Local search engine optimisation (SEO) has seen a dramatic growth in recent years. The increase in individuals and families using devices with voice search built in has played a large role in its success. In this blog, we’re telling you the importance of local SEO.
Local SEO is essentially including the location of your business where it fits into your content. Local SEO can be used when internet users search for locations ‘near me’. This is something which has grown dramatically in recent years and has been a useful feature for many. In addition to this, ensuring that your Google My Business listing is up to date with accurate information is very important. Google’s search engines pick up this information and collate it to ensure that they have the most accurate information regarding your business.
Rapid growth of local SEO
According to Google, between 2016 and 2018, there was a 200% increase in searches which included the term ‘near me’. As we mentioned, lots of large companies have started to produce their own devices which are activated using voice recognition. This has led to less people taking the time to search for their queries and more people asking their voice search device to do the work for them. These devices have performed well so far, making the lives of their users easier and providing them with the information they require. As technology is always enhancing, it is not unusual for features such as local SEO to be used to make life easier.
Higher traffic
Having an optimised and well designed website that provides accurate information to potential customers will receive higher levels of traffic. This can lead to increased visibility on other platforms such as social media, where posts can easily be shared and a wider audience can be reached. Having a good online presence means that more individuals may be more likely to use your services over someone else’s. Higher traffic, combined with a low bounce rate, will improve the opinion that Google has of your business and may lead to you ranking higher up and being more visible.
Search engine ranking
If your business works with clients in a specific area, it is a very good idea for you to include that information in your website content. This means that the search engines can easily access information regarding your location and your business can be placed in the relevant area on the search engine results page. Using local SEO can help to improve your businesses ranking on the search engines. This is important as some devices created by Google read out the featured snippet section. This section is considered to be position 0, as it is the first entry and the one that Google deems the most relevant to the search query.
Support local
After the tough year that many businesses have faced, the ‘support local’ message is extremely prevalent among many individuals. Research shows that a large percentage of individuals travel 20 minutes or less for daily essentials. Your business may be even closer to them and more appealing, but with a lack of accurate online presence, you’ll struggle to be seen and may end up missing out. Positive reviews are often used as a metric to determine your SEO, so asking past customers to leave feedback for you is a great way of building your online presence and improving your SEO.
We hope this blog has been useful, if you require any assistance with your SEO, please don’t hesitate to contact us.