Local SEO focuses on attracting customers in geographic areas near you, rather than the national and sometimes global reach of online stores and other businesses. These local customers are the valuable to small businesses. If you have a brick-and-mortar location, or are just starting to market your business online, then keep reading to take advantage of the benefits of local SEO!
93% of people choose to travel just 20 minutes or less to make everyday purchases.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO (search engine optimization) improves search engine visibility when a query includes a specific location, or when users are close to the physical location of a business search for those goods and services.
For example, Local SEO tactics are what help businesses appear in Maps and/or search results when someone types in “best restaurant in Boulder” or “restaurants near me.”
The purpose of Local SEO (also referred to as Local Citations) is to build online visibility to improve sales, and to show search engines that a business is worthy of appearing at the top of the search results for certain terms and locations.
Who Should Use Local SEO?
Local SEO is for any business that has a physical location that serves customers or that services a particular geographic area. Local citations are also for businesses new to online marketing; by starting locally, and gradually building a presence, brand recognition and out-of-area customers are sure to follow.
Local SEO Benefits:
- Instead of competing with large, nationwide chains like Wal-Mart, Local SEO favors small, local businesses.
- Local SEO is used by neighborhood consumers who prefer to invest in community businesses over empires like Amazon.
- Search engines, like Google, value local businesses and use specific ranking factors to determine whether or not a business is geographically relevant to a user.
Local Packs
The goal of local citations is to rank at the top of the search results when a user looks for what you’re selling with a geographical modifier, like “Boulder” or “Near me.”
Alternately, when someone enters a query into a search engine – like Google – without specifying geography, it uses GPS to provide the most relevant results. Either way, these results are presented in a “local pack” with the most authoritative sites appearing first along with contact information, website links, directions, reviews, images, and a map.
And best of all, even though Local SEO is mainly used to drive easy-to-reach customers to brick-and-mortar locations, these same tactics improve visibility online EVERYWHERE, thus increasing brand recognition across the country and around the world!
Top Fox Marketing is highly skilled at setting up and maintaining successful local citations for our clients, and we’d love to do the same for you. Contact us to learn more!
