Local SEO involves strategies and tactics through which any small business can enhance their ranking and visibility for different in a particular region of Google Maps. From one of the major blogging platforms of SEO, a report indicates that around 86% of online business is discovered through searches made on Google Maps, which makes it a major platform for local businesses to catch their target audiences and potential leads for their sales.
Online shopping has come out as a boon for various businesses and customers as well. Through the means of online shopping, a channel is created that connects the two parties from any two corners of the world. However, trends change when people become more and more dependent on online means to shop.
With the increasing reliance of people on online shopping, more and more people try to look out for every single thing that they need to purchase online, even if the product can be available in their nearby shop. Due to this, any business located a little far away and having more visibility online than the one located nearby will gain more customers in that area.
Thus it has now become really important for local businesses to have online visibility for their local searches. Here, we will tell you how one can take different to rank themselves on any local searches. Through this information, you can easily analyze the current online visibility in local searches and whether it will be necessary for you to connect with any Local SEO company in India or not.
What Exactly Is Local SEO And What Is The Necessity Of Online Visibility On A Local Search?
In simple words, any Local SEO company in India would describe it as “a part of search optimization for any website to increase its visibility in its locality”. Local searches particularly include the ones where any person puts the query to get relevant results related to your location. Queries indicate any product, service, or event. E.g. “Best shoes near me”, or “Upcoming music convent nearby”. Through these searches or many other relatable queries, the algorithm of the search confirms that you intend to look for something in your locality and displays Google Maps on the top results. Answers to these can be given by providing contact information instead of SERP results.
Although ranking locally can be crucial to maintain online visibility to attract local customers. Some other reasons why Local SEO will be important are listed below:
Why Local SEO Is Important For My Business?
- Local search helps businesses to create brand awareness in their neighbouring sites and also the new visitors who have recently visited the locality.
- Local SEO can easily enhance any online business in a famous locality where new visitors, especially tourists, frequently visit. Not only their brand awareness will increase locally but in various regions across the nation.
- Local SEO involves a simple and cost-effective marketing strategy. Through this, businesses can easily analyze the effectiveness of their efforts among the local public.
- Currently, the majority of internet users rely on and trust the search results that appear in front of them on a Google search. The same is true in the case of Google Maps, where people trust the top result appearing in front of them.
- On local searches, users can also get public opinion for the businesses in the form of reviews. Thus, it can be beneficial for any business that has a positive impression on the general public. Thus, local SEO can be utilized to create trust and credibility among the public.
- Building local traffic will ultimately contribute to enhancing your online visibility.
These factors contribute to generating more leads for your business and ultimately can impact your sales growth. Due to this, there is a current demand for Local SEO companies in India that can help many businesses to reach various locally.
Current Statistics Indicating The Importance Of Any Local SEO Company In India To Various Startups
Gaining customers is highly beneficial and crucial for any business. Local SEO is a major way currently to gain customers. The following facts and figures prove that:
- Customer insights statistics indicate that more than 75% of the people who have made a local search are likely to visit the store, with around 30% of them having made some purchases. This indicates that Local SEO is highly crucial for lead generation and conversion from the newly introduced visitors in that locality.
- More than 8 billion searches are made on Google every day. From all the searches made on Google, approximately 30% are location-based. This means around 2.5 billion searches across the globe can be location-based.
- Earlier, any person looking for a business looks out for review from various sources. Now, with user reviews becoming public online, it has been noted that 80% of customers look out for reviews first before visiting any place.
- It is also important to be active on Local searches. Update your information/profile timely for Google Maps, as more than 80% of people rely on Maps to locate your business.
How can Local SEO companies in India be beneficial for any Small business or Startup?
1. Give Complete and Accurate Information Regarding your Business
Local SEO is very helpful in creating an image in front of the audience of exactly what your business is and what kind of product you are selling. Basic information regarding contact info must be there in every online directory, such as Name, Business Address, Contact information, and a brief description of your business. With proper reach to the target or potential customer, there are very high chances of lead generation and, eventually, sales growth for your startup.
2. Online Means Are The Best Way To Capture Local Audiences
The first thing that even any Local SEO company India would do for a newly created start-up, is create a positive impact among the customers. Not only that, marketing strategies under Local SEO are effective, uncomplicated, and can be done by the businesses themselves without the assistance of any external digital marketing agency.
3. Targeted Audience And A Better Chance Of Conversion
Local searches are done by any user who is looking for a product in particular. Thus, ranking on local searches can ultimately provide you with potential leads and targeted customers with a better chance of conversion. However, keep in mind that for local online ranking, you need to do keyword research more thoroughly to gain more local visibility. Along with that, you need to make sure that the content is relevant to local searches.
