If you’re in the business world, you’ve undoubtedly heard of the hottest marketing tool, SEO. There’s a reason it’s so popular. In fact, 53% of businesses that spend over $500 a month on SEO consider themselves “extremely satisfied” with the results.
Well, your business could be benefiting from the same results, and we can tell you why! Let’s talk about local SEO services, what they are, and the benefits for your company.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO is different from global SEO with a few key distinctions. Local SEO means that you are competing with local brands instead of similar brands around the world.
For example, a pizza shop in Boston will not be concerned with readers in Seattle, so it will primarily want traffic from the Boston/Cambridge area. An example of a company that would need to compete globally in its SEO strategy would be a company that generates its revenue primarily through a blog.
A blog that talks about personal finance will have to compete with thousands of other personal finance blogs for the top spot on relevant searches, and these blogs could come from any country or region around the world.
The way that a local SEO strategy is accomplished is by tailoring content to a specific area. If your content is loaded with references to your address with plenty of instances of keywords like “best pizza shop in Boston” or “Boston pizza parlor”, then Google will pick up on the nature of your business and location.
That company would also have their address listed on their website, local directories, online directories, and more to reinforce their location and the nature of their business. There is more to it than that, but that’s a good start.
What Does a Local SEO Company Do?
If you are looking for local SEO solutions, you may seek the services of an SEO company. Make sure that they have local SEO experience before seeking their services, as you want their services to match the needs of your company as closely as possible.
SEO services involve a lot of factors, but they typically start by improving your website to optimize it for search engines. Your website is the home base of your entire digital marketing strategy, so this will have a positive ripple effect throughout it.
The process will involve keyword research, local market research, and more. From there, they will likely add more pages to your website to maximize your chances of ranking, and they will likely add a blog, which will give you endless opportunities to rank for relevant searches.
The services should also include optimizing your website’s page speed, format, and images, along with several other services that are more relevant to your industry or needs.
Benefits Of Local SEO Services
While it may cover a wide variety of services, local business SEO is truly critical in order to thrive in the digital age. Google and other search engines have total control over which users see which content and your business can either adapt to that or fall behind. However, ranking isn’t the only benefit to local SEO solutions. Here are some of the key benefits.
#1. Less Competition
The number one benefit of local SEO services is very simple; you have less competition. This means that you have a clearer path to the top of a Google search.
The reason this is number one is that having professional local SEO services could easily set you apart from your competitors and put your business at the top. It’s important to remember that the first result on a Google search gets a full third of the traffic from every page combined.
That means that the effects are long-lasting and can single-handedly keep your business afloat. Think about it. Putting ads in front of people every day will certainly help but nothing will compare to getting a third of the people who are hungry for pizza and searching for a place to get some.
Showing up in the top 3 is critical for local SEO, so professional services are even more important for this. The reason is that Google typically shows the top 3 results underneath the map when somebody searches for the keywords with “near me” or “in Boston” at the end.
In order for a user to see the other results, they will need to click the drop-down menu and scroll. Most people won’t do this, as they will already be provided with 3 highly-rated competitors at the top to choose from, so making it into that group could easily be the difference between sinking and swimming as a company.
#2. Building Trust
You can always skip the line and pay for search ads on search engines like Google and you will show up at the very top, ahead of the organic results. However, users tend to put a lot more trust into the top organic results and choose to skip over the search ads.
This is why the top organic results get the most traffic. If you make it into that tier, users will start out their first interactions with your company with a note of trust, which will increase your conversion rates, and ultimately, your customer retention and brand loyalty.
Ads have a place in your digital marketing strategy, don’t think we are suggesting otherwise. However, reinforcing your company’s legitimacy through organic search will only have positive effects on your business.
#3. Organic Search is Superior
We mentioned that you want people to find you on Google more than on ads, and that’s for good reason. Organic traffic accounts for the majority of web traffic and it brings the right people to you.
