Go local. We’ve been hearing that for years. And it doesn’t seem like that mantra will change anytime soon.
While people still buy things from outside their local area, there is no mistaking consumers’ increasing preference to purchase the goods and services they need locally. This trend toward making purchases locally presents great opportunities for small and midsize business owners to dominate their local markets.
Local SEO vs Organic SEO
It doesn’t matter what industry you compete in. Local search engine optimization can help your business attract more customers. The purpose of local SEO is to promote your business to customers and prospects within your local geographical area. This will make it more likely that your website will rank favorably in search engine results pages when someone is searching for companies like yours located in your area online.
It’s important to understand that local SEO is different from organic SEO. Local SEO is what will help your site rank well for queries that have local intent whereas organic SEO will help your website appear in SERPs produced when location is irrelevant.
An example will make the distinction between local and organic SEO clearer. Let’s say you’re a homeowner who wants to have a ceiling fan installed. You don’t have the skills to hang the fan yourself, so you turn to Google and type “handyman near me” to find a professional who can handle the job for you. Google will realize your query has local intent and the search engine will produce SERPs that include listings for handymen in your immediate area.
Now, let’s say you’re a dedicated do-it-yourselfer and you’re going to hang the ceiling fan on your own. You might seek out instructions on the Internet by typing “how to install ceiling fan” in your search bar. Because your search doesn’t have local intent, Google may include listings from all over the world in the SERPs it produces. Location doesn’t matter in this instance. Providing the best, most relevant instructions is what will drive your results for this query.
The Importance of Local SEO
Local SEO is vital to ensure your site ranks well in local searches and drive paying customers to your business. If you doubt the importance of local SEO, consider the following:
- 75 percent of people will not look beyond the first page of search results
- 80 percent of shoppers use the Internet to find local information
- 18 percent of searches with local intent generate a sale within a day
How to Dominate Local Search Results
As a business owner, you should do everything possible to dominate local search results. And it starts with making sure all of your online listings are correct and consistent. If your name, address and phone number are inaccurate or inconsistent across listings, it can dramatically influence where your website lands in SERPs.
If the thought of reviewing your online listings website by website has you down, snap out of it. You can use Moz Local to save time. Moz Local will create accurate business listings across websites for you and it will tell you when it finds an incorrect listing. You can use the Moz Local dashboard to correct any inaccurate listings quickly and efficiently.
In addition to making sure your online listings are accurate, you should solicit reviews of your business to dominate local search. Approximately 88 percent of consumers will look over online reviews before they purchase services locally so having honest, trustworthy reviews of your business on the Internet is important to the success of your local SEO.
Contact DB Marcom
If you need help with your local SEO, you should use our Frisco-based local SEO services. To learn more about our services and to see how we can help out with your local SEO, contact DB Marcom today.