What Is Local SEO and How to Improve Your Local Ranking?

As a business owner or someone who works in the marketing department of a company, you have probably heard the term “local search engines optimization or local SEO.” Many business owners, including dentists, doctors, psychologists, acupuncturists, and many other marketers, ask, “What are the benefits of local search engines for my business?” This question is essential for local businesses because it ultimately leads to a local SEO optimization strategy. But before we get into the benefits of local SEO, let’s define the term “local SEO.”

What is local SEO?

Suppose you have a local business, such as a dental office, restaurant, or company, where people regularly visit your office. In that case, it is important to let clients see your business online as well. Even if you actively see visitors in your office and do not need to connect online, you should know how to optimize your online business presence for a geographic location called Local SEO to improve your business.

The benefits of Local SEO

SEO is one of the strategies that can change the future of small and location-based businesses by the following advantages.

1. On average, 64% of local customers in your neighborhood are looking for new businesses on the Internet
2. Local searches have grown by about 58% over the past years, which is unavoidable.
3. Local search is very purposeful, fast, and accurate.
4. A considerable percentage of local searches leads to buying customers.
5. Return on investment in local SEO is much faster and more efficient than other methods of local advertising.
6. Only 10% of businesses have registered their place in Google place.
7. Readers of local newspapers have dropped by about 40 to 80 percent.
8. About 70% of customers trust local businesses.

Common Local SEO Mistakes

Some common mistakes can lower your site ranking or even result in a penalty from Google, such as;

• Not using the city phone code: Name, address, and city code is critical in local search rankings. If you do not mention the city code when providing your phone number, you have lost one of the factors influencing local SEO.
• Not adding the address: Google detects mailing addresses. If you used a layout on your contact page to display your location, be sure to add the address in the text, as Google will not understand your layout.
• Not caring about the website’s speed: Google is interested in providing the best results to its audience. Your website needs to load quickly to create a good user experience in the audience’s minds. High speed and user-friendly environments are very important for search engines.
• Not being active on social networks: One of the most important criteria for ranking a website from Google’s point of view is content sharing, which is one of the most important features of local SEO.