Small businesses are in a constant battle for the spotlight with larger brands. The trouble is that these bigger competitors typically have larger marketing budgets, which can push you off the local community radar, if you’re unprepared.
Thankfully, you can absolutely compete with even the biggest of business goliaths by investing in a local SEO strategy. Local SEO is what makes nearby residents – as well as anyone visiting from elsewhere – aware of your offerings, ensuring they know exactly where to call when they do come looking for your products and services.
Rolling out a proper local search engine optimisation strategy helps small to medium-sized businesses carve out their claim on the marketplace. It puts you on the map and in the consciousness of your local community. You can do it yourself or get help from a specialist SEO agency.
Here’s how local search engine optimisation helps your business:
1. Increase Exposure
It used to be the case that small businesses had little hope of outshining national names, who could afford much more extravagant advertising in order to hog top spots. It was not until 2014 that a change in Google’s algorithm, dubbed the “Pigeon upgrade,” gave local businesses the chance to compete for top spots by region.
Since this pivotal update, Google has employed hundreds of ranking metrics that utilize geographical data, effectively giving small brick-and-mortar businesses a localized boost. Working on your local SEO increases your exposure to people in your vicinity, who are the ones most likely to benefit from your offerings, after all.
Today, search engines happily reward the local businesses that put the effort in, which includes keeping customers happy and investing in a well-oiled website. Maintaining n effective local SEO strategy incentivises Google to increase your visibility in your local community, an enhancement you won’t see unless you’re serious about your digital marketing.
2. Channel Customers
It’s widely known that just under half of all Google searches are for local information, and that figure increases dramatically when users are actively searching for a particular product or service. Search engines like Google are well aware of this. They know that to increase the quality of their own service, it’s imperative that they put local people in touch with local enterprises.
Having a proper digital presence allows a small business to cast a wider net, channelling a greater number of customers by making their company information easily accessible. Local SEO helps you to provide potential customers with details on your products and service, which in turn increases traffic to your site.
In this way, you can think of local SEO as the road signs on the internet highway that point people to your doors. It helps your business stand out and draws in new customers.
3. Reduce Ad Spend
When most people think of grassroots business advertising, their mind goes to flyers through the letterbox, local listings in the newspaper, billboards around town, and perhaps even a radio or TV commercial. All of these pursuits cost a considerable amount of money, and there’s no guarantee that such investments will end up paying for themselves.
It turns out that most people find local businesses with a trusty “near me” tag on their Google searches, or by including a specific location like “SEO in Sydney.” This renders a lot of traditional advertising methods inefficient. Small to medium-sized businesses can reduce their ad spend whilst still increasing their reach by simply working on their digital presence and local SEO strategy.
4. Long-term Growth
The main aim of any local SEO initiative is to increase visibility, boost traffic, and thus raise sales. The secondary benefit of a successful local search engine optimisation campaign is that those extra sales can actually carry you further up the local rankings.
Happy consumers leave positive reviews, which then encourages future customers to engage with you, causing a spiralling effect that helps to grow your business. This all comes from your initial local SEO investment. From a single action, it’s possible to see long-lasting effects on brand awareness, meaning small enterprises can maintain healthier search rankings and scale their business.
Getting Started with Local SEO
It can be a daunting task to come up with an effective local SEO initiative for your business. Though rest reassured your digital marketing efforts can be the quickest way to landing a competitive edge over other local players.
When properly implemented, a local SEO strategy allows a small business to outshine competitors, including even national conglomerates. Not sure how to get started with local SEO for your business? Use professional SEO services and open your doors to the digital crowd!