By the year 2030, the SEO market is expected to reach a staggering $234.8 billion in value. Now, when most people think of SEO for a business, they tend to think of traditional SEO that works by ranking nationally on search engines.
However, one of the more underrated areas of this form of digital marketing is local SEO. Local SEO can be particularly cost-effective for small businesses looking to connect with customers in their immediate area.
Not convinced? In this guide, we’ll break down five reasons why you should use local SEO services for your next marketing campaign.
How Do Local SEO Services Differ From Traditional Services
Before we learn about some of the reasons you should consider local SEO, it’s vital to first understand how this differs from traditional SEO. Traditional SEO uses a variety of strategies to ensure that you rank highly for relevant keywords regardless of the location parameters.
It does this using strategies like link building, on-page SEO, keyword placement, and on-page optimization for blogs. If done correctly, it ensures that your website and content will be one of the first things people see.
While a local SEO service uses a lot of the same strategies as traditional SEO, it uses geo-targeted keywords to ensure that your results attract local traffic. Let’s say you own an HVAC company in Tampa, Florida.
When someone searches for ‘HVAC help Tampa,’ you want your business to be the first thing that comes up out of all the other businesses in that area. Local SEO can help you achieve this. If you want to learn more about what local SEO is, you can check out our helpful guide here.
1. You Can Target Specific Types of Traffic
One of the main problems with traditional SEO marketing is that it doesn’t fit the needs of many businesses. Sure, if you’re a remote IT company, then ranking highly for IT keywords can be beneficial.
After all, it doesn’t matter where your clients come from. However, this isn’t the case for many home service companies. If you’re a plumbing company, it doesn’t matter if you’re getting website traffic from outside of your service area.
Someone on the other side of the country isn’t likely to hire your contractors. Businesses that rely on local clients don’t require more traffic, they need better traffic. Local SEO might not bring in tons of new people to your website, but it will bring in traffic that’s primed for conversion.
2. It’s Cost Effective
Like traditional SEO, local SEO is one of the most cost-effective forms of digital marketing. With it, you can get a lot of targeted leads without having to spend a whole lot on a massive ad campaign.
Just keep in mind that it will take time to establish yourself in the local SEO market. Patience is the name of the game here.
3. Helps You Build Authority With the Local Community
Let’s say you’re a lawn care company. You want to establish yourself as an expert within your local community. Besides showcasing your work, what’s the best way to do this? One way is through articles related to local SEO.
You can provide solutions to common lawn care problems people in your area might be facing. While this might not provide you with immediate new clients, it does establish your authority in the lawn care industry.
Plus, it provides brand awareness for new clients further down the sales pipeline.
4. Can Provide You With Local Reviews
People don’t want to hire businesses that they can’t trust. And businesses with no reviews (or worse, bad reviews) look incredibly suspicious. Local SEO can help your audience engage with your business more by leaving reviews on sites like Google My Business, Yelp, and more.
This, in turn, helps establish credibility. People are much more likely to contact a business if they know other people have had a good experience.
5. Allows Local Customers to Find You
We’d like to think that local customers might find businesses by driving by them or through word of mouth. Sadly, those days are gone. These days, people will research a company before ever contacting them.
One study found that 76% will look at a business’s online presence before visiting. That means that if you aren’t ranking with local SEO, you’re likely missing out on clients that would have otherwise found your business.
By investing in this type of service, you make it possible for local customers to discover your business amongst the many competitors in the area. This sets you up for success with more conversions.
Tips for Improving Your Local SEO
There are a few things you can do on your own to improve your local SEO on your own. That starts with updating your Google My Business profile.
This is one of the main tools that customers will use to find businesses in their area, so you want to make sure that all the information is accurate. Optimizing other directories and adding location pages are two other great options.
You’re also going to want to make content that’s specifically location-based. For example, if you’re a plumbing company in Houston, Texas, you might write an article titled ‘How to Find the Best Plumbing Company in Houston, Texas’.
However, if you’re serious about improving your local SEO, you’ll hire a digital marketing service to help you. Professionals like the Optic Marketing Group know all the tips for improving your local ranking. That way, you don’t waste time and money trying to do it yourself.
Need Local SEO Services? Contact Optic Marketing Group
We hope this guide helped convince you of the benefits that come when you hire local SEO services. Here at Optic Marketing Group, we know how important local SEO is for home service companies in the plumbing, lawn care, and HVAC industries.
This type of marketing puts you directly in touch with local customers who need your services. That’s why we’ve become experts at leveraging the strategy to lead to real, tangible conversions.
If you want to learn more about how our digital marketing services can help you, make sure to contact us today.