There are near 4 million search engine hits with the term “local SEO.” It seems to be the focus of blogs, news reports, and tips articles across the internet. For businesses just trying to attract customers both online and off, though, even the term local SEO can be confusing. Many believe it’s just another fad that may or may not work to actually attract customers. The reality, though, is that this type of optimisation is more than a simple fad. Instead, it’s a different way for the search engines to see your company, and if you haven’t yet reached out to a local SEO agency, London customers may not be able to find your brick and mortar location in the very near future.
What is Local SEO?
Local optimisation is a way to ensure your site is found in local search results. In a typical search, Google pulls from hundreds of ranking factors to return the results that match a customer’s query. With local search, though, the algorithm to return results is a little bit different. It takes location into account when your customers are using local keywords. For example, searches that include “near me” rely on location data from the customer to return results. Optimising your site for those proximity factors means your company will come up any time someone performs a local search.
The Benefits of Local SEO
There are many reasons to consider using local SEO services. More than anything, it’s to improve the number of visits to your website. Statistics have shown that the first five results get more than 60% of the clicks on any search engine If you’re not in those top five positions, you may have potential customers that don’t even know you’re around the corner waiting to help.
There are other benefits of using local SEO too, though. Creating a strong community is one of them. Often those searching for businesses in your area will visit other businesses in your area. Local SEO, like traditional SEO relies at least partially on backlinks. During the optimisation process, you can create links to other businesses in your area, which will not only offer you some powerful effects online, it may also offer you some pretty powerful effects offline too, as potential customers visiting businesses near yours may stop at your door too.
Relevant traffic is another great benefit of SEO. Statistics have shown that nearly 72% of all local searches meant an in-person visit to that location. Your online presence will increase your offline traffic thanks to local search optimisation.
Maybe the best benefit, though, is the fact that you can reduce your overall ad budget. Paying for ads online is useful, but local search is more powerful, and optimizing your site to reach those customers may reduce your need to reach out through paid advertising.
Working with a Local SEO Agency – London Companies Like Yours See Better Benefits
If you’re convinced of the power of local SEO, but you’re not quite sure whether you should hire a professional to help, you may want to keep reading. Managing your own local SEO is certainly possible, but it can be a little overwhelming. After all, local search is different from traditional SEO, and there’s quite a bit of hands-on time involved in the process. Working with a local SEO team, though, can mean you free up your own time and gain access to the tools and tricks you need to better optimise your site for local customers.
Local SEO is a little different because in addition to simply adjusting various aspects of your site, you’ll also need to standardise your business listing across the web. That can mean added time that you may not have because you’re dealing with your customers. More than that, though, it means building a community of local backlinks, and that may also take away from your business. Local SEO also means staying on top of the ever changing algorithms to continually refine what you’ve already done. Not ready to put that kind of time and effort into the process? Selecting the right help is essential.
Local SEO can do so much for your company. The time to invest in this process has never been better.