We live in a digital world where people visit search engines before making a purchase decision. Studies show that 70% of consumers will visit a store because of the information they found online. As a small business owner, you have to make it really easy for your potential customer to find you. Getting Digital Marketing Consultant Services can be a great way to increase your visibility online and your businesses can effectively build and manage your online presence, engage with your customers, and convert visitors into customers.
But before we dig into the importance of local SEO for small businesses, let’s explain the meaning of Local SEO.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO is the process of optimizing your small business website to achieve a high ranking on local Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). Local SEO assists you in targeting consumers in your vicinity. It also helps those consumers find your location without difficulty.
For example, I recently moved to a new city and I needed to buy some skincare products. The first thing I did was to google “skincare stores in Abuja”.
I only checked out the first three businesses I saw, because I believed they were the best. I would visit the one closest to me later this week to stock up on my skincare.
There are definitely other skincare stores around me, but I didn’t see them online. They lost a potential customer in an already competitive market.
What Are the Benefits of Local SEO?
Get Elevated Visibility
Local SEO helps you build a website that is highly pleasing to your customers. It also puts you in the face of your customers on search engines.
According to Chima Mmeje, the CEO of Zenith SEO Copywriting Services, being on the first page of SERPs increases the online visibility of your brand. People will most likely click on the first five pages that rank because they believe they have better content.
Brands that have high ranking are accorded more respect than other brands and potential customers are more likely to click on-page. This will help you generate organic traffic to your site.
More people, especially those around you, are aware of your business. These people are likely to remember you when they need your services.
Grow Your Customer Base
This was the main reason you created a website anyway. Creating a website is not cheap. If you are going to spend all that money on a website, you had better get the most out of it.
Businesses that have SEO-optimized websites bring more customers and grow twice as fast as businesses that do not have one.
SEO is one of the most effective marketing strategies. It helps you find your target audience and brings them to your doorstep.
Increase Your Conversion Rates
Apart from helping you rank higher on SERPs, Local SEO helps give your customer high satisfaction. Local SEO is focused mainly on helping you understand your audience to give them the exact content they want.
Producing quality content means you get to check all the boxes of your potential customer. A person who got maximum satisfaction from your page is likely to be converted.
Attract Qualified Customers
Local SEO enables you to targets local customers who are specifically in need of your service. These customers are the ones who are most likely to patronize you.
Optimizing your website to attract the most qualified traffic leads to improvement in sales. This increases the return on your investment and eventually growth for your small business.
Gain Advantage Over Competition
Over 50% of small businesses do not have an online presence. That is a lot! Engaging in local SEO gives you an advantage over your competitors.
Local SEO narrows down your target market to a small group of people. This gives an upper hand over big organizations in your niche that are trying to convert everyone.
What is the Difference Between Local SEO and Traditional SEO?
Traditional SEO has a wider scope. It optimizes a website to rank for targeted keywords on SERP globally.
Traditional SEO is focused on the website content more than on the location. This means it takes less time as there is no need to do more work in optimizing it for a location.
Local SEO focuses on improving the visibility of your brand in a geographical location. It optimizes your business website to increase its ranking on searches related to your region.
Local SEO is more difficult. It requires greater time to successfully narrow down its focus to local search. Putting up the location of your business involves a unique process that can be time-consuming.
Small business owners, who need to connect with potential customers online mainly use local SEO.
Author Bio
Chioma Mmeje is an aspiring copywriter and fashion designer. When she’s not creating content for Zenith Copy, she’s working on fashion design and tinkering over her sewing machine.
