The types of small businesses that tend to outsource digital marketing and SEO do so because they do not have the money or resources to keep an entire digital marketing team on staff. This further suggests that they rely heavily on a local or regional audience as a primary customer base. What does that tell us? That SEO companies should be stressing local SEO and local search among their small business clients.
Does your company rely mainly on a local audience? Do local residents or businesses make up the bulk of your customer base? If so, your SEO company should place a high premium on what our industry refers to as ‘local SEO’.
Local SEO adheres to many of the same principles we apply to general SEO. Yet it also has its own unique characteristics. Its main purpose is to successfully target people who run searches for local businesses. If you are not sure how important local search is to your business, let us offer you the top two reasons for stressing local search.
Reason #1: Local Searches Lead to Purchases
We did a bit of research in preparation for this post. In so doing, we ran across some fascinating statistics that should be an eye-opener to any SEO company. Here is just one of them: 28% of ‘near me’ searches ultimately lead to a purchase. Think about that for just a minute.
More than a quarter of all searches for local retail businesses generate a sale. The same goes for local business-to-business (B2B) searches. If that’s not enough reason to stress local search, we aren’t sure what it would take to motivate a small business.
Conversion Is the Ultimate Goal
No matter how your SEO company goes about improving your websites search rankings, the ultimate goal is always the same. That goal is conversion. You do not want to settle for just driving traffic to your website. You want that traffic to translate into higher sales, right? Absolutely.
So, if 28% of all ‘near me’ searches result in a sale, doesn’t it make sense to place a high priority on local search? Of course it does. If your SEO company isn’t leveraging local SEO on your behalf, it is time to find a new provider. Local SEO is where it’s at for any small business that depends heavily on a local customer base.
Reason #2: Mobile Searches Lead to Purchases
Did you know that the vast majority of local searches are conducted on mobile devices? It’s true. Roughly 84% of all ‘near me’ searches originate from cell phones. That is pretty impressive, but here’s another statistic that could blow your mind: 78% of all location-based mobile searches ultimately lead to an offline purchase.
Allow us to put that in simple English: 78% of people who run local searches on their phones go on to make purchases at brick-and-mortar locations. More than three quarters of those people who search online for local shoe stores end up going to those stores to buy shoes. More than three quarters of local homeowners who search online for landscaping services eventually meet with a landscaper to sign up. Get the point?
Local SEO is the Ticket
Much of what you read in this post probably matters little if you run a multinational corporation. But if you own a small business that is heavily dependent on local and regional sales, this is information you cannot ignore.
Your SEO company should stress local search to boost your business and drive revenue. If your marketing efforts aren’t prioritizing local search, you are missing out on sales. The statistics bear it out.
