How Can Local SEO Increase Revenue for a Business?

The bottom line for any business no matter whether it is a sole proprietorship or a large corporation is to be profitable. A great way to help you drive visitors to your Website and sales at a low cost is local search engine optimization (SEO).

Keeping it simple:
It is not uncommon for new business owners to get caught up in the various marketing strategies that are offered on the Internet. This can create a lot of confusion as to where you should spend both your time and money on getting the traffic to your site, so you can convert these potential customers into leads and sales. As a result of having so many options, the simple, low-cost, but highly effective opportunities like local SEO are forgotten.

While this type of marketing is most important for those businesses that have a brick and mortar setting where customers can come to shop, it is just as important for those that don’t. Many online shoppers and businesses looking for goods and services on the web still like to work with and support businesses close to home. It may be because they like face-to-face service or they like to support the local economy.

Local SEO may sound a little strange to some people but as a business owner you have already used it in another manner. If you have put your business listing in your local hard copy directories like the neighborhood directory or Yellow Pages, you have created a local business listing. You can continue this for the Web, and it doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does require some key steps to be completed properly.

Becoming comfortable with the marketing jargon:
The first thing you will have to adjust to is the jargon that comes with Internet marketing. Business listings are simply profiles of your business that are set up on different directories. The second thing to be aware of is reviews. If you can drive your happy customers to leave a positive review, it has a significant impact on your local search results.

In order for your business listings to be effective for local SEO purposes, each listing should contain your company name with its phone number and address, and any additional information that allows the search engines to identify who you are, where you are, and what your key business focus is, so they don’t confuse you with other businesses.

Armed with this understanding, your next decision is what directories to set up your business profile on. By giving your geographical location to these directories it allows you to be listed in the proper area for your business, which in turn can place your listing higher in the rankings of local search results compared to national firms in your industry. You have the advantage of being able to focus on your local area, whereas the national firms have to focus their marketing to a much larger audience. Some of the major directories that you want to be listed in include Yelp, Google and Best of the Web.

Another bonus that comes with a well planned local SEO strategy is you don’t have to have a huge Website to make this successful. This alone can save you time and money.

Key to success:
Directories are the foundation of your local SEO campaign. Your company name identifies who you are and the rest specifies where your business is located. The next step is getting them into popular well searched directories and continuously building on these. Think of this the same as you would if you were putting your business in multiple business directories in your area, at a fraction of the cost. Online local SEO marketing has the ability to reach a massive target market, and bring them to your site where the next task you are faced with is converting this traffic into sales. And don’t forget to get positive reviews from your clients. Google and the other search engines will trust you over your competitors if you have more positive reviews than them, which will result in higher rankings.