Has the pandemic led you to finally accept the fact that your local business needs to have a strong online presence? If your answer is yes then this article will help you connect the dots so that you can understand how local SEO ensures that your store can get more footfall and rank better than your competitors.
The fact that 46% of all the searches made in Google have “local intent”, makes it clear that local searches make up a big part of the SEO world. And if you can get your business in front of these searchers, they may touch your door a few minutes later!
What is local SEO?
Before discussing how beneficial Local SEO can prove to be for your business, let’s quickly understand what it is all about.
Unlike global SEO, local SEO aims at helping local businesses rank higher in regional searches. This largely happens by focusing on keywords and optimizations that enable your site to rank higher in regional searches (like “Stores near me”) and drive traffic to the website and the physical store by focusing on relevance, prominence and proximity.
While, international SEO aims at optimizing the website for search engines to target your business internationally. If you want to learn about international SEO and its best practices, you can follow this blog.
How local SEO can benefit your store
Organic traffic
While you might come across several people and posts that encourage you to opt for paid promotion (it works well for most industries) it doesn’t make sense for small businesses to spend that kind of money when they can derive even better results with the help of local SEO.
This will show results in real-time as organic results can help convert more clients thereby increasing traffic to the online site as well as driving nearby customers to the physical store (some online leads might convert into in-store visitors) based on relevance and refined traffic.
Brand reputation and citations
Digital promotions work wonders if the brand can create a great online presence and earn people’s trust. Online business citations (additional details like physical address and phone number) taken from directory listings, Facebook pages or any other social media account can help increase online visibility.
As a result, whenever people search for services near them, the store details along with ratings will appear before stores that have no additional details, as they have higher credibility.
Growing a loyal customer base
Irrespective of the field you’re in, having a loyal and active customer base is always beneficial for the business. Local SEO can help in catching the attention of visitors and building a loyal customer base.
Engaging and using the right keywords can help outdo your competitors and get more customer leads and higher conversion rates. More views, reviews and other forms of customer engagement help in increasing brand awareness and distills trust in your business.
Dominate the maps
Once you start ranking higher in regional searches, the same will be reflected in Google maps when people search for nearby stores. Hence, local SEO can help place your store at the top without spending a fortune on paid promotion to rule the Map Pack!
Improving your local SEO can prove to be instrumental in increasing sales by increasing footfall in your physical store while simultaneously serving digital customers.
If you are eager to start your digital journey but don’t know how to do so effectively then taking the help of a renowned digital agency like Dignitas Digital would be a smart choice. Currently serving over 100 customers in four continents, this SEO company in Philadelphia aims at enhancing your business’ presence using a comprehensive, 360-degree digital marketing approach so that your business always rules the first page when it comes to Google searches!
