5 Benefits of Local SEO for a Small Business
Whether it’s a coffee shop, the corner pub or your tax accountant; people love to support locals. Did you know that loving your local can work online too? A Local SEO strategy is one way to get that #supportlocal vibe and find loyal customers. Here are 5 benefits of Local SEO for almost any small business.
The basics of Local SEO
Local SEO is a strategy that focuses on search results for a defined, local area. Usually, this means the area that your business is based in (such as your HQ or home office), plus a few surrounding suburbs. The aim is to help people in your area find you with ease, as well as anyone passing through and searching for ‘near me’.
Psst…yearning for more ways to get noticed on Google? We covered the top 3 methods to increase visibility on Google on the blog.
Benefit 1: Map results
Possibly the biggest reason to get into Local SEO is that you’ll be optimised to appear in map results. When it comes to local search, Google preferences map-based features. This also means you might be featured in Google’s coveted ‘3-pack’ – an example is below.
Benefit 2: Meet customers ready to buy
Local needs are often immediate needs. According to Google’s own research, 30-50% of local searchers visit a store within a day of finding it online. An awesome 18% even make a purchase the same day as their search. This tells us that local searchers are ready to buy. They know what they want, they just need to find it.
Benefit 3: Lower competition
If you look up how many restaurants are in the whole of New Zealand; it would be a big number. If you looked up how many restaurants were in your local area; it would get smaller. If you narrowed it again to your specific cuisine in your specific area…you can see where we’re going here. When you niche down your SEO strategy to just a few areas, you usually find that less people are competing for attention there. This can make Local SEO an easier and faster campaign to reach the top results.
Benefit 4: Potential repeat customers
A local customer can mean many things. Perhaps they live in the area, they might work in the area or they could frequently visit this area. The common thread is they’re here more than once. This makes local customers a golden opportunity for repeat custom.
Benefit 5: Room to grow
Like we said earlier, Local SEO is usually lower competition than other SEO strategies. But, once you have a great Local SEO strategy in play – you can go bigger. You can use that foundation and trust with search engines to target larger areas and more difficult keywords.
Build a Local SEO strategy with Daily Digital
Our advice is this: master your hometown before moving to the main stage. Daily Digital can help you get setup with a Local SEO strategy that ticks all the boxes. To learn more about our SEO campaigns; get in touch.
