What is Local SEO & Why Local SEO is Important?

Even without a website, local SEO makes your company stand out and increases street traffic to your store by generating online leads.

These leads are also likely to have a high conversion rate because they come from people who are specifically looking for the goods or services your company provides.

Local searches are becoming more common; 4 in 5 users now use search engines to locate local information, and 70% of users visit physical stores as a result of search result information.

Have you ever searched for local businesses to hire or get local SEO services?

It can be like this:

Briefly speaking, local SEO allows you to come up in the ‘local searches’ made by your customers.

Notably, 76% of local searches have been made by mobile users so far. Seemingly, the number goes higher every year.

And as a business owner, you must extensively understand the importance of local SEO.

This blog elaborates on the reasons local SEO is essential. Read till the end to get relevant information to become fully informed about local SEO.

Local SEO is the practice of optimizing your website or business to improve the local search ranking. Hence, when people search for products or services similar to yours, your business or services appear at the top of the search results.

There are various ways to perform local SEO, such as optimization of Google my business (GMB), enlisting local directories, social media engagement, etc.

The peak of local search marketing is Google’s “Local Pack” program. You’ve probably noticed the three businesses that appear in the search results box at the top of the page, along with a map and dropped pins. Naturally, they receive more clicks and customers than any links that are displayed further down the page.

How a company can break into the top three is a big mystery. All of this is a component of an effective SEO campaign, which begins with recognizing local SEO and learning how to play the game.

Local SEO helps local searches near you to find your websites or searches. Once you have their attention, this helps them decide if they want your service. So fundamentally, local SEO makes you trustworthy. This is one way to look at the benefits of local SEO. 

Let’s learn about some of the key benefits of local SEO for any business and why one needs to invest in it.

1. Gaining More Online Visibility

Local SEO helps you to have more online visibility. It can increase the number of mentions of your company. The mentions can be your physical address, phone number in a local business directory, online review platforms, and medial social profiles.

You see, these SEO tasks will be done in different places. In fact, you should include your business details on as many online platforms as possible. This increases the possibility of your customer finding your business at the right time!

2. Increasing In-store Customer Visits

The online local visibility will increase in-store foot traffic, whether you have a hardware store, cafe, or any kind of brick-and-mortar store.

Generally, the products or services are deemed best in person for these kinds of services. 

Also, know that 24% of searches end in a purchase. Therefore, if you spread your business information all over the internet, more people will know about you, and they will visit your store.

3. Leveraging the Priority for Local Shopping

Customer habits are ever-changing. Currently, they are thinking smaller. That means people are prioritizing local businesses more.

Adding to that, there is more demand for locally sourced products. Besides, most of the time, people compare local shopping to other means. Hence, this is an excellent opportunity to appear as an option for your customers.

4. Having Qualified Web Traffic

Every visitor on your website won’t make a purchase or book for service. Clearly, it’s a form of losing money when you have unqualified leads.

But if you do local SEO, you can be sure that your traffic is a bunch of your target customers. As a result, when target customers visit your website more, you have more chances for conversion.

5. Getting More Calls and Visits

Your ‘Google By Business’ profile will give more calls and store visits. But you must optimize your business profile in Google.

This will also contribute to the visibility of your business in Google maps. And more visibility on Google Maps can result in increased calls and store visits.

6. Securing a Position As an Expert in Your Industry

Content marketing and link building are two necessary tasks for your local SEO ranking.  Also, you can utilize local SEO to nurture your prominence and relevance as an expert.

For instance, local content marketing lets people discover you talking about your industry. And that includes your local community.

This will help you obtain an expert voice. Also, you get to pull your customers closer. In the end, you will have more brand loyalty and engagement.

Besides, local businesses will link to your website if you upload locally-focused resources. These links can be your local newspapers or businesses from your industry. Consequently, you will be more credible.

7. Enhancing the Trust Level

Online reviews are one of the indicators of successful local SEO.  Also, it’s one of the main local ranking factors.

What’s more, people are reading more and more online reviews. And like personal recommendations, customers equally trust online reviews. So, you should aim to have as many reviews as possible because it will give you more visibility.

8. Increasing the Sales

You came across earlier that services with reviews are more trustworthy. Hence, it helps your customers a great deal in decision-making.

It’s also true for you because, of course, you will prioritize recommendations from your peers. And this reputation management strategy can increase your sales.

9. Enhancing Conversion Rates

Local SEO is essential because people search for businesses on Google and other platforms. But it plays an active role in bettering your website structure and performance.

Connecting to that, to carry out local SEO for your business, your optimization will be locally-focused. Moreover, you will need to review the landing page text and work on the website’s loading speed.

All these instances are some SEO tasks. And these allow you to do proper local SEO. You can increase the conversion rate by combining SEO and local SEO.

10. Participating in the Competition

Local SEO helps you identify what your competitors are doing. For instance, you check their online reviews. This way, you can find out what is special about them.

