Alexis Short — December 19, 2018 — December 19, 2018
When was the last time you opened up your Google app on your smartphone and searched for a business around your location? Chances are, you’ve done it multiple times in the past week. Whether you searched for the phone number of your local florist, looked up the address to the car wash down the street, or checked the business hours of a diner near you, you made a local search.
If you’ve conducted your own local search recently, imagine how many other people around you have done the same thing just today. People are constantly making local searches, so it is important that you have a local SEO strategy for your business.
Why a Local SEO Strategy Matters
Fact: 75% of search engine users never scroll past the first page of search results. By developing your own local SEO strategy for your business, you can land yourself a spot on the first page of search results, helping you to effectively reach more people and optimize your website.
Many people use search engines multiple times each day, and your placement on those search results could be the difference in whether you gain a new customer and land a sale.
How It Helps Small Businesses
A local SEO strategy is especially important for small, local businesses. SEO stands for search engine optimization, and is important in order to increase traffic, attract customers, and make your business known. A successful SEO strategy will help your customers find you and allow potential customers to learn about your business.
The vast majority of online experiences begin with a search engine, so it is important that your business appears in the immediate results (specifically the first page, because most users do not click past the first page). If your website does not show up on the primary page of local search results, you are truly missing an opportunity for growth.
What Customers Search For
93% of online experiences begin with a search engine. Each day, people engage in local searches, which are searches meant to find things around the searcher’s location.
Typically, consumers search for things like business hours, directions to local stores, local store addresses, or availability of a product at a local store. 4 in 5 customers use search engines to find local information, so a local SEO strategy is crucial if you want your business to be noticed.
SEO works off of keywords, so take the keyword “bakery”, for example. Say you own a modest bakery in the small town of Middletown, Delaware. It’s unlikely that you would try to rank for a universal keyword like “bakery.” Rather, it would be most effective to try to rank for keywords such as “Middletown bakery” or “Bakeries in Middletown, Delaware.”
People all over the country have probably searched for the general keyword “bakery,” but someone searching in Sacramento is not going to be interested in a bakery in Middletown. Choosing keywords that are specific to the location of your business will be most effective in attracting customers in that locality.
Still on the Fence? Consider These Statistics
If you’re not already sold on the importance of a local SEO strategy for your business, here are some statistics that will surely win you over:
-
- The majority of smartphone searches have local intent.
- Customers purchase at a higher rate after a local search.
- Local searches lead to a higher percentage of purchases than non-local searches.
- 50% of people who conducted a local search from their smartphone visited a store within a day, and 34% of users who searched on another device did the same.
- 87% of smartphone users use a search engine at least once a day.
- 71% of people look up a business before visiting for the first time.
- 89% of consumers search for a local business once a week or more, and 58% search at least once daily.
- 46% of all Google searches are local.
- 76% of local searches result in a phone call.
And There You Have It
Having a local SEO strategy will surely benefit your business. Based on the statistics above, local searches are constantly being conducted by potential consumers, so it is important that your business appears in their search results.
By creating an SEO strategy based on your locality, you can absolutely maximize your business.
Digital & Social Articles on Business 2 Community
(53)
