Local Seo To The Rescue

The Best Way To Hire A Good Local Seo Company Without Going Broke 1 by Home Boy Seo and Sem Network

Here is some History of Local SEO

The days of just putting up a website with a description of your company and the products or services you offer, and maybe even running an e-commerce site, are long gone. Today, Internet marketing through your website or your company’s blog is big business, and every day new methods are being used to help business owners sell more and get their name out there faster and more efficiently. One of those methods is using local SEO marketing. Very simply put, local SEO is targeting your website and your online marketing efforts towards the local population rather than the global population. Upon closer look though, local SEO is much more than that.

When the Internet first started becoming popular in the late 90s, people became excited about the fact that now, not only could they easily communicate with those in their own neighborhood and surrounding communities, but to a global market as well. For businesses, this was big news because they were no longer constricted to physical borders and boundaries that once kept them from reaching people halfway around the world. It wasn’t just big news for businesses, it was big news for everyone – and it was exciting too!

There was a problem, though. Not all businesses need to operate around the globe; and with many, it just doesn’t make good business sense to even consider doing it. Say for instance, that you run a mortgage brokerage that’s set up shop in a small town. You definitely want to reach the people in that town, because they’ll most likely make up the majority of your customers. You set up a website and now, have the capacity to reach people much father outside of your community. But how far do you really want to reach? Within your own country is probably the farthest you can go, because mortgage rules vary so greatly from one country to another. You may be able to do a little business with the countries closest around you; but if your brokerage is located within the United States, you probably won’t be able to handle the home loan of someone in India.

This is where the “big picture” concept of the Internet can become a problem. Your small business can quickly become lost in the shuffle, because search engines are simply trying to gather the best from around the entire world. Instead of increasing your target marketing, you’ve just exponentially increased your competition, and that can be brutal, especially if you rely on people actually walking through the door for a large part of your business.

It wasn’t just bad for businesses, but for customers too. Many consumers like to, or need to, buy from local businesses; but they don’t have time to wade through several hundred pages on the Internet trying to find yours. It’s frustrating to the business owner who can’t reach their most loyal customers, and it’s frustrating to customers who know they can do everything so easily online, they just don’t know where to go to do it.

Hire A Good Local SEO Company Without Going Broke 1

In 2010, Google came up with a solution to the problem. When a keyword for a business was entered (such as for a restaurant or plumber,) Google would insert a local section first, and then the regular and more global results underneath. The local section looked completely separate from the regular results, and really only displayed basic information such as a company’s name, address, and website link. This system was what Google called Places Pages and it was a very helpful alternative and gave both customers and businesses what they needed. However, it still had its problems.

Today, Google does much more than just put a link to the top local businesses for your search. Not only has the local information moved its position on the Google results page, there’s also a lot more information included. Google pulls information such as the business’ link from Google Places, but it also pulls information directly from the business’ website. Google will now pull the headline for each business from the landing page on the website, and Google also uses the website to form its description of the business. This helps in two ways. First it gives the customer much more information about the local business at just a glance. Secondly, by pulling information directly from the business’ website, it actually helps that business’ website gain page rankings. And page ranking is what it’s all about, because that’s what brings in even more customers.

Local SEO Stats and Facts

So aside from being a part of the Internet that has a somewhat lengthy history, what really is local SEO? Local SEO is simply a part of your website and online marketing that involves using specific techniques to get your name, your website, and your business out to those that are most likely going to see and use it – those that are already right in your own backyard.

Still don’t think that local SEO is all that big, or something that you don’t need to concern yourself with yet? That kind of thinking is dangerous, and could make your business miss out on a large portion of the market. When considering how important local SEO is for your business, consider these statistics:

* There are currently 50 million Google Places; of these, businesses such as restaurants, optometrists, dog parks, and transit stations (to name just a few,) are listed.

* Even with so many Google Places listings, still only 10% of the listings have been claimed.

* More than 4 million business listings have been taken by business owners on Google Places; of those 4 million, two million have been claimed in the United States.

* Place Pages are viewed millions of times every single day.

by Scott Clark under CC-SA * 20% of searches that are done on Google have a location included with the keyword.

* Since 2008, the number of online local searches is up by 58%.

