As a local business owner, you might think it’s not worth your time and money to optimize your Google presence when you’re competing with Walmart and Amazon for top rankings. That may be true for the leading organic results, but it’s not true for local search.
Local SEO helps you connect with people in your neighborhood, town, or city, whether you have a physical storefront or serve a specific geographical area. This is important because 81% of people now use Google to learn about local businesses.
The Benefits of Local SEO in Small Businesses
- Better Online Visibility
Many of the things you do for local SEO will not only help you show up better in local search results but also help you be more visible online in general.
For example, building citations is an essential part of Local SEO. This means getting your company’s name, physical address (with zip code if possible), and phone number listed in online directories, social media profiles, and review sites.
- More people coming into the store
Whether you own a cafe, a dry cleaner, or a hardware store, getting more local attention can help bring more people to your storefront. If you’ve spent a lot of money on specialized equipment, designed a unique space, or have a physical location because your products are best tried out in person, getting more people to visit can help you get the word out and make more sales.
- Join the shopping boom in your area
In the past few years, people’s buying habits have changed in many ways. One of the most exciting things is that consumers today give more weight to local businesses when making buying decisions.
Research shows that people are thinking smaller and choosing to support small, local, independent businesses over more extensive, brand-name offerings or experiences they may have selected in the past.
- Web traffic that is targeted
As a small business, you lose money every minute you deal with unqualified leads or people who aren’t likely to buy something or book a service.
Local SEO can help you eliminate irrelevant traffic and time-wasters that keep your business from running smoothly. This way, your business will only appear in search results for people in your area.
- Maps users call and visit more often
Optimizing your Google Business Profile can make it easier for people to find you on Google Maps. This can lead to more phone calls and visits since Google Maps was created to help people find local services and plan their trips.
Google Maps is made up of information that Google gets from Business Profiles. So optimizing your Google Business Profile will directly help your Maps visibility, increasing the number of calls and visits to your business.
Conclusion
Local content marketing should make it natural for you to talk about your neighborhood or hometown and include people from your area. This not only helps you build your reputation as an expert, but it can also bring your customers closer to your business, strengthening ties, building brand loyalty, and getting them more involved.
