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If you’re already familiar with search engine optimisation, you’ll know just how important it is for businesses. By increasing your rankings on search engines via SEO, you can reach a wide proportion of your target market. As your website traffic increases, you’ll have the potential to optimise your conversion rate and secure more sales.
So, where does local SEO come in? Local SEO is similar to standard SEO in that it focuses on increasing your search engine rankings. However, local SEO enables you to tie your location or operating areas into your SEO activity.
Essentially, local SEO enables you to hone your search engine optimisation activity. By targeting specific geographical areas or regions, you’re targeting the people who are most likely to use your services. By doing so, you’re already thinking one step ahead and factoring potential conversions into your SEO campaign from the outset.
Take a look at the following example to get a better understanding of local SEO:
A plumber in Essex wants to increase their online visibility, so they launch an SEO campaign targeting the key term ‘plumbing firm’. After getting to the first page on Google, their website traffic skyrockets. However, their conversion rate plummets.
Why? Because their key term (plumbing firm) is relevant to people all over the world. The increase in traffic that firm has gained may originate from anywhere, which means it’s of little practical use. Someone with a leak in an apartment in New York isn’t going to hire a plumber in Essex, for example! Similarly, someone who needs urgent plumbing services in London probably isn’t going to engage with a company operating in Leeds.
By modifying the key term and using local SEO, you can transform these results. Now, the plumber uses the key term, ‘plumbing firm Essex’ and gets to the first page of Google. Crucially, the subsequent increase in traffic is from people who are looking for a plumbing firm in this area. The results are, of course, more relevant to their needs and they are more likely to engage with the company.
As well as securing an increase in website traffic, the plumber also sees their conversion rate improve, which equates to more profitability.
If you operate all over the country or all over the world, don’t assume that local SEO doesn’t apply to you. Local searches have grown exponentially in recent years, which means users are inputting geographical data when searching for online content. Even if your company operates all over the country, you’ll only secure these customers if you meet their search criteria.
With people using ‘near me’ searches to access services and find companies, your SEO activity needs to have a local component in order to reach your target market. If it doesn’t, you’ll miss out on the chance to engage customers who are actively looking for a business just like yours.
A local SEO campaign can be successful for all types of businesses. To find out why local SEO is so important for your company, take a look at some of the key benefits now:
When you target local SEO search terms, it’s typically far cheaper than targeting generic versions. There may be a lot of competition for the key term ‘plumbing firm’, for example, but less competition for ‘plumbing firm Aberdeen’ or ‘plumbing firm Essex’. As a result, it will be cheaper to target the local variations, which means fewer costs for your business.
As there is generally less competition for local SEO keywords and terms, you get faster results. When you’re not competing against as many other website owners, you have to do less to achieve the same results. Essentially, your rankings will increase more quickly and you’ll achieve your objectives swiftly.
Having millions of people visit your website on a daily basis can be beneficial in some instances, providing it equates to real-life gains. For most businesses, it doesn’t. A million visitors won’t generate revenue if they don’t convert. As conversion rates are typically higher for local SEO campaigns, you can generate real-life, quantifiable financial gains when using this marketing tool.
Google’s 3-Pack shows the first three listings that match a user’s query on a map and displays your company’s contact details. Local SEO makes it easier to secure placements in the 3-Pack. In turn, being visible in the 3-Pack makes it easier for users to click-through to your site or contact your business directly.
When you’re creating your marketing strategy, it’s important to think about how user behaviour is changing. The increased usage of mobile devices has led to the growth of ‘near me’ and local searches. With this trend set to continue, you can be confident that local SEO will continue to be an effective way to reach your target audience.
Now you know why local SEO is so beneficial to businesses, you’ll be eager to launch your first local campaign. But how do you get started? Most companies need to target numerous areas in order to reach users who are most likely to become future customers, which sounds like a lot of work!
While SEO campaigns can require a lot of work, they don’t have to be. At ClickSlice, we use a wide range of digital tools to streamline campaigns and enhance results.
With extensive experience and expertise, we can help to identify the critical areas you need to target. What’s more – our dedicated team will create, launch and execute cost-effective local SEO campaigns on your behalf.
To learn more, contact ClickSlice today on 020 3287 3638 or email us at hello@clickslice.co.uk.
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