Local SEO is a fantastic resource for any business with a physical location or bound to a geographical area. If you are trying to find customers in your local town to come and buy flowers from your shop, local SEO will increase your visibility. If you are a plumber looking for new customers in your region, local SEO will increase your online presence. Businesses from all sectors and all sizes can reap the benefits of local SEO. Businesses that operate from multiple locations will benefit as each location can be individually targeted. Being found on Google is incredibly important to drive your sales, and improve your reputation. Local SEO is an investment, the work we do with your business will last over time, improving your ranking on Google and your local presence. One of the advantages of local SEO is that it will drive the right customers to you, which then gives you the opportunity to turn each new customer into a long-term customer. Local SEO is a vital part of your marketing strategy, so make sure you are utilising it today.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO is part of SEO (search engine optimisation), and it forms part of your digital marketing strategy. If you search for a coffee shop at work Google will give you different results than if you search for the same term at home. Google uses your location combined with the local businesses in the area to give you the best fit business for your needs. The gold card in local SEO is to make it onto Google’s 3-pack, which is the map showing you three local businesses based on your search terms. SEO works using Google “spiders” which “crawl” your content looking for keywords, this is why the phrase “content is king” has never been more relevant. The “spiders” also see how well your website works, so our local SEO services will also make sure that your website is running effectively and quickly. Building good local content has two main objectives, firstly it ensures that the “spiders” read the local references and understand where your business is operating geographically, and secondly that your prospective customers understand your geographic location, and how you are part of the local community. As part of our SEO work we can create relevant local content, focusing on specific geographical locations, we can also build your visibility and presence in areas such as Google My Business. It is well-known that consumers will make buying decisions based on the other consumers’ opinions, we can help you to create a good process to gain reviews from your satisfied customers. All these components work together in your website to bring your business all the benefits of local SEO.
Why Is It Important for Business?
Remember the first rule of marketing, if people don’t know that you exist they cannot become a customer. When you are trying to gain new customers in your local area, you need to be visible. You may put out a sandwich board, or a banner, you may put up posters, or hand out leaflets, you may advertise in the local paper. All of these actions are excellent ideas as part of your marketing plan, but where do people look for information? On Google. While some demographics don’t use their phones as the answer to everything, the majority do, so your potential customers walking around the local area aren’t looking at your banners, they are looking at their phones. Unless you appear there, you will struggle to attract them to your business. Being seen, and being found by the right people is crucial to attracting customers, and hence driving sales and revenue. Targeted local SEO will not only bring you more customers through your door, but it will also bring you the right target customers. Local SEO is an investment in the future of your business, don’t leave it to chance.
How Does It Work?
There are several different ways to improve local SEO, and hence digital traffic to your website. If you partner with us for your local SEO we will consider the best ways to increase your website traffic based on your business. While the foundations of digital marketing and SEO remain the same, each business is unique and requires a tailored strategy to help grow website traffic. Strategies can include some of the following; building local landing pages, increasing the geographical content on your website, improving Google My Business scores, working on the existing content on your website to ensure that it is geographically relevant, and improving the speed and functionality of your website.
Key Benefits of Local SEO
There are many benefits of local SEO. The key benefit is improved visibility online, which simply means that more people will see your website, and your traffic will increase. The more people that see your website, the more likely you are to get a sale. Not only will more people see your website, but good local SEO will ensure that the right people see your website, and this will lead to increased conversions. Local SEO can help your business to build good relationships with other local businesses. For example, you own a cake shop, and because you are visible online you get approached by a local hairdresser who wants to offer tea and cake to their customers. There are endless opportunities to work with other companies, as long as they know you exist! Other advantages of local SEO include reduced advertising costs. When you consider the price of newspaper advertising which can be expensive and may not reliably generate a good return on investment, local SEO is a cost-effective form of advertising. Local SEO benefits are not just limited to a portion of time, (consider the shelf life of your ad in the local paper), but are long-lasting. The work done on improving your website keeps on attracting customers, keeps on giving you good leads, and keeps on generating sales and revenue. One of the key benefits of local SEO is that it gives you a fantastic return on investment. Another advantage of increasing your local presence is that you increase your standing within the local community. Many people want to support their local businesses, shop local campaigns are growing in popularity, and people are motivated to find local businesses to support. Ensuring that your website can be found by the very people who want to support local businesses will enable this to happen. There is a myriad benefit of local SEO, and all of them will help you to build good, long-lasting relationships with your customers. Your business is waiting to be found, let local SEO do the legwork for you, and watch your business grow.
How to Choose The Right Local SEO Company
Choosing an SEO (Search engine optimisation) company can be daunting. Some companies can be unclear about what they offer, whilst others promise the world yet fail to deliver. As with all investments and business relationships, remember the importance of doing your research. Ask lots of questions. A good SEO company will take the time to listen to you, after all, you are their customer, and answer your queries. They will be able to explain their plan to you, so that, even if you don’t understand the technical aspects, you will understand the intentions of the plan. A good SEO company will spend time understanding your business and your sector. Much of SEO is based on doing a good research on the keywords used by potential customers to find your business. An SEO consultant will need to think about how your customer will search for you. Often people don’t know what they want, they just have a problem that needs a solution. Careful and creative thinking can link a problem to a solution, and provide your SEO team with insight into keywords. Spend time on your decision, SEO doesn’t happen overnight, the company that you choose to work with will be part of your marketing team, and you need to feel that they are just that. A good SEO company will treat all their customers to the same level of professionalism and dedication whether they are a small business or a larger scale operation. If you feel in initial conversations that you are being dismissed if you are a small business, walk away, you need a company that values you and your business. At 3W Consulting we believe that all businesses deserve to be respected and supported in their marketing. We always work as part of the marketing team, whether you have a business that works across the country with a large marketing department, or you are the owner of a small business trying to juggle everything yourself. We spend time understanding your business and your problems and then work with you to build a coherent and cost-effective marketing plan that is designed around the needs of your business. Local SEO is such an important part of your marketing strategy don’t leave it to chance, come and speak to a company that cares. To learn more about our local SEO services visit our Local SEO page.