Consumers are looking up your business online. Almost 46% of Google searches are for a local business. These searches are mostly characterized by ‘near me’ keywords and if you lower your local digital marketing effort you are bound to experience a decline in traffic, conversions and sales. Local SEO ensures that customers can find and contact you easily. This provides a solution to their needs. About 72% people who search for a local product/service online end up at the store within a 5 mile radius. 

What Is Local SEO & How Does It Work?

Local SEO Services is a part of digital marketing. A customer looking for a local product/service searches with the required keyword, Ex: hair salon near me or buy Gucci shoes in New Jersey, the search engine picks up the ‘keywords’ and cross references it with ‘user location’ to generate search results for the query. In a way, it optimizes your local presence so that your business shows up when a customer is looking for a service or product that you offer.

What Does Local SEO Include?

The aim of local SEO is to nail the search rankings and show up as prominently as possible so that customers discover your business, click on your link and become your customers/clients. It mainly includes: 

• Registering on local business listings and directories. Ex: Google My Business, Yelp etc. 
• Including NAP (Name, Address, Phone No.) on website and business listing page. 
• Reviews, ratings, local feedback, testimonials etc. add to local SEO efforts. 
• Obtaining quality backlinks and building citations
• Leveraging Google Maps for proximity search results. 
• Optimizing websites for mobile devices. 

How Local SEO Can Help Your Business? 

A targeted local SEO strategy can completely change your business. It can bring you to the forefront and on a level playing field with the top players in your area of business. If you have a restaurant, a pharmacy or an antique store which is not performing, you can try local SEO techniques to re-energize your business. Many times, a local boost can get your business the required push to make it perform better. 

• Your brick and mortar store gets an online presence.
• Local visibility means customers and conversions.
• Targeted traffic to websites with higher probability of conversion.
• Improves online reputation and location based search rankings. 
• More foot traffic via enhanced maps visibility. 
• Tap into the huge local consumer base. 

Any digital marketing technique is heavily dependent on ‘optimizations.’ These could be to the web pages, listings, local ads, mobile application, search or anything else. Optimization is most effective when done keeping a targeted audience in mind. A customer persona helps immensely with this. Try it today for your business too and find out its potential by yourself.

Originally Published Article: https://www.localbiznetwork.com/articles/improving-business-with-local-seo-methods