The benefits of local SEO ranking cannot be stressed enough, given the numbers: According to some statistics, nearly three-quarters of households have broadband Internet access. The implications of these numbers are far-reaching as far as local SEO is concerned. When the Internet’s promise became clear to businesses, they vigorously campaigned for a global reach. While that may be true and even immensely profitable to some, it does not always apply to small and medium businesses with only a local or regional presence.
Some have to contend, at present, to satisfy a small segment of their local market before going global. Local SEO is making more sense as more and more small and medium brick-and-mortar businesses realize they can use search engines to their advantage without the major outlay typical of traditional advertising.
What is Local SEO?
In its most basic, local SEO ranking is equivalent to white pages, except businesses are not listed in alphabetical order. Customers in the vicinity who do not have the patience to leaf through the directory are most likely to type up what they need and the location they intend to get that need. With more households plugged in, local SEO is becoming very promising indeed.
For example, a household that needs a hot water system installed, but does not know where to look for suppliers, can enter “London hot water” or “hot water London” in the search engines. Google, Yahoo or Bing will then return results matching the query, plus the nearest location where customers can shop for personal shopping. UK Businesses that have claimed their local listing, courtesy of Google Places, and who have taken time to build a website will have better chances of showing up in search engines using local SEO techniques. Those who don’t are missing out on the benefits of virtually free advertising.
Local SEO Strategies
Using local SEO strategies, including local citation building services, businesses allow themselves to be found by their markets, not vice versa. In the past and even today, advertising directly to one’s target market still has a place in marketing campaigns. While that approach has its virtues, it usually translates to expensive advertising expenses few local businesses can afford. In addition, the results can be scattered. Whereas, if customers look up a business online, they are already taking out their wallets ready to spend; they are just looking for a particular business to spend it with. This means that local SEO ties up local businesses with their target market in the vicinity without the former doing physical work to round up ready-to-pay customers. Since more and more households are going online, the market that can be reached using local SEO will only get bigger.
There are several ways to go about letting your customers find your business online: You can pay for an online directory service that will, in turn, publish your contact information on the Web, or you can undertake similar efforts yourself. The best way is to get listed in local directories and trade pages with the help of a local citation building services agency. There are a lot of easy-to-follow strategies that guide start-ups on how to build a local online presence. Either way, using the reach of local SEO will put your business on your target market’s map and convert them to paying customers.
