Grow Your Business with Local SEO

If you have a bricks and mortar business, or one that operates around a physical location, it’s likely you’ll get some or most of your customers from within your local area. If your business is based in a town or city, servicing customers within a fixed area, then you should be marketing it with local Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

What is local SEO?

Local SEO is a process of optimising a website to appear in the search engines for keywords that are relevant to the products and/or services it offers within a fixed location. This enables customers to find these products and services offered by local businesses via the search engines. Google is becoming very good at tailoring search results based on a user's location, which presents a great opportunity for local businesses to advertise online. This makes local SEO a highly effective form of local advertising, targeting potential customers at the precise time they are looking for businesses like yours within their local area.

Why local SEO works

Local SEO can remove the guesswork from traditional marketing, unlike direct mail or placing an advert in local newspapers which work on the chance of somebody seeing them and being interested. Instead, local SEO reaches local customers when they are looking to buy your products or services. Customers that are actively searching for your products or services in the search engines are most likely to be researching or ready to buy. This results in a higher quality lead that is pre-qualified and is much more likely to convert into a sale. The reasons why local SEO can be so effective are outlined below;

• Online is the place customers are looking for businesses -
  Local customers are using the internet to find local business. “97% of consumers search for local businesses online” – According to Google.
• Targeting and timing -
  Local SEO is highly targeted, reaching customers at the right time based on their search terms. So you will reach them at the time they are either researching or ready to buy your product or service.
• Higher quality leads have better conversion rates -
  This is a further point relating to targeting and timing above. A huge advantage over traditional advertising that only appeals to a small proportion of its audience based on the chance they see it at the time they want your services.
• Local SEO opportunities are free (for now) -
  Local SEO will get your business listed in localised search engine results, with Places pages available for free from Google.

What can you do to help your local SEO?

There are some things website owners can do to help with local SEO and these basics will be a step in the right direction.

One method is by creating a list of local references, as shown in this example by Pathways Private Duty; a handy "go-to" resource which also cements Pathways' local presence in that particular area.

Applying for a Google Places page is also an essential step in improving your local listings within Google. This will help your business stand out, with the ability to add photos, update your address and hours of business. The Places platform also allows you to connect with your customers as it enables them to rate and recommend your business online. You can see what customers are saying and respond to their reviews. Reviews are also another signal in getting your business listed more prominently than the competition.

If you would like to know more about local SEO and how it could help your business, contact us on 01743 272609 or email studio@vibecreative.co.uk.