As a small business owner, it can be a difficult task to get your business noticed, even if you sell some of the best products on the market, if you aren’t utilizing all of the marketing tools available, then you’re never going to be able to catch the attention of potential customers.
If you’ve explored some aspects of digital marketing, chances are you’ll have seen “SEO” mentioned at some point during your search.
This stands for “Search Engine Optimization”, and is a way of maximizing the amount of traffic to your website, which it does by placing it higher in the search results of a search engine.
This means if someone is looking for a particular product and your website is placed higher than your competitors, you’re more likely to get a sale!
However, in this article, we’re going to take a more in-depth look at a specialized type of SEO effort often employed by small businesses - Local SEO!
So, to find out more about what Local SEO is, and the benefits it can have on a small business, keep reading on!
What Is Local SEO?
Local SEO is a fairly new phenomenon that has gained a lot of momentum in recent years, but you’d be forgiven if you haven’t heard of it previously, even if you had an idea about what SEO is.
Thankfully, we’re here to help explain exactly what it means.
Local SEO, is also commonly known as Map SEO, and is a way of utilizing keywords and links in order to fully optimize your Google My Business (GMB) profile, of which there are a few different strategies involved, such as:
Keep your business NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) updated
Geotagged images
Using link-building techniques and other potential engagements throughout your GMB profile
How Is Local SEO Different?
Local SEO might sound similar to traditional SEO efforts at first, but the reality is that they have a different pattern altogether.
This is because Google recognizes that when its users are looking for a specific type of business, it needs to display results of businesses that are in the local area to the user.
Essentially, Google will take into account your location when looking for a local keyword, even if you don’t actually add “near me” or what town or city you’re based in.
In the past, proximity searching and local searching have been restricted due to the majority of the searches coming from desktop devices.
However, since the rise in the use of smartphones, Local SEO has become a priority for local businesses who are looking to get themselves noticed in their local area.
But realistically, what benefits does local SEO actually have for small businesses?
For those who are unaware of the power that SEO can have, it might seem like a lot of hassle and effort for very little reward, but the reality is that local SEO can have a huge impact on the success of a small business.
So, if you want to learn more about the amazing benefits local SEO can have on a small business, then check out the next section!
The 12 Key Benefits Of Local SEO For Small Businesses
Reach
Ultimately, the aim of SEO is to market your business in the best way possible, and therefore the biggest benefit of any form of SEO, including local SEO, is that you can reach more customers than ever before.
By having your business ranked higher by search engines in the search results, the likelihood of a potential customer visiting your website is increased, which means that you’re more likely to make a sale!
Find Potential Customers
What many small business owners might not initially realize is that there is a good chance that there are people out there who are already looking for the product that they sell, which is why one of the benefits of local SEO is that it helps people to find the product that they’ve been looking for for so long.
Connecting with the relevant customers is just as important as increasing the overall number of visitors to your website, as it is these people who are most likely to become regular customers of your business.
Correctly utilizing SEO is a great way to put your business in front of the relevant people, which is why it’s so important for small businesses!
Drive Traffic
SEO’s main goal is to increase the amount of traffic that visits your business’ website, and although these views might not necessarily translate to sales immediately, the likelihood of you making a sale increases as more and more people view your website.
In addition to this, there’s also a chance that people will begin talking about your business to other people, which helps to generate more organic traffic, and allows the relevant people to find your business!
Target Audience
Since SEO means that you’ll be making use of the relevant keywords needed, there’s a higher chance of your business being seen by the target audience of the products you sell, so if people are looking for a particular product or service, then they’ll be shown your website, which will hopefully translate to a sale!
Conversion Rates
For small businesses, increasing the conversion rate between visitors and sales can be difficult, especially if you sell a particularly niche product.
However, with the utilization of SEO, it means that you have a much better chance of increasing your conversion rate, as the traffic that SEO brings in will likely have a pre-existing interest in your products.
Beat Competition
Another difficulty for small businesses is competition, most notably when two small businesses are selling similar products in a similar locale.
However, by making use of local SEO, your business will have a more optimized digital presence, which will allow you to beat the competition, especially if the other business is still only making use of traditional marketing methods.
SEO is one of the best ways for a small business to gain an advantage in the market, especially over other small businesses.
Brand Awareness
Whilst SEO is a great way of increasing sales, it’s also a great way of increasing your brand awareness too.
Whether or not people decide to visit your website or not when it appears, constantly seeing your business name appear on a regular basis will ultimately increase the amount of people who are aware of your brand, which will hopefully convert to traffic, and eventually sales!
Lower Cost Per Acquisition
SEO is a much cheaper marketing technique than traditional advertising, which means that if you’re looking to reduce your cost per acquisition, then it’s definitely an option worth exploring.
You can teach yourself the necessary skills for SEO, or you can hire a company that specializes in small-business SEO to help you optimize your website.
User-Friendly Website
One of the key factors of optimizing your website involves making it much more user-friendly, which will help to provide a better customer experience when browsing your products.
It also plays a part in your rankings too, Google is selective over the type of information that is made available on a website when it comes to ranking, so a user-friendly website with all of the correct information is going to be rated much higher by Google.
Longer-Lasting
With most traditional marketing techniques, the results of the advertising campaigns you conduct only have a short-term impact on those who have seen it, and when you consider how expensive traditional advertising methods are, it’s why so many small businesses are beginning to turn to local SEO optimization instead.
Although it can be tedious keeping the information up to date in order to optimize the local SEO, it has a much longer-lasting effect, as when you initially rank in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page), then you will tend to hold that position for a good amount of time.
Growth
Overall, the benefits that local SEO offers, from increased traffic, reaching target audiences, and low acquisition cost all mean that your small business has a much better chance of growing than it did previously, so if you want to see your small business grow, investing some time and money into SEO will definitely be worthwhile.
Measurable Results
With digital marketing being more important than ever, it’s vital to have proper data that you can analyze in order to measure the success of the results of your marketing efforts, which will then indicate what you need to improve on in the future!
Summary
To summarize, Local SEO is a powerful tool that can be utilized by small businesses in order to help grow their local digital presence, which will help connect them to the relevant customers and will ultimately help to grow their business in a much cheaper and easier fashion than through traditional marketing methods.