With more users conducting searches on their smartphones for a local solution to their needs, implementing local SEO has assumed critical importance for small businesses with a local footprint attempting to drive traffic to their stores.
Understanding the Concept of Local SEO
Local businesses have traditionally depended on word-of-mouth publicity or localized advertising through flyers, billboards, local print advertising, etc. to create awareness about their business. However, in the contemporary scenario, the first source of information for most people looking to fulfill their immediate needs is the internet. Local SEO is extremely useful for all kinds of local businesses selling products and services across a broad spectrum.
Why Investing Time and Effort in Local SEO Is Important for Businesses
Increase the marketing footprint: Since small businesses have restrictions on budgets, their ability to advertise is also limited. By implementing local SEO, they can expand their marketing footprint and also reach out to audiences who have a specific need for the products and services being offered by them, observes the CEO of a top Gainesville SEO company.
Enable customers to find better options: Nowadays, when people want to buy something, they first go to the internet to find relevant information. By implementing local SEO, businesses can position themselves to offer products and services that best meet the requirement of the users. By offering them the convenience of online discoverability, the business can generate the traffic it needs.
Boost the Conversion Rate
Since local SEO helps in attracting targeted traffic, the conversion rate tends to be far higher than any other form of advertising. It is seen that users who are looking out for specific products and services in the local market are more likely to convert their search into an actual transaction.
According to https://www.searchenginejournal.com, a whopping 50% of people conducting local searches on their smartphones visited a store physically within just one day.
Helps Drive Brand Awareness
One of the biggest reasons for a small business being unable to compete with large outfits is they are far more low profile, which hampers their ability to attract traffic and generate sales. Using local SEO, small businesses can drive more traffic to their websites, which helps to boost their brand awareness. Publishing the details of your business, including that of the various products and services along with the photos, videos, and customer testimonials can help to build the reputation of your business and establish your brand.
Given the numerous undeniable advantages of implementing local SEO, small businesses wanting to thrive in a competitive environment will do well bone up on the various techniques and strategies available. The starting point is, of course, a listing on Google Place to include all the physical details of your business like the street address, phone number, hours of business, etc. Making sure that your business is listed accurately in all the other online business directories is also very helpful.