Next, you craft your business strategy accordingly. As a result, you can improve your local SEO and participate in the market successfully.

The next section confirms if you should invest in local SEO. 

According to Google, these are the top three local search ranking factors:

1. Relevance: how effectively a local listing matches with users’ searches. By providing more specific business information, you can assist Google in understanding your business and matching your listing to the most relevant searches. A localized content strategy and regional keyword research help this.
2. Distance: how far away each potential company is from the search location criteria. Google will determine the distance based on the customer’s location if they don’t provide a place in their search.
3. Prominence: based on information Google knows about a company from all over the internet, and how well-known it is (like links, articles, and directories). Local search ranking is also influenced by the number and quality of Google reviews; more reviews and good ratings will boost a company’s local ranking.

Business from all industries and sizes needs SEO work. But local SEO for small businesses has become a hot topic.

Anyway, small or big, here are some of the reasons to work on your local SEO:

• You have a local business
• You have a small business
• You have franchises
• You want more traffic, leads, and sales
• You want to be listed on all the relevant online platforms
• You want your business to appear in the Google local packs
• You have multiple offices, but you don’t operate nationally

The above checklist mostly mentions the importance of SEO for small businesses. Wondering why small businesses need local SEO. The 10 reasons discussed in the first part explain why.

Now let’s find out some common industries that need local SEO.

• Law firms
• Healthcare institutes
• Accounting firms
• Restaurants
• Hospitality
• Food shops
• Medical helps
• E-commerce
• Plumbers
• Electricians
• Beauty salon
• Florists
• Fitness centers
• And lots more…

You have learned that local SEO is also helpful for improving your online local visibility and ranking.

But SEO or organic SEO focuses on ranking your businesses in the search results. Additionally, organic SEO shows results for big businesses because big businesses naturally have higher SEO rankings.

So, how do you make your small or medium business appear in the search result? Well, local SEO is what you do.

Nevertheless, local SEO and organic SEO outcomes are interconnected.

Now that you know the main difference let’s shift towards local SEO again to learn more about it.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO is a part of the SEO strategy for your business. It allows you to target customers in smaller regions, such as:

• Country
• City
• Neighborhood

For example, you have a law firm in Regina, Canada. So, your target customers are in Regina, not the entire Canada.

In such a case, you want your clients to find your service when they search for lawyer services in Regina.

Of course, there will be other lawyer services available. But your target is to appear higher in the search result or simply be in the search result.

Your customer will see something like this:

You can see that the search has different local lawyers’ suggestions. And you can be the one once you perform local SEO.

What are Local SEO Examples?

Two well-known examples of local SEO are:

• Google My Business Profile Listing

When you search by the keyword specified in the picture, a list of businesses shows up. By clicking on the service separately, you can find the following details—

You can see that the Google My Business profile provides information on opening hours, contacts, location, pictures, ratings, and comments. Your business can come up the same way by performing local SEO.

• Adding relevant keywords All Over Your Website

‘Criminal lawyer Regina’ is a keyword here. Once you identify the keywords, you must include those all over your website. Only then clients from Regina will reach you. The same applies to all businesses from various industries.

Local SEO requires specialized knowledge because this involves  tasks like:

• Local SEO audit
• Strategic planning
• Local marketing campaigns
• Local content

VISER X is experienced and can help you provide assistance in the aforementioned aspects.

We will ensure your business profile is consistent all over the internet, as Google won’t list if there are discrepancies. Also, you will get local mentions in blogs and review sites with our local SEO strategy.

Furthermore, you can create quality local content, such as blogs, to attract traffic. Also, this will deliver you local backlinks.

So, contact us immediately if your website needs to be found in the local search or if you need any help regarding local SEO.

Need further clarification about local SEO? Check the following queries.

Who Benefits From Local SEO & Why?

Small to big businesses that serve locally can benefit from local SEO. The reason is people will prioritize the local options available. So, when they do searches on Google, they expect to find local businesses. So, if you have a local business, you must perform Local SEO, so your customer finds you at the right time.

Why Local SEO is Important for Small Business?

It is hard for small businesses in the same industry to appear on the search result as there will be established big businesses around. If you want to increase your brand awareness and brand loyalty as a small business, you need Local SEO that will include reviews and mentions of your company.

What is the Most Important Thing About Local SEO?

Local SEO mainly depends on the proximity of the searchers. Besides that, for local SEO ranking Google focuses on relevance and prominence. Combining these three factors, you will find local search results.

What is Local SEO and 5 Reasons Why it’s Important?

Local SEO is an optimization strategy that makes your business appear in local searches. Increasing online visibility, trustworthiness, more traffic, and conversion are a couple of main reasons to do local SEO.

How Local SEO Helps Grow Your Business?

Local SEO is important for appearing in the results. Once you appear in the local searches with reviews and other credibility, you will have more traffic both in your online and physical store. Additionally, you can obtain qualified traffic and trust from your target customers. Finally, you experience increased sales.