You can target an ad campaign as well as you like but it won’t be as precise as the people who are looking for relevant information to your company. We see thousands of ads every day, so it’s easy to understand why people would be more likely to make a purchase when they are searching for something.
To put it simply, there isn’t a better way to reach a target audience than by letting them search for you, as opposed to the other way around.
#4. Improved User Experience
Improved SEO also means that your user experience was improved. Google’s algorithm factors in user experience in several ways, including page loading times, navigation, mobile-friendliness, and more.
A local SEO agency will be able to help you improve your user experience, which will not only help with SEO but with customer retention and conversion rates for your other marketing campaigns.
Whether we like it or not, users have become accustomed to using websites with vast resources and state-of-the-art technology, which has become the new standard. If you spend your days on Facebook, Google, and Amazon, you will be able to spot a DIY website from a mile away.
The only way to compete with that is by having a professional website that meets the standards of the average web user. This just happens to have the byproduct of improving your site’s SEO value.
#5. SEO is Measurable
Advertisements and other forms of marketing are measurable to a degree. However, with tools like Google Analytics and others, you can receive deeper insights into the kind of traffic you are receiving.
This includes the type of audience that is engaging with your pages, how long they stay, when they typically exit, how they navigate through your site, and more.
This provides you with a free roadmap to improving your website and content even further, maximizing your conversion rates, retaining customers, and expanding your reach. Following these metrics and working to improve upon them will help you dominate and stay ahead of your competition.
It will also help with your company’s overall market research. These insights will allow you to understand the voice of your customers, any evolutions or changes in your target audience, and the direction of the industry. This has plenty of long-term advantages when the information is used effectively.
#6. Up To Date Information
SEO is a constantly evolving field and you may have learned about it a few years ago and developed some skills in the field. However, it’s not that simple. There are constant updates from Google that SEO professionals need to be up to date with, and that’s why there isn’t a substitute for their services.
Your competition at the local level may be following their SEO strategy themselves or have an internal marketer handling their SEO strategy. Having professional services that know are familiar with all recent updates and who continue to follow new best practices is what will set you apart from your competition.
#7. Integration With Other Marketing Tools
We mentioned that improving your website can help with your ad conversions but that’s only one way that SEO services can affect your marketing strategy.
For example, your SEO efforts will help you develop more traffic to prompt users to sign up for notifications or email newsletters, giving you extra help on these campaigns.
Not only that, but conversion rates from social media marketing and other efforts will significantly improve if you have a more user-friendly website. Users tend to leave websites after only 3 seconds, so having an efficient website will help with all of your digital marketing efforts.
#8. Long-Term Results
The thing about SEO is that, unlike other marketing efforts, you essentially pay your dues and then you can reap the rewards for a long period of time. When you buy ad campaigns, you pay for every view or every click on your advertisement, then you have to pay for new ad content, and it’s basically an expensive, short-term campaign with conversion rates often below 1%.
However, with SEO, you simply need to climb to the top by establishing trust with Google’s algorithm. Once you’re there, you’re there, and your competition will have an uphill battle trying to get ahead of you.
All you have to do from that point is to continue optimizing your content based on industry updates and you will see the benefits for years to come. Sure, it can feel like a slow process at first, but your efforts will pay off in the long run.
#9. Realistic Goals
One of the biggest benefits that an SEO company can offer you is the ability to achieve realistic goals with your SEO strategy. You should be very warry about a company that promises you the top spot on Google in a week, as this is simply the antithesis of what SEO is about.
However, a serious company will be able to offer you a detailed outline of their strategy, how they intend to implement it, the price, and when you should expect to see results.
It’s important to remember that SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. Results will come with consistency and time but they may last for even longer. Look for a company that is down to earth and offering you realistic goals to keep your company successful over the long term. Take your time, do your research, and find the right SEO services for your company.
Start Ranking!
Now that you know the benefits of local SEO services, you may be interested in seeking these services for yourself. It’s a beneficial idea as long as you are patient and you have realistic goals and expectations. Stay up to date with our latest SEO news, find the right services for your company, and contact us with any SEO questions!
