This is how the story goes – if you have a small business, you want people to know about it. The best way to turn an interested person into a customer is to appear on the search engine results page for relevant searches. If your website is properly optimised, you’ll appear as one of the search results. If it isn’t, you won’t be found by people. This leads us to the importance of local SEO.
Why is local SEO important?
When a person is looking for something online, half of those searches are looking for a local result. A person is looking for a product or a service as near as possible to their physical location. If your online presence is optimised for local searches, you will be found by those near you.
Reasons why small businesses should work on their online presence
We cannot give you just one reason why you should work on your local online visibility, so we’ll give you several. There are numerous benefits, so let’s bring this topic closer to you.
To boost the customer base
If you want to reach more customers, you need to be discoverable online. Even if your business has a physical location, you shouldn’t rely on foot traffic only. When your website is optimised for relevant search terms, and you work on your overall SEO strategy, you will rise in rankings. In turn, this leads to reaching a wider audience and boosting your customer base. Visitors can become customers, but they must first find you online.
To connect with relevant customers
Next, when you reach a wider audience, you’ll also get an opportunity to connect with relevant customers. When you optimise your website for relevant search terms, those looking for that exact keywords will land on your website. This is where a local SEO strategy plays a vital role – your business will be more visible to those looking for your product, service or offer. Furthermore, more visitors lead to more customers and ultimately a boost in sales.
Get more traffic
When you look at an SEO strategy as a long-term project, you will get an increase in website visitors, customers, and sales. But, to achieve all this, first, you need to get more traffic. When your website gets an increase in the number of visitors, Google will also view it as a reliable source of information, which will result in better rankings. Of course, many other elements of optimisation have to be put into place. But we can safely say that the more people visit your website, the better for you. When you get a boost in website traffic, it means that each visit can result in a sale and that the word will spread about your business organically.
Boost sales
If you want to improve your sale rate, you need to focus on local SEO and other optimisation practices. Those who find you through a local search are most likely to become your customer. Each one of these visits is relevant to your business, and it increases your conversion rate. Local visitors are also viewed as people who are ready to make a purchase. Having said this, it’s up to you to start working on your local SEO strategy to reap the best possible results.
Improve your GMB profile
Google My Business profile or GMB is a necessity and if you haven’t set up your profile yet. It’s time to mend that mistake. But, the key here is to set up an optimised Google My Business profile. So you’ll set up all the relevant data and get it directly on Google Search and even Google maps. You’ll be able to show all the necessary information, monitor reviews, respond to them and make necessary changes to your profile. Even when someone just hears about your business name through a word-of-mouth recommendation, they’ll still look you up online. Your GMB profile is your chance to show your contact information and also how you respond to both positive and negative reviews.
Ensure your website is search engine friendly
Just having a website is not enough to be found online for relevant local searches. This is because web developers usually pay little attention to search engine optimisation. The only way to ensure your website is search engine friendly is to optimise it. For example, small business owners in Australia team up with professionals like SEO Services Sydney to audit their websites and propose all the necessary changes. This step increases their chances of getting found in local searches.
Improve user experience
Once you start your search engine optimisation journey, you will inevitably work on the areas of your website which need improvement. User experience is one of those areas, as it’s also one of the ranking factors. A user-friendly website has a low bounce rate and feeds all the relevant information to its users. Work on these areas, improve user experience and you’ll attract even more customers, which in turn increases your sales.
Obtain competitive advantage
You can have a great product or service, a great website that is easy to use and navigate, and great customer support. But you can still be bypassed by your competitors. The way to achieve a competitive advantage and ultimately bypass your competitors is to work on your online presence and search engine optimisation. If all your competitors are working in these areas, you have to follow their stapes to be as competitive as possible.
Get online reviews
Online reviews are necessary to be viewed as a credible business and hopefully one that people choose to work with or buy from. People can leave reviews on your Google My Business profile, so ensure you have a polished and optimised profile. Next, positive reviews are highly appreciated, but there will also be some negative ones. The way you respond to both positive and negative reviews is equally important.
In conclusion, we can freely say that the benefits of local SEO efforts are immense. From an increase in traffic to better conversion rates, the benefits can only be positive. Work on improving your local online presence and you’ll be amazed by the results.
