Local SEO: Reasons Why It is Important
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It doesn’t matter whether you are a builder, accountant, florist or a plumber. With local SEO, your business can benefit a lot. There are a number of digital marketing agencies out there that offer local SEO services. But, what exactly is local SEO? Well, to define the term, local SEO is an extremely effective form of local online marketing. It enables you to promote your local business as well as services to your local customers at exactly the time when they are looking for your kind of business. Search engines such as Superpages, Yelp, TouchLocal are used by local SEO. In order to find the best local business in their area, millions of local customers use these services every day.
Guesswork is removed from local marketing by local SEO. If you drop leaflets through a letterbox, or put an ad in a local newspaper, you can’t be sure if your ad is seen by someone who is interested in your service or not. Here comes local SEO. It helps you to reach local customers who are looking to buy your services when they need it. Also, those new customers are ‘real customers’ and not just online customers. Local online marketing promotes not only your website, but also your business, services, address, name etc. Without even visiting your website, your new customers will call you and want to know more about your products and services, and give you more sales. Here, in this article, you will find why it is important for your business to opt for local SEO.
1. Local customers are using the internet to find local businesses
In order to find local business, online search engines and directories are used by 64 percent of local customers as the main way. On the contrary, there are only 28 percent of people who use old paper directories, in order to find local information.
2. Local search marketing is timely and highly targeted
Using local search engines as well as online directories, enables you to promote your business to local customers at exactly the time when they are actually looking for it. There is no better time to connect with your potential customers when they actually need you. And with local SEO, you can do exactly that.
3. Number of online searches for local business has increased
In the year 2008/09, the number of local searches increased by 58 percent. This growth is more than double the growth in general search volumes. This means that via search engines such as Google, more and more people are looking for local businesses as well as information.
4. Increased conversion levels of all local channels
Compared to other traditional advertising options, local directory marketing has higher conversion rates – up to 50 percent conversion on some directories. This means, you will be able to convert one in every two leads into an actual customer.
5. Great ROI or Return on Investment
Compared to other advertising such as leaflets and local papers, local SEO has less wastage exposure. This enables you to reach your potential customers when they actually need you. This is considered as a great advantage of local SEO. Also, this makes local SEO cost-effective as well as efficient.
6. Growth in mobile internet usage
Nowadays, in order to find the best local business while walking around, more and more customers are using mobile phones as well as mobile apps. Both PC and mobile internet access is covered by local SEO. This means, you will never miss out on a potential customer.
7. Not many businesses have claimed their Google Places local listings
There are only 10 percent of local businesses that are well acquainted with online marketing yet. This gives you the opportunity to get a head start before your competitors, become wise and give them a tough competition. Strike when you still have the opportunity.
8. Decrease in local newspaper readership
The number of people reading local newspaper is decreasing day by day. Recent study shows that in the last 20 years, some local newspapers have lost almost 80 percent of their readership. This is because; people are turning to their mobile phones or PC, in order to get local news as well as to find the best local deals and businesses.
So these are some of the reasons why you should consider local SEO for your business.
