If you’re unfamiliar with local SEO, it’s time to understand how this practice can help to improve your foot traffic. Why now? Industry statistics estimate that 72% of customers who do a local search visit a store within just five miles of their current location. If you’re not optimizing for local, you could be missing those customers on a daily basis. Not sure why? A local SEO company can do so much for your business. Take a look at the top five ways they’ll help you connect immediately with local customers who will visit your location.
- They will claim you’re my Business Account. Google has a business profile account ready for you, and it directly connects to Google Maps and the Google search results themselves. In order to get access to it, though, you have to claim the account, and a company specialising in local SEO will do exactly that for you. In fact, they’ll help complete all of the information in the listing so that searchers will instantly see your logo, your hours of operation, and even the payment methods you take.
- They will optimise your site for voice search. It is estimated that 41% of adults are using voice search on a daily basis. As a result, optimizing your site for the way people ask questions when they speak is absolutely key to local SEO. You’ll want to optimise some page for the more conversational tone people take during voice search, and it’s key that you know how to do that and how to communicate your readiness to Google.
- They’ll build local content. People searching for businesses near them are looking for content that pertains directly to them. Whether that’s blog posts around local news stories or videos that address concerns that are local, your company will help you connect with people looking for that content that could only be written from someone just around the corner.
- They’ll optimise for mobile. Most local searchers are performed on mobile devices, and the number of searchers continuing to be performed on mobile devices is only continuing to grow. As a result, most local SEO companies will help you connect with customers on any device. Using responsive design technologies that look great on any screen is really the only way to show Google that you’re ready for local searches, and a good local SEO company will help you do just that.
- They will plan for local keywords. The customers who are right around the corner from you will use different keywords than those that are across the globe. Local SEO professionals can help you decide what search terms might be popular in any given region so you’re connecting with the right people. They’ll then take those term and optimise your site so you can reach more people on a local basis.
Ready to optimise for local with a bit of help? Keep in mind that not all SEO professionals are prepared to help you reach out to people just around the corner. You’ll want to make certain that you ask for case studies. Often the best companies can help you understand what they’ve managed to do for others on a very local level. You’ll also want to ask about the local SEO strategy the company employs. Each company is likely to take a slightly different approach, so understand what tools they’ll be using, where they might be focused, and what their overall approach is. Finally, understand that most local SEO is focused on creating positive reviews from real customers, so you may want to ask about their experience with reviews, their overall approach to review generation, and how they plan to encourage future customers to review your location.
As with traditional optimisation, local SEO takes quite a bit of time and effort. It’s not a process that can happen overnight and demonstrate solid results, nor is it something you can do once, then ignore it for months on end. Instead, it’s a commitment you must make to ongoing improvements that will continually help you reach more customers over a longer period of time. With the right team on your side, though, it’s an easy process that will improve the foot traffic to your company.
