Does the word Search Engine Optimization (SEO) itself give you nightmares as a small business owner? Do you feel like you will never master Google’s algorithms, no matter how hard you try?
That’s why so many small business owners hire local SEO services to help them boost their businesses in that regard. This is because you can’t be successful in today’s business world without a focus on local SEO.
Lots of folks will do a local search by typing ‘cat food near me’ or ‘dentist near me’ and then walk over to the business that comes up in their search results.
Learn more about why you need to hire an SEO service to boost your local SEO rankings.
1. Boost Your Ranking
The primary reason why small businesses like yours focus on local SEO is that it helps them rank higher when customers or leads search for related businesses near them.
Most folks, as you well know, don’t go beyond the first page of results, and that means, you are more likely to get noticed by potential leads or customers if you show up on that golden first page of Google local results.
2. Reach ‘Hot’ Customers
Local SEO searches are made by hot leads. That is, they are searching for a business like yours because they are in urgent need of your services.
For example, a person searching for a dentist near them is probably searching for that, because he/she is on their way soon to avail themselves of the dentist’s services. Perhaps they have a broken tooth or they need a cleaning.
Hot leads like these are valuable because they are in that part of the sales funnel where they are ready to make a purchase. They aren’t going to get to it weeks or months later, but probably in the next hour or the next day.
You don’t have to send sales materials to them or cater to them until they become hot enough to buy. They are already there!
3. Increase Foot Traffic
This is another reason to get on those local SEO results. If you have a retail store or a physical location of any kind, foot traffic probably matters quite a lot to you.
The more people that pass by your store, the more likely it is that they will be enticed by your interactive storefront display and walk in to check your business out.
Local SEO helps by ensuring that you show up on those searches by leads or customers when they put in a query for a business that does similar things to you.
For example, if they put in a search on Google for a nail salon near them for a gel manicure, and your store shows up on the first page, they might walk by your store to see if they like what you have to offer. Or they might even call you to ask you about your services.
Additionally, if they visit your website from your Google Business profile, you can offer them a coupon or a discount on your services to entice them to drop by your salon.
4. Improve Social Media Engagement
When your local SEO back-end work is on point, then your Google business listing and website will show up in search results. But that’s not all.
Your social media profiles will pop up as well as any blog posts you have written or guest posts. Local SEO can have a positive effect on traffic to all your social media and online presence. It’s just that powerful.
Not only that but having a Google business profile and a local SEO presence makes your business seem more credible in the eyes of customers than if you didn’t. In the past, this was the case with a website. If a business didn’t have a website, then it seemed shady and unprofessional.
Nowadays, it’s all about having a local SEO presence, without which your business seems like it’s still living in the dark ages. And no customer wants to do business with someone like that. It might seem unfair, but that’s the kind of world we live in.
5. ROI and Sales Get A Raise
Which business doesn’t like getting a raise in their ROI and sales? It’s the best news any small business owner could get.
How can local SEO help with this? The fact that your search results are getting a boost, as well as your website, social media, and foot traffic, all of this will contribute to higher sales and profits.
And the ROI on local SEO services is quite high, since even a little bit of work on it, can give you a huge return in engagement and traffic. Don’t ignore this important aspect of SEO. Engage a local SEO service like ETOS Consulting LLC asap.
6. Manage Your Time Better
You are already busy doing a hundred other things for your small business, especially if you are the only employee currently. Even if you have some other employees to share your burden, you still probably have very little time to spare.
That’s why there’s no point learning about the intricacies of local SEO and trying to do it all on your own. Your time would be better spent on other aspects of your business.
Trust that a digital marketing agency or SEO agency will be able to do the job better than you would be. Google is always updating its rules and algorithms, so it’s better if you let an experienced SEO services agency take over this, rather than trying to break your head over it.
7. Understand What’s Going Right and What Needs Changing
A good SEO service will also use reporting and analytics to give you an update on how your local SEO results are improving over time and how your rankings are getting better and better.
They will also see the effects of their work on your website and foot traffic, and engagement on all your social media channels. All this data is gold that you can use to understand where you stand compared to your competitors.
If it’s all going positively, you can also make a decision to spend more money on local SEO, especially if it works for your industry.
8. Cheaper To Hire Local SEO Services Than DIY
You might think that it’s an unnecessary expense to hire local SEO services. And you are already struggling with expenses as it is.
But you have heard of the adage – you have to spend money sometimes to make money. In small businesses like yours, this adage is quite true.
If you try to skimp on SEO services by trying to do it yourself, you might end up spending more in the long term to acquire leads by doing paid advertising or buying leads.
Local SEO is an organic way to get at those leads, and when your SEO service does it right, you will be making so much money from the incoming leads that the cost of paying for SEO services will seem inconsequential.
9. Generate More Leads
Don’t even think about doing Google AdWords or any other paid advertising like that, until you have worked on your local SEO results first and seen the results of that first.
It’s best to spend your limited budget, time, and effort on local SEO than on other lead generation tactics.
If you haven’t tried it yet, you might have low hopes for it. But once you get on the local SEO bandwagon, you will wonder why you waited so long to make this happen.
10. Boost Web Traffic
Local SEO apparently generates 1000% more traffic than social media. If you are wasting hours every week creating social media posts and getting very few results, then it might be better for you to move your efforts to local SEO services instead.
Maybe you sell goods both on your online store and retail store. You can use local SEO to direct traffic to both locations and see which hits better.
Some folks might like the convenience of buying items online. Others might like to visit your store in person and browse your items by touching and interacting with each item.
Local SEO Services – Ready to Hire One for Your Business?
With so many benefits of local SEO services to avail yourself of, why would you wait for even one more day without hiring them? There are many SEO services out there, so you will have to figure out your specific needs and choose an SEO service based on that.
Interested in reading more articles like this one? We have many more blog posts on business products and services, so keep browsing.
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