Why is Local SEO Necessary for Small Business Growth?

Local SEO is a powerful tool that can help businesses connect with customers in their area. For small businesses with limited resources, staying relevant in the local market can provide a crucial competitive edge. To connect with local customers actively searching for your services, you need to leverage the power of local SEO. Local SEO involves optimizing your website and organic listings to attract customers, boost brand awareness and visibility, drive foot traffic, and ultimately increase sales.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO involves optimizing a business’s website to improve its visibility in searches for location-specific keywords. It involves targeting users in a specific geographical area by implementing strategies, including:

• Optimizing local keywords and geo-location keywords
• Managing GBP (Google Business Profile) listings
• Managing customer reviews

If a customer is searching for a product or service in a specific location, local SEO helps your small business rank higher in the search results.

Why is Local SEO Important for Small Businesses?

Local SEO is invaluable for small businesses, because it can help you reach a highly targeted audience who are actively searching for the products or services you offer. Using local SEO allows you to maximize your resources and focus your SEO efforts. This strategy helps you focus on your local community and attract repeat customers. Here are some of the benefits of Local SEO:

Increased Visibility in Local SERPs

Local SEO activities, including local citations and link building, improve your chances of showing up on the first page of search engine results, making your business easily discoverable to new customers. Most people trust businesses that are on the first page, especially when they are choosing a new service provider. When done properly, local SEO efforts can help your business show up in these results and even be highlighted in the map pack.

Improved Credibility and Brand Awareness

Local SEO efforts involve updating your business’s GBP listing and optimizing your presence on Yelp and other local business directories. These efforts, as well as higher rankings on the first page of results, increase your credibility with potential customers. Positive reviews and accessible, accurate information about your business increase the likelihood that new customers will choose you.

Cost-Effective Marketing Strategy

Search engines display geographically relevant results, which is why local SEO efforts are one of the most effective uses of your resources. Local searches also tend to have commercial intent, meaning that they are more likely to generate relevant leads. This is why local SEO generates better results compared to traditional SEO efforts that optimize for more generalized terms.

Visibility in Mobile Searches

A recent study noted that 82% of customers use their mobile to conduct “near me” searches. If your website is optimized for local searches and mobile users, you will be able to connect with users who are actively searching for a business on the go. This is one of the best ways to stay relevant in your area and help new customers find you fast.

Competitive Edge

Local search results are often less saturated, giving small businesses an opportunity to gain visibility and compete effectively within their target market. Larger businesses and national chains are less likely to focus their efforts on local optimization. Optimizing for local search helps small businesses attract highly relevant and targeted traffic, increasing conversion and generating more qualified leads.

Higher Foot Traffic and Sales

Prominent local visibility in searches, maps, and navigation apps helps drive more foot traffic to your location. Relevant traffic through local SEO strategies increases the chances of sales and ultimately helps you achieve higher conversion rates.

Key Local SEO Strategies for Small Businesses

While some of the principles of local SEO, such as keyword research and on-page optimization, are the same as any SEO strategy, there are additional strategies and specific modifications that can make your local SEO campaign more effective.

1. Google Business Profile (GBP) & Maps Optimization

Start by optimizing your Google Business Profile listing, Yelp business listing, and any social media profiles you actively manage. To optimize your GBP, pay attention to the following elements:

• Your Business Name: Optimize your business name and make it consistent across all listings.
• Location: Update your physical address and format it consistently across all platforms. If applicable, add a suite or building number as well. If you don’t have a physical address, define your service area within your listings to let your customers know if your services are available in their location.
• Operation Hours: Update your hours of operation on all listings to avoid confusion.
• Category: Choose the business category that is most relevant to your business. This will impact your visibility in local search results.
• Services/Products: In your listings, concisely outline the products or services your business offers and add informative descriptions.
• Images: Add high-quality images of your business or services to create a positive impression and stand out in the listings.
• Reviews: Encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews on your local listings and respond to all reviews, positive or negative, to demonstrate your commitment to customer satisfaction.

Google prioritizes these factors when choosing three businesses to display in a Local Map Pack near the top of search results:

• Proximity: How close your business is to the search area
• Relevance: How relevant your business is to a search
• Prominence: How well-recognized your business or service is in the online reviews

Optimizing your GBP with the steps mentioned above helps increase your chance of ranking in the Local Map Pack, allowing customers to find your business quickly and easily.

2. Apple Maps Optimization

iPhone users use Apple Maps 3x more than Google Maps. Apple Maps data also powers the results for searches made using Siri. So, it’s important to optimize your business’s information, including hours of operation, appointment and reservation links, directions, and reviews, in Apple Maps as well as Google Maps.

3. Local Keyword Research

Local searches have specific keywords that indicate search intent. Conduct keyword research to discover relevant keywords with specific search volume data for your location. Some of the most common phrases used in local searches include the following:

• “near me”
• “in [city]”
• “[service] + [neighborhood name]”

These phrases generate search results focused on a specific regional location and attract highly qualified leads with clear purchase intent. If you operate in more than one location, you can also create pages targeting local keywords for each of the relevant locations.

