SEO marketing is founded on the basis of a few key elements which all work together in helping your business prosper. Among these key elements is a marketing tactic known as Local SEO, which, surprisingly, very few people seem to know about. This article will take you through what Local SEO is and how it can benefit your business.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO is a branch of SEO marketing that focuses on improving the ranking of your business on the local search results page in order to make your business more discoverable for your local audience. Generally, local search engine optimization is quite similar to your conventional SEO writing, with the exception that the keywords used this time are centered more around the locality of the business.

In summary, this technique employs a variety of tactics to help your company rank higher in local searches. Local searches basically imply the search for any product or business in a specific area. This, for example, applies when a user enters a particular location in their searches. For instance, you search for the best pizza place in Philadelphia.

Why is Local SEO Important?

A major portion of Google and other search engine results are local searches. By not employing local SEO in your marketing strategy, you aren’t even marketing to a huge portion of your relevant audience.

Using this marketing tactic has become ever more important in today’s day and age due to the widespread popularity of smartphones. This is so because searches made using smartphones are mostly local, where the user is often searching for a restaurant, hotel, or hospital in their local area.

Benefits of Local SEO

Builds a Community

Building a community is one advantage you could have over your competitors. Having a solid community means that you can expect to have a certain number of surefire sales. Additionally, communities tend to expand through word-of-mouth marketing, meaning increased brand awareness for your business.

Having more local backlinks is not only a wonderful strategy to improve your ranking, but it also paves the way to mutually beneficial professional partnerships.

Local Return Customers

Residents of your locality are unlikely to travel to a faraway business to fulfill the needs that can be catered to by another business located much closer to them. This means that once your local community becomes aware of your business, they are much more likely to become your regular customers to support the local economy.

Build Trust and Authority

Consumers have this pre-programmed belief that a business ranking high on the local searches will have been evaluated by google and will therefore be reliable.

Gaining a prominent position on the results page will help persuade your audience into trusting your brand. This prominent position also portrays a perception of authority and experience in your field, thereby compelling them to choose you over others.

Reduced Marketing Costs

Organic traffic has surpassed any other type of audience in value and profitability. A well-executed local SEO strategy will bring in large amounts of local organic traffic, eliminating or reducing the necessity of paid advertising. As you improve your ranking, you will be able to use Google as a free advertisement for your business, resulting in more useful hits than a paid ad. This will allow you to save capital that otherwise would have been spent on paid ads.

Concluding Thoughts

There is still much more to be said and discussed when it comes to SEO. However, one thing is quite clear; SEO is a complicated strategy, and therefore to properly execute it, you need the assistance of a professional digital marketing service. Philly Online Marketing is a Philadelphia-based digital marketing service with a team of industry veterans specializing in all things digital marketing. For more details, visit their website.