Local SEO Strategy Checklist For Small Business Growth | What, Why, & How Important In 2022 For Real Estate, Plumbers, & Lawyers

This article reveals a local SEO strategy checklist for small business growth in 2022.  You’ll discover what is SEO and how it works for small companies.  Why SEO is important, and how it can help small real estate, plumbing, and law firm businesses…

What are the benefits of local SEO for small business?

This question comes up often when store owners and managers are trying to attract more local customers to their business through search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

And reaching locals should be a top priority when it comes to marketing your small business in a particular city or town to increase brand awareness and sales.

As you’ll discover below, there are several advantages of local SEO that have an immediate effect on your business’ visibility to the public when you optimize your website to make your location visible to potential customers who may want your goods or services through an online search.

So let’s dig into the top local SEO benefits as well as some simple tips you can use to do local search optimization for your small business today.

Benefits of Local SEO

Whether you are a small taco restaurant in Topeka, a wedding photographer in Washington, or a plumber in Portland, local SEO can do wonders to help your business rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

It may seem like an insurmountable task to compete against larger and more well-established companies, but local SEO gives everyone a fighting chance to win new customers.

While there are dozens and dozens of benefits to local SEO, these are some of the most compelling:

Attract More Local Customers

One of the first benefits of local SEO is that it gets more people to find and click on your website. Moreover, the people that will be clicking on your site are likely already interested in your services or your products.

When your small business website ranks higher in the SERPs, you attract more potential customers who are now on your web pages and could be buying from you.

Make Your Small Business Visible to the Right Buyers

When selling anything, it only makes sense to put products in front of people who are searching for them. This includes online.

By having a local SEO-optimized website, that is exactly what you will be doing. You will get more targeted traffic to your website by increasing your visibility in the search engines.

And the more site traffic you have, the stronger your site becomes, which can lead to higher conversions.

Increase Your Local Conversions

Another one of the top advantages of local SEO is drawing more people to your site who are already interested in your products, which means you will have more conversions. You are getting visitors who are likely ready to buy from your business that same day or in the near future.

Make Your Brand More Identifiable

Local SEO helps with brand identity. Building brand identity along with brand awareness is going to help the reputation of your small business and make it more recognizable to potential customers so it becomes easier to make a sale.

Beat Your Competitors

Nothing feels better than stealing a customer away from one of your competitors.

A locally optimized SEO site can do just that. The more people you can take from your competitors, the more money your business will make.

Local SEO for Small Business Strategy

There are many ways to begin your local SEO for a business.

The first step is finding out what you are doing well at and where you need to focus your efforts.

For this, you can work with a marketing agency to get a local SEO audit. In fact, Lead Generation SEO Services is a media and company growth specialist that has performed many local SEO audits for all kinds of businesses.

Once you have your report, here are some tips to get you started:

Local SEO Tips

• Show that you’re local
• Update your Google My Business account
• Target local keywords
• Build local terms into your meta titles and descriptions
• Engage with other local brands
• Focus on user behavior

Show That You’re Local

Showing that you’re local is the first step in local SEO. You should make sure that your contact information is clearly listed and easily found on your website.

This includes your name, address, phone number, and email.

Update Your Google My Business Account

A Google My Business Account (GMB) can provide information about your website, hours, parking, and COVID-19 safety options.

To keep your listing current:

1. Keep up with your account
2. Audit your account frequently
3. Stay on top of new features

Target Local Keywords

If you’re targeting local terms, you need to make sure Google knows you’re local and that you operate a small business in a specific area.

Evaluate your keywords and make sure you’re using terms like near me, local, and shops in [city name]. There are many free resources out there to help you with keyword research like Google Keyword Planner and Ubersuggest.

Build Local Terms Into Your Meta Titles and Descriptions

Meta titles refer to the text on the search engine results page which indicates the topic (or title) of a web page.

Meta descriptions provide a brief summary of a web page. They are displayed on the search engine results page for local website listings and are meant to give the user an idea of the content on the web page and how it is related to their search query.

Incorporating keywords in your meta titles and descriptions will help you rank locally.

Engage with Other Local Brands

Since the Internet is all about connections, links are one of the most important parts of SEO. Links tell Google about your relevance and quality.

Make sure you’re linking to websites that are relevant to your industry and that reflect your market.

Focus On User Behavior

The pandemic has changed the interests of consumers. Knowing your customers’ wants and needs will help with your local SEO.

Google publishes insights and local search statistics to help you better understand your audience and emerging trends.

Advantages of Outsourcing Your Local SEO Marketing

Outsourcing your marketing to a local SEO marketing agency has its benefits. Partnering with a marketing agency can give your company an edge.

Let’s take a look at some of the reasons to outsource your marketing.

• Gaining skills and expertise
• Accessing the tools of technology
• Employing the best practices
• Redeeming time
• Saving money
• Creating focus
• Adjusting ongoing needs
• Maintaining flexibility
• Generating fresh ideas

Gaining Skills and Expertise

Digital marketing requires a variety of expertise. To create a good campaign you need a social media expert, copywriter, graphic designer, and more. An agency can provide all of these skills under one umbrella.

Accessing the Tools of Technology

Digital marketers stay current with technology. They can track and implement the best marketing strategies to bring you success. Purchasing software can be expensive. Marketing agencies can save you money and you will have professionals who are familiar with the technology and experience using them daily.

Employing the Best Practices

Marketing agencies bring knowledge of best practices to your business. Your company and niche are unique and agencies know how to tackle your situation, test it, and maintain success. This allows a higher productivity rate and faster results.

