A Beginners Guide to Local SEO in 2023
Published on August 23rd 2023
What is local SEO?
🔷The term local SEO refers to a digital marketing strategy that helps your business to become more visible in local search results & reach your local audiences. This SEO strategy is opted by people who want to rank their business in a specific location. With the help of a robust local SEO strategy, your website will appear on the top of local search results.
Why is local SEO important?
🔷As you already know what local SEO is, now is the time to learn about its importance. The main reason behind local SEO’s importance is it being the most effective way to market your company online. It will help you attract more people to your store in your specific area.
🔷When people are looking for local businesses or services near them, they switch to search engines like Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc. For the same reason, it is extremely essential for your business to create an impactful local SEO strategy. With this, you will be assured about your company appearing on the top search results when users search for your products or services online.
🔷Are you still thinking about creating a local SEO strategy? Well, let us offer you some insightful statistics below.
According to Google
✔️30% of all mobile searches have relation to location.
✔️Over 50% of ‘near me’ searches result in a physical store visit
✔️Near me” mobile searches grew increased by 136% last year
✔️24.4% of all clicks go to the first result of local business searches
✔️97% of users searched online to find a local business
With this, it is quite clear that customers are searching for your local business on search engines. If you are not present there, you are losing out on a lot of potential customers.
What Does a Local Search Look Like?
🔷When you ask “what local SEO is”, it is quite clear that you are thinking about the appearance of local search on search engines. Local search makes use of specific keywords related to local business or locations. One of the most common word used while local searching is, “near me” “in [city].”
🔷These words offer search results that are focused on a specific regional location. When a user searches for things using any of these words, it will generate a local SEO 3-pack. The term local SEO 3-pack refers to a list of three local businesses that match the user’s search criteria and are near the specified area.
🔷Suppose, you moved to a new place and are looking for a good bakery.
🔷 The moment you type bakery on your phone, you will come across phrases like “Bakery near me” or “Bakery in [city].”
🔷With this search, you will get a local SEO 3-pack with three bakeries closer to your location. This list consists of the top three bakeries that match your search criteria. If you search a bakery for some other place, your local SEO 3-pack will have a new set of companies. The list appearing is local SEO 3-pack are Google Business Profile listings.
How Does Local SEO Work?
🔷Google works on an algorithmic basis for determining what should come up in search results for specific keywords or queries. With local search results, Google works a little bit differently and provides search results based on more factors other than the normal search algorithms.
🔷As you are on your way to create your local SEO strategy, it is extremely important to know the factors that influence local searches. Majorly, there are three main factors that influence how Google regulates local SEO rankings.
Proximity
The term proximity is about how close your business is to the user. Google creates a list of businesses that are closer to the user. This factor cannot be controlled, but you must consider it while optimizing your Google Business Profile for local search. One of the best ways to ensure you show up in local searches is to list your service in Google Business Profile.
Relevance
There are times when Google generates results on the basis of relevancy. The relevance is dependent on the search query and services offered by you. Suppose you search for a bakery, Google will offer you a list of places that offer bakery items.
Prominence
Prominence is all about focusing on what customers say about your specific products or services. In Google listing, you will see business with ratings from one- to five-star, along with user comments or reviews. Google showcases places with good ratings for helping users to find the best business for meeting their specific requirements.
While creating your local SEO strategy, you must always keep these three important factors in your mind. Local SEO has a great influence on your business’s position in the local search results. It is of great importance to understand these factors for better local SEO optimization to drive traffic to your business. You can also get in touch with a local SEO company for crafting a robust local SEO strategy for your business.
Why is local SEO important for your small business?
With local SEO services, you not only get better visibility in Google SERPs but also some other advantages for your small businesses.
Cost-Effective
It takes a lot of time and effort to manage your local SEO business information in online directories. You can take some time to set up local business listings free of cost with various tools like Facebook, Google My Business, etc. These tools are much more cost-efficient than others for online advertising.
Finding Local Customers
Mostly, people who search for a local business visit the store within five minutes itself. So, if you are present on Google Maps or local search, there are higher chances of getting leads for your small business.
Wide Reach To Customers
Almost 80% of local searches are performed on mobile phones. After that, they are being converted into sales. Local SEO is meant to bring you in front of customers at the moment while they are looking for a product or service. With this, they are much more likely to inquire for more information or purchase the product.
Qualified Search Traffic
With the help of local SEO services, it is possible to sort out users who are not going to contact your business. Search engines are working towards providing relevant local results on the basis of proximity and intent. So, if someone is far away, then they won’t be able to see your business in search results. But, someone who is closer to your business will be able to see your business in search results.
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