What Benefits Do Local Businesses Get For Using SEO?
What Benefits Do Local Businesses Get For Using SEO? That is the question we are attempting to answer for you today! Did you know that Search Engine Optimization, better known as SEO has played a huge role in the growth of many businesses and charity organization across the country? Yes. It is true! This web marketing method has consistently been one of the popular online marketing methods for businesses across diverse industries outside of social media marketing of course. But for the most part, its popularity is based on business owners wanting results online. SEO has consistently been providing positive results for businesses that employ it as part of the overall marketing strategy.
A good SEO expert can help businesses accrue some of the highest returns on investment (ROI) over time. More importantly, by introducing proper SEO methods and strategies to your company, you can look forward to seeing growth by leaps and bounds. Keep in mind that this is not an overnight solution unless your website is already up and running for a few years.
Either way by investing in and then deploying Search Engine Optimization to your website can lead to long term success. Even after the SEO professional is finished with your web project. Did you know that the vast majority of businesses that have made use of SEO have been medium-sized to large companies.
Talking About Keeping It Local with SEO
So keeping it local is important for any small or medium size business that is based in a regional setting. Nonetheless, things are always changing and evolving for a small business. So, therefore more and more local businesses are turning to SEO as their preferred grow strategy.
This increase in SEO investment by local businesses is guided by the realization that more people are turning to search engines such as Google first. The internet is the new Yellow Pages and Yellow Pages even stepped into the online universe to compete as well. Why? Because people (i.e. your potential customers are using their smart phones, tablets, laptops, and desktops to find whatever they are looking for, such as:
- information
- services
- products
- images
- locations
- news
- local places
- local dining and so on
A recent survey was conducted and it is now estimated that 93% of all internet experiences begin with a search engine. Additionally, 43% of all Google’s queries are people seeking local content (i.e. near by me). The percentage also increases because more and more people are using mobile phones to do queries. And this is not going to change, this is the future for search queries that are oriented for local content.
As for Bing and Yahoo, the same is true for a lot of their search queries are for local content. Did you know, that Google has a trillion searches each day? Thus ranking well on Google alone for your local products and services will boost your internet traffic and consequently improve your bottom line.
What Benefits Do Local Businesses Get For Using SEO?
SEO is Not A Numbers Game...
SEO is not like football – it is not a game of numbers. Granted search impressions are good to see, but if no one wants to click on your page. Guess what you are missing the benefits to using SEO. Here some of the benefits that SEO offers local businesses.
#1. It Is More Cost-Effective Compared To Other Marketing Concepts
For local businesses, the marketing concept that they use should guarantee that it generates income of the business at the best ROI possible. Granted that marketing can be done for purposes such as branding, for local businesses, the main purpose of every marketing concept should be to boost income for the business owners wallet.
SEO is the best marketing strategy to meet this goal. For starters, it does not cost a bloody fortune to implement local SEO. Secondly, SEO improves the visibility of your local business.
This increased visibility results from SEO lasting longer than any other marketing method. These marketing methods can include:
- Pay Per Click
- Email Marketing
- Postcards
- Direct mail letters
- Social media ads
- Road Side Signs
Lastly and most importantly, SEO has the ability to improve sales, especially when it is done right.
Consider this, Google has stated in reports that it seeing an increase year over year that customers who searched for local businesses on their mobile phones visited the same companies that day.
Hence, why they rebuilt Google+ into Google My Business – so small businesses can be found on their map online. Additionally, they report year over year increases for searchers who used tablets and desktop computers also visit local businesses in the same day as well.
So as you can see, ranking high in search engines for your target keywords correlates with improved business performance as well as being found on the map too. Therefore, even though SEO usually costs less than other marketing ideas, it still tends to have a higher ROI, especially long term for a small business.
#2. SEO Provides Local Businesses With High-Quality Search Traffic
Here is another significant benefit that local businesses get from SEO: a flood of high-quality traffic.
Google is the largest search engine and it regularly reports on the trends of its users and ways to improve the search experience for local mobile search users. They continue to share that users did visit the local businesses they searched. This rate of conversion is quite high, giving local businesses an advantage.
