By Jocelyn Ian
In terms of digital marketing, local search engine optimisation (SEO) plays an important role. As a business owner, you need to know how local SEO works and how it affects your business. eep reading to have a clear idea of why local is important in today’s world and how it can help your business grow.
What is local SEO? – Local SEO makes businesses visible on location-based searches, ensuring they get found online by their target local customers. Such searches include those with some geo qualifiers like city, zip code, state, and others and near me searches where search engines pick up the person’s geolocation and offer search results from this area.
Importance of Local SEO
Businesses with brick-and-mortar stores and those that offer a service in a locality will greatly benefit from local SEO. Surveys show that more than 90% of smartphone users use their devices to do local searches. This means that leads from location-based searches are a significant avenue for possible customers.
How to Improve your Local SEO
Again, local SEO is SEO for location-based searches. Thus, a business needs a location or physical address to show up on local search results. This address must be updated in Google My Business and other online directories so it shows up if a customer runs a “near me” or a local search.
Moreover, the name, address, and phone number (NAP) of the business must be consistent across online directories it is enlisted in. Any inconsistencies can result in Google not listing the business in the local 3-pack.
Citation is also another way to improve a business’ local SEO. It is when a third-party website lists the business as a point of reference. This could have the name, location, or contact information of the business. A citation does not require a backlink to the website of the business.
Impact of Local SEO on your Business
If you are a small business owner, you can get a lot of benefits from optimising your local SEO. These include the following:
- Getting your business discovered by customers. Many local searches originate from non-locals who are looking for a business like yours and doing local SEO right ensures your business gets the attention of your desired audience.
- Giving your customers the information they need and want. For instance, if you own a restaurant that provides free Wi-Fi or has a pet-friendly environment, you can display this information as part of your local SEO to attract customers.
