Local SEO for Businesses
Every business can agree that SEO is useful. In fact, every minor and major business with an online presence has incorporated SEO into their marketing strategy. As such, getting to the top of national search engine results has become a whole lot of competition. And it’s not all about the position, but about the traffic. You may be ranked #1 and get 100 views, or be ranked #7, and get your business 1000 views. Which is more important? The traffic, of course. In addition, you’ll want organic traffic that converts.
For small businesses operating around their vicinity, competing with global brands beats purpose. Look at it this way: When you compete for a keyword related to your products (like home furniture) on a national scale, you’re competing with every similar company in the country for traffic. In addition, you may be offering services only in a specific reason. As such, competing on a national scale expends a lot of time and resources. And these do not necessarily translate into revenue. Hence the need for local SEO.
Small Business SEO-How it Works
Local SEO is basically the process of optimizing a business for a specific geographic location; and a specific category or range of services being offered. It’s a strategy of highly targeting a specific niche. That way, not only are you getting loads of traffic, you’re getting useful traffic. The organic traffic to your site will convert to revenue.
Google and other search engines are quickly adapting to the trend. That’s why they’re collecting increased amount of information about the locations and search histories of their users. They are doing everything in their power to give the users local-specific results. Over 70% of Google search is in one way or another tied to a local-oriented search’. In addition, 46% of searchers use mobile technology for their searches, and majority of the mobile searches are local specific. This means that a small company can outrank one with national authority simply because of its proximity to the searcher.
One also needs to regularly monitor business analytics. This is in order to understand the tactics that are best suited for a particular niche. SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) are checked out from time to time to keep a constant view on the changes, and to figure out the reason why they’ve happened. This may look daunting, and is why there are professional local SEO providers-to do the heavy lifting for your business.
Why Small Businesses need Local SEO
Small business SEO means that entrepreneur deal with less competition. When your site is optimized for local searches, you will be far more valuable to the smaller population. Getting more in tune with the local scene increases your local visibility. Frequent publishing of interesting and valuable content about your neighborhood, region or city makes you more noticeable to local news reporters and fellow entrepreneurs. Couple the online presence to a ground-level local exposure, and you’ll have a highly loyal market.
“What about cost?” you ask. Local SEO for small businesses is simpler and more cost friendly than most entrepreneurs think. For instance, one of the steps taken is listing on all free local directories such as Google Places, Yahoo Local, Google My Business, Yelp and Trip Advisor. Next is acquiring inbound links from local and community sites, and improving on your social media presence. Attending local events to get the community writing about your business attendance wouldn’t hurt either.
Remember: the greatest SEO results are seen when you think about your users. With superb and high quality content, you’ll get loyal customers both on and off-line.
