If you own a business and want it to succeed you need customers. Having a physical location allows you to directly interact with them in person, but how do they find your business? Unless they stumbled upon your building, they most likely searched for you online. Go ahead, type your business’s name into a search engine and see what comes up. Do you see a listing with your address and phone number? How about a picture or a map relating to your business with more information underneath? If you don’t see any of these, but merely links pointing to various online presences, you’ll want to utilize local SEO for your customers’ convenience.
Increase Visibility with SEO
Before explaining what local SEO is, let’s touch up on SEO in general. SEO stands for search engine optimization and it is just a way to get your business at the top of the list of websites when using search engines. When you personally browse the Internet, which search engine do you utilize? If you use Google, you’re among 70% of the other Internet users. The vast majority of people ignore the first few listings (the paid ads) and never go past the front page. In order to get your website within the optimal top 5 listings you’re going to need a lot of SEO marketing. Your best bet is to use local SEO to bring you right to the top.
Effectiveness of Local SEO
Local search engine optimization provides a searcher with information relevant to their location. For example, typing in “SEO services Phoenix” will bring up a list of SEO consultants in that area. Simply searching the company name if the business utilizes this feature will bring up the business name, address, phone number, website, map, hours, and even reviews all in one place. Almost 95% of online experiences start with browsing and SEO, the most effective lead generation tactic, can get your business seen by eyes of millions.
Creating Your SEO Branding Strategy
The first place to start building your SEO content is your website. Content is the most important aspect of your online presence. Start by fixing up your website design and adding quality content, which marketers claim is a very effective way to integrate SEO. If working with your website is not your strongest point, look into hiring website consulting services from a local company or even a recent college graduate. Whatever route you choose, you need to make sure your website and content makes you stand out from the rest of the bunch.
With 645 million different local page views per week, you need to make sure your business is seen. Utilizing social media can also get you noticed as 70% of social media users in the United States are connected to at least one local business. Make sure when your business’s name is searched customers are able to find where you are. You do want their business, don’t you?