4. Credibility And Trustworthy
More and more people rely on online searches. Getting listed in various directories, including Google Business Profile, will help gain the trust of the client. While listing your business in various directories, make sure you provide a better description of your business.
Simple Tactics For Businesses That Do Not Want To Connect With Any Local SEO Company India
Local SEO is beneficial as it is proportionally related to your online visibility. This has a direct impact on your overall sales growth. So, here are some simple tactics through which you can easily enhance your online presence among the local users visiting your business.
Keep Your Google Business Profile Up-To-Date
The first step is that you authenticate your business on Google. For this, creating a Google Business Profile is the only way. This is also a major way to interact with live audiences and showcase your product. Also, customer insights can be obtained in the form of reviews. Various measures you can take to optimize your Google Business Profile include:
- The first thing is the Google Business NAP, which stands for Name, Address, and Phone Number. While adding this info, make sure that it is in the form of HTML text without any image.
- Regularly post updates regarding your products on different social media platforms and link them with your Google Business Profile. The post should be informative, not promotional.
- Engage with customers through your Google Profile and ask them for their feedback. This might be beneficial in getting an actual image for your products. Appreciate people’s responses, especially the negative feedback confirming that necessary action will be taken in response to their feedback.
- Share your Google Business Profile on various social media platforms.
- Updating Google Business Profile is not only just for SEO. It is the measure through which users will be updated with the latest information regarding your business.
List Your Business On Various Online Directories
To increase your online visibility, a Google Profile will not be sufficient. Your business should be listed on various online directories. Probably the ones that are most searched by users, especially other businesses like JustDial, TradeIndia, India Business Enquiry, and many others. Through your business being listed in various databases with a specific description regarding your products, it will be easy for any new business to come into the sight of targeted customers.
Local SEO Audit
Local or Global, no matter which kind of SEO you are doing, the business must perform an inclusive audit of your website. Through this, you can check your website ranking in local searches. Also, see what improvement you need to make so that it will enhance your online visibility. Various parameters to be covered under Local SEO audit are:
- Check on-page SEO elements, including all technical components of the SEO.
- Confirm whether your site can be crawled on the Google Search console and correct various errors that might obstruct its indexing.
- Take a check on all your listings at various directories and make sure the information you have submitted is correct and updated.
- Not only your website, you also need to take a look at your competitor’s business. There might be something there, like the design, presentation, or content, that you can be missing.
Schema Markup
In simple words, Schema refers to structured data that provides specific details regarding your website that will ultimately help the crawler understand the content of your website and allow the search engine to display a more informative result for your business.
Although the schema has no role in SEO, it will ultimately be helpful to categorize your webpage or business products. This will be very beneficial for your websites, highlighting other additional useful information regarding your products.
Local Link Building
Backlinks can be really helpful to establish the online presence of any website. Trust signals from different authoritative sources send a clear message to search engines that your websites can be trustworthy. Listing your business profile at different online directories with the link to your online stores can be helpful.
Optimize Your Business Website For Mobile Accessibility
As per the current statistics, more than 80% of internet searches are done through mobile. Any website that is not loading on mobile devices might lose a handful of visitors. Among these, there can be potential customers. Some key facts regarding Local mobile SEO for your better understanding are listed below:
- Page speed is a very important factor in determining your website accessibility on any mobile. Current stats indicate that more than 50% of users close the page if the loading time is more than 3 seconds.
- Optimize your website in such a way that the content available can be mobile-readable. Use external tools if required, a WordPress theme, or any other.
- Consider making improvements in other external factors like upgrading hosting plans or opting for a more dedicated server.
Target Local Keywords
Every user has their way of searching, which is influenced by various factors. While searching locally, different keywords are used that are particularly unique to that region. So make sure you put these words along with your business profile. Also, keep in mind that the business description is a major on-page SEO factor. Thus make sure that the business description is in minimum words and displays maximum information regarding your products and services.
Social Media
While the above-given measures help boost your ranking in online business, a major factor in determining the outcome of any local result is trustworthiness. Backlinks might be helpful. However, with the help of social media, you can gain more clicks, reviews, and targeted customers for your business. Social media can be the perfect platform for direct engagement with customers.
Summing It Up
Local SEO is a major contributing factor currently to enhance the sales growth of the company. The dependency of the customer to search online even to get a single product makes it crucial for any small business to get listed in their local search. Social Media is a driving factor for the local SEO. The majority of customers, before purchasing any product, refer to your business profile on Google or another social platform to get a clear review about your product. Therefore, it is important to engage with the customer on these platforms. Businesses also need to make sure that their website is fully optimized so that once anyone gets engaged with their website or online store, it will ultimately become a conversion.