How Local SEO Can Drive Traffic to Your Site

With an estimated 50% of all Google searches carried out with ‘local intent, a whopping one out of every two web users is looking online for a service or product in their locality. Research has gone on to show that for almost 80% of those local shoppers, within a day of having conducted their search, they’re visiting a business that they discovered online. While not every one of those customers will go on to make a purchase, as many as 30% typically do, and if you’re the owner of a business, who knows whether some of your customers would ever have found you without the help of an online search?

Let’s look at local SEO in a little more detail:

What is ‘explicit’ and ‘implicit’ intent when it comes to local searches?

When a user types something into the search engine that narrows down the location of their search, such as: ‘dog groomers near me, this is known as an explicit local intent.

Implicit intent is when you type in a more general request, such as ‘dog groomers’, and the search engine algorithms automatically provides the most relevant and useful results in your locality.

How exactly does local SEO help drive traffic to your business?

There are many benefits of local SEO, especially when it comes to driving traffic to your site, and ultimately to your business:

• Potential customers can find you quickly and easily

 When local SEO is done right (and a professional SEO agency can help you achieve this), you can capture customers who may be searching for a business like yours in their area.

• It can help customers find exactly what they want

If a customer is looking for something specific, such as a restaurant that serves vegan food, or a pub in which dogs are allowed, if that information is clearly displayed as part of your local SEO, you can capture those customers before your competitors do, and this is effective even if you don’t have a website. Either way, good local SEO can make your business stand out in a crowded marketplace, and drive traffic physically to your business, or virtually to your site.

• Encourage customers to engage with your business

Research has shown that more than ¾ of users carrying out a local search, go on to place a call to the business they find, or reach out to them via email. Every contact with a potential customer is an opportunity to convert leads into sales, and should be optimized whenever possible.

• Make your business one that customers can trust

With effective SEO, you can drive users’ decisions to choose your business over other ones in the area, and the more data you can give them, the more likely they are to trust you, do business with you and recommend you to friends, family and associates.

How have recent advances made local SEO more important than ever before?

With poor practices such as keyword and meta tag stuffing something of a distant memory for modern, professional SEO practitioners, users can no longer get themselves into the top SERPs without offering Google reliable, accurate and appropriate content, and we have algorithms Panda and Penguin to thank for this.

The Pigeon update back in 2014 also encouraged business owners to focus more on their local SEO strategies, encouraging inbound marketing campaigns.

How can optimize local SEO to benefit your business?

One of the best ways of optimizing local SEO is by using the services of a professional SEO agency, which will use their years of experience and in-depth industry knowledge to ensure that your business gets more trade than ever before.

Cut out the guesswork and get fast results when it comes to local SEO, by using the services of a professional agency; what you pay them, could pay huge dividends for you.