Making sure your business has local online name recognition to help it stand out from the competition is essential. If you have a business that delivers superior service or outshines your competition, but no one knows then it does your business’s bottom line no good. For most businesses, local customers are their lifeblood, so standing out in an often crowded field can be the difference between thriving and struggling to stay afloat. This is particularly true if you are in an intensely competitive field, which more industries have become these days. However, the ways that potential customers find businesses have changed significantly now that the Internet is the dominant medium through which consumers identify local businesses. Local SEO is now the means to ensure that your business can attract the customers it needs.
Facts About Local SEO
Google uses over 200 factors in their algorithm for ranking websites (Backlinko)
Organic search results that rank on page 1 of Google contain an average of 1,890 words (Backlinko)
Nearly 50% of pages found on the first page of Google use HTTPS encryption (Searchmetrics)
Pages on sites that load quickly rank significantly higher than pages on sites that load slowly (Backlinko)
Mobile voice searches are 3x more likely be for something local than text searches (Search Engine Watch)
By 2020, 50% of all search queries will be voice searches (ComScore)
Potential Customers Find Local Businesses on Google
Reaching potential customers is different today than it used to be. In the past a business would take out an ad in the Yellow Pages or the local newspaper and then the business would receive calls prospective customers. Today, while word-of-mouth and referrals play a key role, more people turn to Google than any other source to identify potential businesses that can serve their needs. The challenge for businesses to attract customers is still the same as it was in the days of the Yellow Pages and local print newspapers but the method has drastically changed. Today your business needs to reach potential customers on the Google My Business listings, Google Maps or through an organic search.
Google Is the Way That Potential Customers Find Businesses
When performing a search for the type of business or service that they need, few consumers will look past the first page of Google, so it is particularly important that your business shows up on the first page of the results when someone searches for your particular type of business in his or her area. That could be on the Google Maps or in the Google organic search.
If you are a plumber in Lake Worth, for example, when someone searches for “best local plumber, Lake Worth” or “Lake Worth plumbers,” it is essential for your firm to be among the first few results. The way to achieve this is by employing a tool called Local SEO. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and, more specifically, refers to a process by which your business employs specific, targeted strategies to improve its search engine ranking, thus making it more visible to potential customers in your local area. Local SEO means that you are optimizing your business’s online presence to ensure that you appear in as many local Internet searches as possible and ranked as high as possible.
Improving Your Business’s Local SEO Results
Improving your local SEO results can drive an increase in your business that will surprise even the biggest skeptic. This growth can often be exponential if you have employed the proper Local SEO efforts to ensure you achieve the best results possible and if you continually work at making the adjustments needed to maintain the success of those efforts. However, what can make the process of keeping your business’s profile high on Google’s search engines a challenge because it is constantly adjusting the algorithms. This means it is impossible to just set your marketing efforts on autopilot or invest in a professional, snazzy-looking website and then sit back and wait for the inquiries from potential customers to pour in. Instead, you need to constantly monitor the effectiveness of your Local SEO efforts and make any needed modifications.
Local SEO is Complex
Improving your business’s Local SEO is not easy. When reviewing a business’s local online presence, we do a review of the following and then make recommendations on the best way to improve things moving forward.
How Can BatCat Media Group Help?
Having a coherent local SEO strategy is essential to attracting the customers that are your business’s lifeblood. At BCOSF Media, we do not use a trial-and-error approach to improve your business’s local SEO. Instead, our marketing solutions include an approach that is specifically targeted to reach your ideal customers. Our strategy is tailored to the exact location, demographics and service needs that you and your business can fulfill so that it reaches those potential customers who are in need of your services. More importantly, we constantly monitor the success of your Local SEO and continually recalibrate what we are doing on your behalf to increase your business’s local online profile. Contact us today to discuss how our Local SEO experts can help your business to succeed.
