What is Local SEO?

Local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an incredibly effective way to market your local business online. It helps businesses promote their products and services to local customers at the exact time they’re looking for them online. This is achieved through a variety of methods, some of which differ greatly from what’s practised in standard SEO.

Audio Visual Lab’s Local SEO services will increase your website’s traffic and connect you with more qualified local prospects through selected keywords and geographic targeting. The top Benefits of Local SEO:

• Your marketing budget is being spent (and tracked) against your growth and progress in your local business environment
• The strategy is focused on ensuring that your business service area is optimized for your target market
• Successfully executed Local SEO also allows you to stand out in local search results and allows your business to be found in local directories and by prospective customers using mobile devices

A solid understanding of your ideal customer, competitor analysis, and keyword research play a major role in executing a successful Local SEO Strategy. Audio Visual Lab’s Local SEO will help grow your business by having your company and its services are known to more people! Not only will Audio Visual Lab’s SEO services increase your companies overall search engine ranking on major search engines, but our services will focus on reaching high ranks for critical search results for your business.

Top 7 Benefits of Local SEO

• You can be seen before your competitors.
• Many of your competitors don’t optimize for local SEO.
• You can learn about your customers’ intent.
• You can learn about gaps in your business’ services.
• Your business’ reputation will improve.
• Your website traffic will improve.
• You will get new customers.

1.Build Local Citations

Where to Get Citations

We’ve defined citations as any web-based reference of your local business’ name, address, and phone number, and we’ve explained how they affect search engine visibility and rankings. Now, let’s outline a plan for building and earning these vitally important references.

1). Google comes first

Google is such a fundamental local business asset that many local SEO experts don’t term it a “citation.” That being said, your Google My Business listing is the most important listing to develop and manage well. Google’s domination of local search makes your listing there incredibly valuable.

Check out our easy to use a list of top 10 free South African business directories for your business’ success.

HOTFROG. Hotfrog is an international business directory which operates in 38 countries around the globe. …

ENTREPO

ACTIVEWEB

CYLEX BUSINESS DIRECTORY

YELLOSA

VISUAL BIZZ

JUNKMAIL

BRABYS

SAYELLOW

BEST DIRECTORY

2.Google My Business Listings

Now that we’ve covered the importance of NAP and local citations for local SEO, let’s move onto the almighty Google My Business (GMB). Google My Business is perhaps the most influential factor in local SEO success. Using GMB is absolutely necessary if you want your local business to rank high in organic Google search results and on Google Maps. GMB will also provide you with data insights on how customers found you for free. Make sure you do the same for Bing Places for Business.

• Enter complete data including NAP, business hours, and categories
• Verify your location(s)
• Keep your hours accurate
• Manage and respond to reviews
• Add photos of your business

Do reviews help SEO

There are three main benefits of getting customer reviews; first, to acquire testimonials you can use in marketing your business: second, to better understand what you are doing right and/or wrong as a business; and third, to improve the visibility of your business on Google. In regards to the latter, the importance of accumulating genuine and honest reviews of your services online is ever increasing. Although you may have all the other elements of your local search strategy covered, the power of review data should not be underestimated.

GOOGLE LOCAL SEARCH STATISTICS 2019

1. 88% of consumer local business searches on a mobile device either call or visit the business within 24 hours. (Nectafy)
2. 46% of all searches on Google are seeking local information.
3. 97% searched online to find a local business  (Source: Hubspot)
4. As of June 2018, Google accounted for over 72.47%of all global desktop search traffic, followed by Baidu at 13.47%, Bing at 7.64%,  and Yahoo at 4.74%. (NetMarketShare)
5. 86% of people look up the location of a business on Google Maps
6. 72% of consumers, who search for local businesses, end up visiting stores within five miles. (Hubspot)
7. 97% of people find out more about a local company through the internet in 2017. (BrightLocal)
8. Among these consumers, 12% search for a local business on a daily basis. This is a slight increase from 2016, where 11% searched for local businesses daily.
9. 92% of searchers will pick businesses on the first page of local search results.
10. 46% of all Google searches are local. The same article revealed that 60%)of the people who search for local business use smartphones.  (Hubspot)
11. During holiday seasons, 76% of consumers prefer shopping in physical stores. (Geo Marketing report)
12. 70% of customers visit a store based on information found online.
13. 56% of local stores are yet to claim their local listing on Google. It is free to list business in either Bing Places for Business or Google My Business.
14. More than 50% of ‘near me’ searches result in a store visit. (Mediapost)
15. Between 20% and 25% of organic traffic converts to a lead.
16. Search beats social media by more than 300% as a traffic source. (imForza)

Local SEO Stats Infographics

3. Know the audience well

Don’t you wish to read your clientele in detail, so that you can offer the best of services that you have? Besides, there is always an option to show empathy by putting yourself into their shoes. If they require an idea to transform their halted business area into a cash flow machine, you will be able to give them better insights on SEO, PPC and other marketing tricks, only if you know how to influence the client. This would make them interested in knowing more about you and your business. Let us make you remember some points on your fingertips. Below questions would help you understand your clients better:

• What is your customer’s expectation?
• What’s your customer’s budget?
• Are your services available at the price proposed by the customer?
• Observe if the client is associating with you for a short term business or long term business.
• Give options to your customers to choose from.

Optimize Website Pages and Content for Local Keywords

Let’s say you’re hungry and looking for a pizza place. You’re going to include the name of your city in your search to make sure Google only shows you listings that are relevant. For example, “pizza restaurant in San Diego.” Your potential customers do this, too. Therefore, it’s important to include your city’s name in your:

• Title tag
• Meta description
• H1 tag
• Body text
• URL structure
• Alt text on relevant images

Embedded Maps

Embedding a Google Map on your website’s contact page is another simple, yet effective way to help boost your local rankings. Not only does this give your potential customers a visual idea of where your business is located, but it also tells Google to pull clues from both your content and the map, making it more likely that your website will rank high in organic search results and on Google+ Local.

High-Quality Backlinks from Authoritative Websites

High-quality backlinks from authoritative sites can give you an enormous boost in rankings. They’ll give you an increase in referral traffic while building your reputation with Google. Just liked with the user reviews, getting backlinks is more evidence for Google to view your website as a credible business. Put on your PR hat and try to get media attention through local news and publications, or by sponsoring an event or partnering up with local businesses in a similar industry to get other websites to link back to yours.

How do I rank well in local search?

So now you know what local SEO’s all about, you’ll probably be wondering how to actually achieve success in it! First, we’d recommend familiarizing yourself with the three core elements of local search ranking

• Proximity: How close is your business to the searcher?
• Relevance: How relevant to the search query are your products and services?
• Prominence: What do other consumers say about your products and services?

Closing Thoughts on SEO For Local Businesses

Developing a local search engine strategy is no longer an issue for debate. Local SEO has the potential of bringing you more customers.

Going by these statistics, it is clear that millions of consumers use local searches on a daily basis to find local products and services. So, if you haven’t optimized your business for Google local search, you are failing to take advantage of this significant opportunity. The above trend suggests that more consumers are looking for local businesses.

What other stats are driving your 2019 digital marketing strategy?

Share them in the comments!