You may have heard of the term Local SEO (search engine optimization) before, but have you ever really taken the time to look into it properly? If you are a small business owner, local SEO may be particularly beneficial to you, thanks to all of the different things it can do to enhance your online business presence. In this article, we’re going to be looking at the power of local SEO for small businesses, so keep reading below to find out more.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO can make your small business more visible for geographically related searches. For example, if someone types in “accountants Toronto” or something along these lines, Google will first list the companies operating in Toronto. The ones utilizing local SEO to the best of their ability will be the first in the SERPs (search engine results page).
It is one of the most effective ways to market your business online and helps companies promote their products or services to customers where they need them. Neglecting to implement local SEO optimizations is a guaranteed way to lose potential customers to competitors who are taking advantage of it. The first step of the buying process for most customers is to Google the nearest option. If your business isn’t showing in that search, you are losing a huge amount of potential revenue.
How Can Local SEO Help Small Businesses?
There was a time on the market when it was almost impossible for small, local brands to compete with the more prominent, nationally known brands. It became increasingly difficult for these businesses to operate as there was only a slim chance that users would notice them over these other, larger businesses. However, in 2014, Google started allowing companies to compete for search results on a regional basis, meaning that these businesses now have a chance that they did not have before.
Owning a small business can be challenging as your marketing budget is already lower than that of a large corporation, but for this, it doesn’t need to be huge.
Benefits
There are several benefits of using local SEO for small businesses. If you ever find yourself stuck on how to move forward, ensure that you find a local SEO expert to aid you. But for now, let’s look at the benefits.
Increases Website Rankings
Local SEO will help to improve your website rankings in search results. When someone searches for something in your area or one of the areas that you are targeting in your local SEO strategy, you are more likely to come up than any of the nationally known, larger corporations. It’s important to enrich your Google My Business account and your website content with the areas you cover.
Improved Visibility
Localizing your SEO takes a few tweaks here and there like targeting localized keywords in your content and optimizing your Google Business page. A handful of small changes leads to your business getting seen by customers who are ready to buy what you’re selling.
Once your business is properly utilizing local SEO, you’ll start to see an increase in visibility and movement past your competition.
Improving your visibility is part of our local SEO services, custom tailored to businesses in Toronto and the GTA.
Higher Conversion Rates
Your website is ranked higher, you are more visible, and that means that you will start seeing higher conversion rates. Conversion rates are the whole point of advertising online. Businesses want people to navigate to their website or Google My Business listing and have them call to enquire about your product or service or purchase directly from you.
The higher your conversion rate, the better your business is doing. If up until this point, you have been primarily faced with a high bounce rate and a lower conversion rate, local SEO can help to put this to an end.
Gain More Local Reviews
Local SEO will also help you to gain more local reviews. The more traffic your site receives from successful local SEO implementation, the more customers will see you and potentially leave you a review. If you target the people in your area, they will want to hear from other people in that area as to how you perform and compare to other businesses in your industry. A study suggested that 87% of users will check online reviews before they are willing to purchase a product or service from a local business that they have never used before.
It would be best if you also were responding to reviews, as Google sees this as a sign of excellent customer service. Reviews are essential not just for other potential clients but also for you. You need to know what you are doing well and what you are doing wrong.
Use a Company To Help
If you think that this sounds complicated or hard to understand, don’t worry. With a little bit of practice, anyone can become a local SEO expert, and allow their business to reach its full potential. If you don’t have the time to become an expert yourself and need to spend more time on other areas of the business, the good news is that you can use a company to help you implement local SEO into your marketing. Here at nuBranch Media, we are happy to help you in any way that we can. Providing you a range of services such as a high-quality website design and our local SEO services, you can trust us with all of your needs. We have a range of local SEO packages that you can browse, trusting us to be your local SEO expert.
