Why Local SEO is Important to your Business

If you have a business premises or service customers in a set geographical area, you can’t afford not to invest in local SEO.   It’s likely to be the difference between your website getting lost – or being found.

Why Local SEO is Important

In today’s highly competitive business world and increasingly busy online space, being seen where it counts in the search engine pages is critical.  Local SEO is about putting in place tactics and strategies that will result a prominent position for your local business where it counts – at the top of the search engine rankings.

What Is Local SEO?

If you’ve got a local business – be it a bricks-and-mortar store or a mobile operation where you visit customers at outside premises – competing against the big guys in the online space may seem like a lost cause.  The good news is that you don’t actually have to.  

Local SEO is different from organic SEO.  The two use different tactics and service two different audiences.

Regular ‘big’ SEO is about optimising websites to answer queries and provide results to searchers around the world.  Local SEO is about delivering results to nearby consumers or those looking for answers related to a specific geographical area primarily in Google Maps on the front page of the Google Search Engine Results page. 

You might also enjoy “A Beginner’s Guide To The Search Engine Results Page“. It explains all the different features of the various results pages.

Google knows the value of small businesses and how important they are to the local market, and that’s why it has specific ranking factors which measure the relevance of a local business in terms of a search query.   Google looks at a range of elements to determine which businesses are best matched to a search query that includes a specific location, or which is done by someone who is nearby to a business’s actual physical location. 

So whether you’re a mobile plumber in Perth, a florist in Brisbane, a locksmith in Cairns, a law office in Canberra or an Italian restaurant in Melbourne, you need local SEO.  

Why Do I Need Local SEO?

Many businesses rely on their online ‘storefront’ to attract customers.  And those customers can either be online shoppers for a niche local business or people looking for a physical storefront.  Either way, optimising your website for local SEO will increase the visibility of your digital storefront as well as drive more visitors to your bricks-and-mortar premises.

When someone enters a search query that includes ‘near me’ or the suburb/area name that they are focused on, Google will promote the businesses in the search results which it deems to be most closely aligned to those criteria.  For example, if someone who is physically close to your business (Google recognises where they are from its geo-location abilities) types in ‘Italian restaurant near me’, they will be directed to those businesses which are optimised for local SEO in that particular area.

Local SEO shows Google that your business is the best fit for certain terms and searches and that it deserves to be at the top of its search results.  

The Benefits of Local SEO

If you have a bricks-and-mortar business or are servicing a local area, local SEO is a must.  It’s not onerous to implement and maintain, but the benefits are significant.  

• Greater online visibility
• Increased website traffic 
• More clicks (phone calls, bookings, orders, leads) mean more customers (online and in-store)
• Improved customer engagement and trust means greater loyalty – and the increased likelihood of five-star reviews
• More conversions mean more revenue

Essentially, local SEO plays a crucial role in attracting attention to your website, encouraging clicks, generating customers and increasing conversions.  Local SEO can set you apart from your competitors and ultimately boost opportunities for increased revenues and greater profits.  Now how good does that sound!

If you recognise the need for local SEO to boost your business up the rankings, you may be interested in a popular new online DIY SEO course from Perth SEO specialist, Karen Dauncey.  The SEO School covers all the essentials of local SEO and participants implement the strategies as they go along.  And because it’s a self-managed course, busy business owners can progress through the modules in their own time, measuring their success along the way.

The course teaches participants all the key elements of SEO (plus heaps of insider tips and secrets). Find out more or book your course at The SEO School. You can buy online or discover some awesome free resources to help your business get found online.

You can find out more at: “How Local SEO Can Help Your Tradie Business“

Karen Dauncey

Karen Dauncey has been working in SEO since 2003. She specialises in helping businesses get found online through Google using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) She is the founder and creator of The SEO School an online SEO Course to help teach business owners how to do their own SEO. She regularly delivers educational programs for both Local, State and Federal Government and is an advisor for the ASBAS Digital Solutions Program. Karen’s passion and commitment to help small business owners get found online is the driving force behind her online school, making SEO advice accessible to all with free resources and online courses.

Karen's wealth of SEO knowledge and practical digital marketing experience comes from running her own SEO and Google Ads agency, Blue Cherry Online Marketing since 2008. Karen has optimised over 1000 websites, managed millions of dollars' worth of spend on Google Ads and has a solid understanding of the constantly shifting industry of digital marketing and SEO. This gives her a unique advantage when it comes to being able to recommend the right online marketing strategies for your business. This gives her a unique advantage when it comes to being able to recommend the right online marketing strategies for your business. She was recently recognised as an SEO Expert for the popular course creation platform, Kajabi as well as appearing on ABC Radio
for her expert opinion on the ACCC's investigation into search engines.

Karen has attended search engine conferences in London, Stockholm, Adelaide and Sydney, and was also invited to attend a pilot Business Coaching Course at Google’s Head Office. She has a Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the UK.

She is also the co-owner of the Digital Experts Directory, an online directory for female serviced-based businesses to promote their business (with a great backlink for SEO).

To keep up to date with the latest in SEO, join her Facebook group The SEO School Community or follow her on Facebook or LinkedIn.