In today’s ever-changing world of technology telephone books and newspapers are becoming things of the past. Instead, it’s all about Search Engine Optimization. Simply put, SEO is the practice of improving and promoting your website to increase the number of visitors it receives from search engines. People are constantly looking for places, items of interest or things to buy close to where they are. The question is: As a business owner, what are you doing to benefit from that? If you put your business in front of them via search engine marketing, they can easily become your customers.

In your quest to expand your customer base, you may have heard of local search. For the inexperienced, local search refers to such things as SEO services and pay per click advertising that are tailored to a specific local business listings.

Reasons Why Local Search Matters

Local search results are key. Are you one of those business owners who is confused about the new-found importance placed on geography and don’t really understand the difference between improving local search results and more traditional SEO? It’s not so difficult to understand that yesterday’s way of improving your Internet search rankings just don’t work the way they used to. It’s not enough to be found online. Today’s SEO services are smarter and rank web pages by their closeness to the search, quality of the website and their relevance to the search terms that were used. That’s why it is critical for your business to show up in local search results.

Take advantage of search engine advertisements. This is one of the primary ways local search results can benefit your business. For example, say that a web user is searching for a digital marketing agency in Phoenix. They type those keywords into one of the many search engines and await the results. Wouldn’t it be nice if it was your local business listings that showed up? You would have to own a digital marketing business in Phoenix for this example to work but you get the idea.

They allow you to cast a wider net. The secret to having your company’s listing appear in local search results is understanding that search engine services don’t’ simply consider your website when calculating their results. Also taken into consideration are your social media presence, online customer ratings and whether your website boasts a responsive and mobile-friendly design. Basically, the search engines scan your content to see what kind of impression you leave on your local Internet world.

It’s easy to target only local customers. Once you get the hang of search engine marketing, you can fine tune it to your business needs. For example, if you were a digital marketing agency you can target those who need your particular services. By doing so, you will save time and money by not marketing yourself to people who don’t need your type of business. When you are targeting local business listings over time, you will see a marked improvement in your customer base.

It’s the wave of the future. Like it or not, search engines are here to stay. Employing this marketing method makes you a savvy business owner because you are bringing your business to your customers instead of the other way around.

Add your address to every page. Localizing your SEO services is key to getting people to convert into buyers or visitors to your local store. Make it easy for them to find you by including your address in a prominent place on each page of your website. Doing so also reinforces your location to the search engines so when someone is searching for localized information your pages will be indexed.

Go into detail. For instance, sticking with “Digital Marketing Phoenix,” in order to provide the user with more detail about the search. Instead, you may consider providing a page on “digital marketing agencies in Phoenix.” The link is relevant to the person searching and this is a great way of attracting targeted links back to your most important webpages.

Make an impression. The implications of this are that to appear in local search results could mean adjusting your website to be more customer friendly. Encouraging your regular customers to leave reviews of their experience and to mention you in social media also plays a large role. Together with the appearance and navigation of your website reviews, SEO services help establish the trust needed to transform web traffic into customers. Improving your profile in local search results now requires a coordinated effort to make sure that all your internet marketing efforts are working together to establish that trust and that you have an active and engaged customer base.

Overall, local search results DO matter. It’s not likely that SEO services will take the place of other types of marketing, such as blogs, websites and large-scale media campaigns. But do not underestimate its power. It can be extremely beneficial, reach local businesses and achieve noteworthy results.

If you still need help navigating local search let us know!  You can contact us at 602-535-2188 to schedule a no obligation consultation.

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