4. Citations & Link Building

Local citations are a critical factor in ranking your small local business within the Local Map Pack. Citations on websites or directories must be accurate and consistent. Make sure that your website name, link, hours, address, and phone number are accurate in any directory or listing.

Another important ranking factor for local organic searches is the number of qualitative, relevant, and natural backlinks you have. Here are some organic methods to increase your backlinks:

• Reaching out to local organizations for backlinks from their websites. These organizations have high domain authority, making their backlinks very valuable.
• Sending local press releases to radio stations and local news websites.
• Identifying businesses in your local area that offer complementary services or products but do not directly compete with you and requesting backlinks on their websites.

Although getting backlinks can be difficult and time-consuming, it enriches your websites and helps increase online visibility for various local keywords.

5. Review Filtering and Responses 

It’s important to pay attention to any reviews you receive online. First, filter out spam or fake reviews so they don’t hurt your business’s reputation or local search campaign. Remember, quantity and quality matter when it comes to Google reviews.

Here are some tips for managing reviews effectively:

• Ask your customers to leave a review on your GBP and other directories.
• Never pay for reviews.
• Respond to and engage with incoming reviews. If you receive any negative comments, rectify the situation rather than ignoring them.
• Always thank customers who take the time to leave a positive review.
• Display positive reviews prominently on your website to build trust and credibility.

6. Voice Search Optimization

20% of all Google searches are now conducted on mobile devices through voice search. Optimizing your website for voice searches can help increase local traffic. This involves identifying the language used in voice searches, which is often conversational. Make sure to provide specific facts that can be displayed in answer to common queries.

Common Local SEO Mistakes to Avoid

Some common mistakes can reduce the effectiveness of your local SEO efforts. Here are the most common local SEO mistakes to avoid:

Not Optimizing for Google Maps

If you haven’t optimized your business for Google Maps, you may not appear in the Local Map Pack or voice search results.

Outpace Curated Actionable Tip: Verify your business locations in the directory so that your location gets listed on Google Maps.

Inconsistent Business Information

If the search algorithm scans multiple sources and finds discrepancies between information such as your business’s name, address, and phone number, you will have less authority or rank in the wrong area.

Outpace Curated Actionable Tip: The details matter more than you think, so take extra time to verify that your local GBP listing is correct in every location.

Incomplete Keyword Research

Using incomplete keywords or not using relevant keywords in your business listings hinders your search visibility and, more importantly, conversions.

Outpace Curated Actionable Tip

• Incorporate keywords naturally into your website content, including meta tags and business listings.
• Use geo-based, less competitive keywords that your target audience uses when searching for your products and services.

Ignoring Customer Reviews and Feedback

Google ratings are based on your customers’ positive feedback, negative or critical feedback, and feedback that is ‘unavailable’ (i.e., older reviews or reviews that are missing information). If you do not respond to the reviews and feedback or do not have any reviews, this can hurt your credibility.

Outpace Curated Actionable Tip: Respond to every review within 24 hours to retain customers and build credibility.

Not Targeting the Right Audience

Failing to understand and target your local market can lead to ineffective SEO strategies and poor engagement with potential customers.

Outpace Curated Actionable Tips

• Develop an understanding of your local market and target audience by conducting thorough research.
• Utilize local keywords and create localized content to tailor your SEO strategy to your community.

How to Measure Local SEO Success?

Once you implement local SEO efforts, it can take time for them to provide results. Here are some ways to track the success of your campaign:

Local Search Rankings

Monitor your position in search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant local keywords. Google Search Console and third-party SEO tools can help track these rankings over time.

Monitoring your position in the local pack and organic results for relevant keywords provides insights into the effectiveness of your SEO strategies. Consistent improvements in these rankings indicate successful optimization efforts.

Website Traffic from Local Searches

Use Google Analytics to analyze the amount of traffic coming to your website from organic, local searches. An increase in local traffic signals that your strategies are driving more potential customers to your site.

Conversion Rates

Measure the rate at which local visitors from local searches take a conversion action while visiting your website, such as booking an appointment or contacting you. Tracking these conversion rates helps determine if the traffic generated is successfully generating new leads. High conversion rates from local traffic indicate successful targeting and optimization efforts.

Use Local SEO to Get Ahead 

All in all, local SEO is essential for small business growth because it enhances online visibility, drives targeted traffic, and increases customer engagement within your local market. By focusing on website traffic from local searches and conversion rates, businesses can ensure their SEO strategies are driving tangible results. At Outpace SEO, we offer comprehensive local SEO services designed to help small businesses achieve their growth goals, stand out in local search results, and drive more traffic and conversions.

Schedule a consultation with us today!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)