Most individuals or businesses who use the web, most often are on the lookout for something. To be more specific, businesses lately have harnessed the power of the web to promote their offerings, gain more viewership and hence traction. Let alone small businesses, even the big names in the market need traction for their website and they especially aren’t the ones sitting on past laurels. So, if you are a local business owner reading this, this is for you.
If you are a business owner with presence on the web, it is assumed that you are aware of the critical role SEO plays in attracting customers and leads. The icing on the cake is the encouraging statistics you see below.
Now if you own a local business, which is the main course of this blog, you don’t want to miss these numbers.
Before we dive into the aspects of SEO for local businesses, let’s look at SEO at large. SEO in the general sense has for long been known as a strategy adopted to increase both the quality and quantity of web traffic organically. While quality traffic refers to the relevance of visitors on that page, quantity is the numbers.
Currently, the nature of search itself is evolving. The sooner it is understood, the better it is for businesses to thrive. Most of us are aware of SEO in the traditional sense, which is leveraged in many ways to help promote rankings of websites on a global or national level. This is Traditional SEO which we all regularly make sense of.
Local SEO on the other hand is specific to geographies during a search. This means that local businesses need to optimize their website to enhance local search results in the form of traffic, visibility, and reach.
Local SEO helps in delivering hyper-personalized content to local buyers & consumers with user based unique preferences by recognizing the intent behind the search. Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithms are used to derive search intent after which precise, relevant and personalized responses are delivered. This is a golden pot for those seeking localized & concentrated traffic on to their websites, and it is high-time local business owners and marketers adopt techniques such as NLPs in their SEO strategy.
Similar to traditional SEO, the aim of local SEO is to boost visibility after search, but the point here is to attract local customers through web search and drive them to an offline or physical store. Infact, it can be classified into three key aspects as below:
Relevance: Is the search result serving the specific cause of the user’s query!
Proximity or Distance: Are the displayed search results at close proximity to the user’s current location!
Importance: Does the displayed results rank as popular or include positive opinions/reviews!
For example, if one is looking for a restaurant that serves South Indian food, then the query of the person will be “South Indian Restaurants near me”. Google then returns results with top 3 restaurants which are at close distance to the user’s location along with the ratings & reviews, termed as local SEO 3-pack by best matching the search intent & query.
While the end goal is to remain atop of search results, it simply does not suffice. The actual intent should be to ensure a constant and healthy engagement with potential customers and users; in this case local customers.
So, we present before you 7 tips that enhance your local business to help secure the spot of your local business at the top of the SERPs.
Keep track of customer reviews and responses and ensure they are regularly responded to. By doing so, you not only help yourself optimize your Google My Business account, but you are also harnessing the warmth from customers and a good-will gesture that will constantly linger in their hearts & minds.
You can also expand your encouragement for reviews to social media and other third-party review sites. This shows that you are not afraid to be transparent and take open opinions which further builds trust with your customers.
Having your presence and being active on social media is crucial as most of the buys are decided more or less based on reviews on social media. Here are more reasons:
Local SEO possesses a distinct goal compared to that of traditional SEO. It is more refined, researched and deals with the specifics. Try linking up with the best SEO agency in Bangalore or trying looking for the best SEO company in India who offer the best SEO services. Adopt the aforementioned tips and see your local business thrive even amid fierce competition.
