With more and more people relying on the Internet when looking for particular products and services, the importance of Google rankings has been growing steadily. That is why many companies invest a lot of money in search engine optimization (SEO). The fact that this strategy is much cheaper than traditional forms of advertising and potentially much more lucrative is actually an opportunity for many small local businesses to gain a wide audience.
For that to happen, your campaign needs to be designed carefully by professionals, but potential benefits are so great that this investment may be one of the smartest you’ve made. To give you a glimpse of all the advantages of local SEO, we’ve prepared the following list of benefits you can achieve if you give local SEO a chance.
Definition
First of all, we should look at the meaning of this term. In a nutshell, local SEO encompasses targeting keywords that include a local element, most typically the name of a city or region. For example, if you’re running a real estate business in Sydney, your keywords should like something like “real estate Sydney”, which would set you apart from other realtors offering the same services elsewhere.
So, instead of competing with thousands of other companies, you’ll be competing with dozens of them. Now, let’s take a look at what you can achieve by optimizing the local SEO for your business.
Reaching more customers
The main task of SEO is to market your business by boosting your business ranking in the search results. So, the more people visit your online business profile, the better conversion you’ll have. Also, having a more prominent online presence will significantly raise the number of people familiar with your offer, who might not be interested in it at the moment, but will probably turn to you when such a need arises.
Locating people looking for your product or service
There are most likely people already in need of the product or service you offer. Local SEO can help you connect with these relevant customers who are in the discovery phase. However, for that to happen, your SEO has to be done right so that your website gets a better ranking, i.e. becomes visible to those looking for your products or services.
Driving more traffic
Needless to say, not all the traffic to your online profile or website will convert to sales, but you’ll significantly improve your chances as more people become familiar with your brand. Also, increased traffic will help you spread the word about your business organically, but only if your local SEO is done properly, which is why many companies from Australia turn to these seasoned Sydney-based SEO experts for help.
Better targeting
One of the problems that traditional advertising has is that it lacks precision when it comes to finding the right customers. On the other hand, since SEO uses relevant keywords to promote your business, your chances of reaching the right target audience increase exponentially. Those looking for a particular product or service will find your local business and be directed to your online marketplace or website.
Improved conversion rates
We’ve already said that not all traffic will result in conversion, but local SEO will ensure you attract much more relevant traffic that is already interested in your offer. Consequently, your chances of conversion increase, and you’ll achieve a better conversion rate.
Beating the competition
Chances are you’re not the only one in your area offering the same product or service. You might even be operating in a saturated market, which only makes it more difficult to stand out from the competitors. However, with an optimized local SEO presence, you’ll be able to bypass those competitors who are not applying the same strategy, thus decreasing the number of businesses you’re actually competing with.
Boosting brand awareness
We all know how important brand awareness is in today’s business world. With people looking for specific products or services with keywords, you can find your business at the top of search engines. As a result, your brand awareness will increase, because more people will be seeing your name at the top of search results.
The results are measurable
Unlike traditional advertising methods, whose results can rarely be measure with some precision, local SEO for small business collects important details about how your website is performing and gives you an appropriate understanding of how you can improve. In the era where data is king, this is practically priceless.
These are the main benefits of giving local SEO the attention it deserves, which is why hiring experienced professionals to help you boost your rankings makes perfect sense in today’s highly competitive market.
Also read about: Right Ways To Do Local Online Marketing