* The number of people reading local newspapers is down by a whopping 40% – 80%; meaning that if this is the only way you get your name out there, fewer people are seeing it now than they ever were before.

When a customer is looking for your business, or the product or service that your business offers, they’ll use local SEO to find you. So let’s take the mortgage brokerage example again.

Customers who are not searching locally will simply enter “mortgage brokers” or “mortgage brokerages” into the search field of the search engine. These customers likely won’t find your business, but as local SEO and local searches become more and more popular, the number of customers not using local search features will dwindle. However, customers who are searching locally might enter “mortgage brokers New York City,” in which case your business will likely show up – if you’re employing local SEO strategies and techniques in your online marketing strategy.

Still need more convincing? Read on to find out the seven biggest reasons why you need local SEO techniques done for your business.

The 7 Biggest Reasons for Needing Local SEO

Truthfully, there are tons of reasons why you need local SEO for your business; but here are the six biggest.

Local SEO is highly targeted and timely

This simply means that you are making sure that your business’ name gets in front of the customers you want, and at a time when they really need it. Keeping with our example of a mortgage broker, no one is going to look for a broker until they need a home loan. So when they search for the keyword “mortgage broker New York City,” and you’ve employed proper local SEO strategies, you’ll be one of the first ones they see, at the time they need a mortgage the most.

Local SEO has the highest conversion rate of any other kind of advertising

Of course, the whole point of any kind of advertising is so that you can reach a large number of people and convert them into customers for your business. And local SEO does this more effectively than any other kind of advertising – because you’re reaching the people who are most likely going to use your business – the people closest to you.

Video Summary: Local SEO – Get Listed on Google Places and Map Fast

Local SEO allows customers to find you easier when they’re on their mobile phones

Local SEO doesn’t limit itself to just desktop and laptop computers, but mobile phones too. Not only are all of the same local SEO tools used by the same search engines on a mobile browser, but many, many apps are now available that are tailored to local businesses.  A person logs into the app and enters their search terms, which will include the category they’re looking for (“mortgage brokers”) along with a location (“New York City”) and your business comes up. These apps are dedicated to local SEO, and that alone should tell you just how important it is!

Local SEO gives you a better return on your investment

We all know that you can spend hundreds on newspaper advertisements, more than that for radio ads, and thousands upon thousands if you want to have a TV commercial. All that money, and you have no idea whether or not it’s actually going to get to your target audience or be successful! That’s a lot of wasted money, money that your business probably can’t afford. With local SEO though, it costs you next to nothing to utilize a few local SEO strategies, even if you hire someone to do it for you. You spend less money to reach your target audience – it just makes good business sense.

Much of local SEO is free

To go along with getting a better return on your investment, a lot of local SEO is also free. Google Places currently doesn’t charge anything to be listed in their service; and inserting local keywords isn’t going to cost you anything more than the time it takes to think about them. And that won’t be much, because you already know what your business is, and where it’s located. However, as local SEO becomes more popular and more used, these services are likely to start charging for their services.

70% of local customers trust online business reviews

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Online business is big and if there’s only one thing that’s bigger than it, its online business reviews. The concept is simple, really. A customer uses your business, completes a write-up talking about their interaction with your company, whether it was good or bad, and whether or not they would use you again. When potential customers are searching for your business or in the category of your business that review will be one of the first things they see. And if that review is good, it means that more customers will see it and be inclined to use you when they need your product or services.

Local SEO is Greener than Many forms of Advertising

Because there are no flyers or pamphlets to print out, and no newspaper ads to run, local SEO is much kinder to the environment. Think about it. Entering a few keywords into a blog or leaving comments on the blogs of others wastes very few resources. Local SEO is quite simply a much greener option and much more friendly to the environment. And even if that’s not a big concern to you, it will be to your customers. Going green and trying to reduce, reuse and recycle is no longer just a hot trend – it’s a lifestyle that millions have adopted. And many consumers now take environmental awareness into great consideration when trying to choose which businesses they deal with.

Local Seo For Small Business

Recommended Reading

• local seo
• Local Seo 101 Part 3 – Other Crucial Seo Factors
• Local Seo 101 – Master Backlinking Campaign 2
• Local Seo 101 Part 2 – Effective Backlinking Campaign
• Local Seo 101 – All About Seo for Your Local Business 1