Additionally, Google stated that the “near me” search term is becoming more and more used by the searchers online. Which shows that local-oriented search terms are continuing to grow in demand.
Therefore it is safe to assume the local term use has increased significantly by mobile users. Everyday, more and more people are investing in smart devices and the trend is that of improving phone technology to keep up with the demand of the end consumers.
With this in mind, local businesses making use of SEO are in a position to attract internet traffic that is actually looking to make a purchase, and also place a value on their potential customers as well too.
A cell phone has a cost and an on-going cost for usage too, thus creating a value of spending on a regular basis for local business owners to consider. These searcher’s traffic tend to be at the final stage of the purchasing experience because they are looking to make a purchase, which is the new norm and should be discussed for a small businesses online marketing plan.
#3. Search Engine Optimization Gives Local Businesses The Opportunity To Take Advantage Of Connecting With Online Shoppers
Your local SEO enables your business to take advantage of connecting with busy on the move shoppers. You want to be in front of your customers and clients make an impulse purchasing decision.
Such unplanned purchases, although it might not seem like it, are quite important and can increase your bottom line in a significant way. You need to make your business easily accessible to any and every potential customer and/or client – so you do not miss the opportunity to make a sale.
#4. Have The Ability To Generate And Showcase Your Local Reviews
As you may know, a business needs testimonials and reviews are online positive testimonials shared by your past customers. They can play a significant role in the amount of future sales you can earn.
Believe or not, SEO enables businesses either big, medium, small or micro startups to generate and display local reviews. This will help increase your potential to get new customers and as well as keeping existing ones too.
There are dozens and dozens of new surveys based on online reviews and how they can make a positive impact on your business performance because it shows that customers have high levels of trust for the local reviews they read.
Therefore, by having the ability to increase the number of reviews you have locally can generate a positive outcome for more sales in the future. So you need to get local reviews and to display them.
#5. SEO Provides High-Quality Branding To Prospective Customers
There is always been and will continue to be a benefit when it comes to building your brand. For local businesses or charitable organizations, building a brand is never easy and there is a lot to think about in reference to slogans, logos, print media, colors, fonts, business name, trademarks, and the list can go.
By effectively using SEO and making sure that the business’ website appears within the brand image of your business it can be among the top ranked links in the search engine results page. Thereby becoming to people a local business – people can build trust. More times than not, customers and clients have a positive bias towards the links that are ranked among the top, instinctively assuming that that particular business is the best in its niche.
#6. Google is A Search Engine That Loves Local Businesses
As you may or may not know, Google as a search engine aims to provide the most accurate and highly relevant search results. Needs to do this to stay on top. So therefore it prefers to highlight local companies based on where local businesses exists. Google tends to favor such businesses located on their map.
For instance, moving past the regular search engine result pages, Google also displays a Google map with local businesses plus a more detail highlighted business that has regular content updates on their platform, all being found as part of the search results. So Google gives local businesses multiple chances to drive traffic to their websites with this marketing strategy.
#7. Mobile Internet Search Is Growing!
Yes, people are jumping online daily if not hourly right from their phones. Every year, the trend is moving towards that only being more of how people view the internet in the future.
Since 2015 access to the internet using mobile devices has surpassed computer internet access. With a high rate traffic of conversion from organic search engine results, local businesses have ever improving increased business prospects by simply employing SEO.
Therefore, regardless of the niche that your local business operates in, you will be hard-pressed to ignore Search Engine Optimization with a mobile responsive web design. Most business owners are interested in your company surviving and thriving well into the future – you most likely are too seeing how you are reading this blog article.
By the way, thank you for reading this blog! A good business owner knows SEO is a matter of improving the performance of your business website by being visible to your customers and/or clients.
Remember that it is likely that your competitors are doing it, so if you need help – give us a call at 407-416-1515 because we want you to have amazing website SEO too.
Again thank you for reading “What Benefits Do Local Businesses Get For Using SEO?” Answered By i4 Web Services, which offers SEO, web design, social media marketing, and more. Follow & Like us on Facebook. Read more about us on our home page too.