Redeeming Time

Marketing agencies can be time savers and outsourcing your local SEO marketing provides these benefits:

• Allows employees to work more productivity without the distraction of marketing tasks.
• Frees business owners to focus on other efforts.
• Creates efficient marketing campaigns that get you results.
• Increases revenue from current projects due to focus and completion.

Saving Money

It may seem like assigning digital marketing tasks to current employees would save you money. After all, you’re already paying them. However, strapping staff with additional responsibilities can deplete their energy and creativity and some personnel may not have the required skill set to do local SEO optimization.

Outsourcing marketing will save you money in more ways than one in the long term.

Creating Focus

A marketing agency will free up your time to focus on areas you’re proficient at and tasks you need to complete. An agency can keep track of marketing summaries and reports. You can have the assurance that your goals are being met and keep your company moving forward.

Adjusting Ongoing Needs

Internet marketing requires maintenance, reporting, and adjusting to get the best results. SEO and social media accounts must be updated frequently and consistently. Outsourcing these tasks ensures that it will get done, and done well.

Maintaining Flexibility

Marketing agencies tend to work on a project-by-project basis. You have the flexibility to increase or decrease their functions. This allows you to test out your relationship. If the relationship proves rocky or things don’t pan out, you can simply move on to another agency.

Generating Fresh Ideas

Marketing agencies can provide new perspectives and innovative ideas. They can breathe life into your local SEO marketing efforts.

Small Business Local SEO

People tend to search the Internet before taking the time to visit your store. And many consumers would prefer to read product reviews before making a purchase.

Here are some statistics provided by Social Media Today about local SEO and small businesses.

• 46% of all searches on Google are seeking local information.
• 97% of search engine users searched online to find a local business.
• 86% of customers rely on the Internet to find a local business.

Who Benefits Most from Local SEO?

Every company with a local market can gain from local SEO. However, there are some businesses that can really benefit from local SEO.

Medical Services

Businesses such as doctor’s offices, dentists, and urgent care clinics are perfect for local SEO. A stellar website is a start. Publishing high-value, informative content will help boost their ranking. Also, providing information via blog posts and how-to manuals can also increase their rankings.

Law Offices

When people are looking for legal counsel, they’re looking for a nearby expert. Local search is crucial for law firms. Start by creating a Google My Business account and a solid website centered around relevant keywords. Good reviews will boost local search visibility.

Restaurants

The goal of restaurants is to become a staple in the community. In order to do this, you need returning customers. For restaurants, customer reviews can make or break their local search rankings.

Plumbers

Local SEO is a prime resource for plumbers or anyone who helps customers with quick problem-solving. Plumbers are in a great position to increase their visibility through local SEO. There’s also an endless supply of educational content about solutions to everyday problems that can be published on their websites to boost rankings.

Pet Services

People want the very best for their pets. These services are in demand on a local level. Use keywords like pet sitting, walking, training, grooming, and pet supplies. Good reviews are what people want to see and this will boost your local SEO.

Real Estate

The advantages of local SEO and real estate go hand-in-hand. The key for realtors is to create pages that target a specific local market. It’s all about valuable, relevant content. Including localized content on your website will showcase the level of your expertise and define a niche.

The Google 3-Pack

Small businesses should aim to be in the top 3 search results on Google. This is known as the Google 3-Pack.

So, how do you optimize your website for the Google 3-Pack?

There’s not really a magic formula for getting into the Google 3-Pack. However, there are a few ways to optimize your website to increase your chances.

This includes:

• Manage your Google My Business profile
• Get 5-star reviews
• Prioritize local SEO
• Run local search ads

Google Ads Badge

Local Google Ads have a certification known as a Google Ads Badge. This badge shows your potential customers that your business is trustworthy and reliable.

In order to obtain a Google Ads Badge you must:

1. Operate Google Local Service Ads
2. Provide up-to-date licenses and certifications for your business

After you’ve provided the correct documentation, Google will perform a background check and access your online reviews. It is essential that your business maintain high standards. If you have dissatisfied customers, Google can take away the badge and refund the customers the cost of the job or the product.

Benefits of Local SEO for Small Business Summary

I hope you enjoyed this guide on the benefits of local SEO for small business and the tips you can use to improve your local search engine optimization efforts.

While this may seem like a tremendous amount of work, it will all be worthwhile once it is completed. In fact, not optimizing your local SEO is akin to leaving money on the table.

The companies that take local SEO seriously and do it well are the ones that are scooping up more of the new customers in a local market.

The post Benefits of Local SEO (Top Advantages for Small Business) first appeared on SEO Chatter.

 

About Lead Generation SEO Services…

We are media and company growth strategy specialists.  How we can help your business:

• We specialize in working with local businesses that deserve to be considered #1 in your brick-and-mortar or virtual town, helping them grow and scale using our connections with the media. If you feel your business has potential get in touch.
• We’re known for getting local businesses the recognition they deserve, bringing them new customers, and helping them become the number one choice in town (physical or virtual).
• By applying our unique and highly effective media strategy, we can take any local or online business and drastically increase their exposure for a variety of products and services in a matter of months resulting in significant customer growth. What we can do for your business is so effective, initial results can be seen in days.
• We can only work with a limited number of businesses and criteria is strict to maintain our media relations. If you are a business interested in improving your reputation, getting more recognition and exposure, and are in a position to handle more customers then get in touch to apply.