Why Local SEO Is Important For Small Businesses?: Everything You Need to Know About it

Marketers are targeting local audiences to generate more website traffic. This is why local seo is important for small businesses. Imagine this. You’re focused on running an agile search engine optimization strategy for your website. This is resulting in more leads and website traffic. However, you now need to focus more on your local audience because general seo is only generating more traffic to your website not convertible leads. This is maybe because your business is not appearing on search results that are relevant to your target audience.

Geographical relevance is very important when it comes to local seo. The reason why many marketers are frustrated with their seo strategy not yielding results is because their website is appearing to users who simply cannot avail your services. This is why local seo is important for small businesses.

Basically local seo would allow you to maintain an increased level of visibility in the local Google search engine results. If your business search results are optimised with Google My Business account then chances of your website appearing in the Google map pack are high.

Map packs are basically the top three listings of businesses which appear anytime someone enters a relevant keyword. For example, if you’re selling yellow Mountain bikes and someone searches for ‘buy Mountain bikes” then your product page will appear in the google map pack with the address and contact information. Basically Google while crawling web pages and saving a ranking list for certain keywords also check for proximity when it comes to certain services.

There are certain factors which influence the local seo for small business. There are varied degrees of influence but we have incorporated them into our guide to local seo. If you’re still wondering why local seo is important for small businesses then keep reading how it has become popular with time.

If you still need some more time to see how local seo is important for small businesses then take a look at these statistics. Almost 97% of people  search for local businesses online and make buying choices via Google search of local businesses. Moreover, when it comes to local seo, the best practice is to optimise your Google My Business account. At Xoopah , you can manage your online presence as we have helped many businesses with managing their online reviews, marketing strategies, invoicing and even syncing their Google My Business accounts for better conversions. Almost 33% of the local searches are attributed to the businesses with optimised Google My Business accounts.

Learn why local seo is important for small business:

Local seo is essentially important for brick and mortar services like hair salons, beauty services, law firms, manufacturers, coffee shops etc.

Some of the advantages of utilising local seo strategy as a marketing tool include better website traffic as a result of search engine page result visibility. Moreover, using a local seo strategy will also increase your lead conversion rate due to geographically accurate and precise search results.

When your business appears for people who are looking for salon services in your area, they’re more likely to receive appointment calls. Running your business with an optimised Google My Business account will also give your business website more authenticity, authority and synced online Google reviews will enhance your online reputation. Appearing to people relevant to your location will simply enhance sales growth for your business.

Moreover, you also have to look at the intention of people using local searches to acquire services. Almost 88% of people searching for localised services and businesses are completing their purchases within a day. It is important to put your business with a well synced Google My Business, good response time and online reviews on search engine results.

These powerful tips are the guide to local seo:

Below we have shared the ultimate guide to local seo that had been gathered by the knowledge of industry experts. The results of these tips will reflect in more relevant website traffic, online reputation and mature leads which are converted easily.

• Optimise your Google My Business account

Xoopah is a small business management software which has helped businesses optimise their online reputation and outlook by setting up their Google My Business accounts.

We care about sales growth for local small businesses which is why our solution caters towards centralising their Google My Business account to add their address, phone number, exact location, linking Google reviews, and adding their official website. Stats mentioned before show how important this step is for enhancing your local seo strategy. We have successfully helped dozens of businesses improve their focus on the local market.

• Engage your customers in online

When it comes to local seo for small businesses, your audience will read your online reviews first before choosing your services. They need to know whether your services are worth their time and money or not. Establishing online reputation is just as important and if not focused properly, it will highly render your marketing strategy useless.

However, it can be challenging for marketers to manage Google reviews on top of social media reviews and also motivating your customers to leave positive reviews. This is why small businesses are using Xoopah  for online review and reputation management tools. We have helped businesses with building customer loyalty and being in charge of their customer journey without losing sight of their online reviews.

• Do an seo audit

Before you develop a local seo strategy after reading our guide to local seo, you should conduct an seo audit of your website. For this purpose, you can use online tools like Semrush, or Moz. Getting a comprehensive seo audit will allow you to see where the issues with on-page seo lie. You can also check for missing backlinks, poor mobile optimization, slow loading speed for landing pages, and duplicate content etc.

• Redo your keyword research

Another step you need to take before developing your list for localised keywords to focus on is to run a quick keyword research after you have done your website audit. Doing a competitive search for localised keywords is a great place to start. Simply use Semrush to run a quick local seo search on your competitors website.

This quick search will give you a rundown of the volume of local keywords, the website’s position for these keywords, etc. After this, you need to make a list of keywords which are relevant to your business and services. Targeting keywords which your competitors are ranking low for, will also increase your chances of ranking higher for those local keywords.

Your keyword research should be focused on what your local customer is searching for when they Google what you’re offering. Using Semrush is a great way to make this list as it also shows keywords variations for one keyword.

• Revamp your landing pages

It goes without saying that the first time people are searching “near me” businesses and products, your website will appear if it is well optimised in the Google map pack featured section. Your website has to be optimised for mobile users as most people are using their smartphones to casually surf the Internet looking for services. While using their mobile phones, people coming across a well designed landing page with a call to action phone or email button or even a form is effective to gather information. This will push more leads to start the first point of conversation towards making a purchase or simply booking an appointment.

You should also add an FAQ section so visitors can have a complete view of your business. Having a more localised landing page with focus on localised keywords will appear on a higher position on the search results.

• Develop a link building strategy

Boosting your link profile for a better link profile would entail focus on businesses and authority websites which are near your business. You can start with a guest post for a local website running a blog on the best sneakers under 100$ or you could link with a review website like Yelp. Linking your content with authority links will give your website and business more online authority.

Xoopah is your guide to improving your local seo strategy

For businesses mulling over why local seo is important for small businesses, the stats we have shared will be an eye opener. If you’re one of them then you might be wondering what the next step is. With an astronomical increase in the local searches over the past years reaching at 900% there is no doubt that small businesses have a better chance of competing with their competitors by focusing on the geo specific keywords.

Xoopah looks at this new trend with the conviction to help businesses streamline their seo and online reputation tasks. Marketers should have a centralised view of their marketing channels, Google My Business account, reviews, payments etc.

Xoopah will seamlessly aid in launching your business in your own community. It’s seo but better. Why not join the league of businesses running their marketing strategies without missing anything, then contact us today.