase foot traffic to your brick-and-mortar store.
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Higher Conversion Rates
Small businesses are more likely to obtain higher conversion rates for local terms instead of national terms. Prospects are more interested and visit businesses nearby. It is because local SEO attracts relevant traffic that is searching for your products or services.
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Gives You a Competitive Edge
Combining local SEO with a seo marketing strategy gives your business one step ahead of the competition and gets noticed by your potential customers. Without local SEO, your business gets easily drown in the sea of competition while your local competitors show up on the first page of the local search engine results.
Search your business niche into the Google search bar with your local area to test your online presence. For instance, if you own a Lisbon dental clinic, lookup for ‘dental office in Lisbon’ or ‘Lisbon dentist’ and see what comes up on the search engine results pages (SERPs). With the right local SEO strategy, your website will land on the front page of every major search engine’s front page. Most people are likely to trust business on the first page. Hence, local SEO does not only help you rank well in search engines and stand out from other local competitors within your niche.
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Cost-Effective Marketing Solution
It may take some time and effort to manage your business information in various online directories. However, you can use free tools, such as Google My Business and Facebook, to set up local business listings across the web. It helps cut down the cost of online advertising without affecting your lead generation results.
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Achieve Long-Lasting Search Engine Rankings
Unlike traditional marketing, like radio and print ads, where its impact on customers only lasts for so long, the results gained by an effective local SEO strategy are long-lasting. You may be required to maintain all the updated details of your business to optimize your local SEO campaign. However, once you have established your footing on the first page of the search engine, it is possible to keep your ranking for a considerable time. While this may not always be a guarantee, keeping up your efforts can help you rank for some time.
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Build Up a Local Fan Base
Since you need to target local customers, it is essential to look for techniques that will help you keep customers coming back to your business. This type of customer brings more profit than new ones.
Consider the statistics below:
- The cost of attracting a new customer is five times higher than that of keeping an existing one.
- Your likelihood to sell a product or service to an existing customer is 60 to 70 percent while selling to a new customer is only 5 to 20 percent.
- Old customers are 50 percent more likely to purchase new items
- When customer retention rates increase by 5 percent, profits will rise by 25 to 95 percent.
Focusing your efforts toward specific and relevant marketing practices is a sure way to grow your business. Investing in local SEO is a powerful tool that helps put your business in the spotlight and attract the right customers to your business.