Because inbound marketing is all about creating connections that provide your audience with valuable content that solves their problems, it makes sense that local SEO plays a large role in inbound marketing. When businesses can reach local audiences, they create valuable interactions that benefit both the client and business equally.
Why Local SEO Should Be Your Inbound Marketing Focus for 2020:
It is more important than ever to be within reach of local audiences, and the key to visibility is local SEO. Different studies estimate the percentage of searches for local businesses to be around 46%, and since 2018, searches containing the words “near me” have more than doubled. Here are four reasons why local SEO should be a major focus for your business in 2020:
Local Is the New Global
There has been a significant shift towards sustainable consumerism in the last decade, bringing local businesses to the forefront. As audiences are becoming more aware of the environmental impact of their purchases, businesses are seeing an upswing in support from local communities. Instead of desiring globally produced items, consumers are seeking local alternatives to alleviate their impact on the environment while satisfying their buying needs.
Google’s Algorithm
Instead of driving traffic to websites based purely on their ad spend, Google will rank businesses based on a blended algorithm. This algorithm looks at your web results (including content, website design and link building), reviews from customers and proximity to the search query. Businesses with good quality content, higher engagement rates and better reviews get higher rankings in localised searches. This means that building authentic connections with local audiences should be taking precedence over massive budgets spent on pushing PPC ads towards audiences.
Local Is Valuable
Your business needs to feature on local directory sites because directory listings are ranked second only to Map Pack results in search engine rankings. This means that Google will firstly show results on the local map, and then feature directories like TripAdvisor, Snupit and Yellow Pages that include businesses related to a specific keyword.
Best SEO practices are still very relevant for local SEO with some SEO experts estimating that 92% of customers will pick a business to support from the first page of local results. In order to benefit from local directories, you will need to appear fairly high in the organic results to attract their attention.
Different Types of Searches
Search engines are allowing people to search in different ways. Google now allows longer search terms for voice searches and completes geo modifiers for their customers. This means that customers can merely type in what they are looking for instead of adding a location. Benign terms are also being used more frequently, and Google will connect these terms (like coffee or dog walker) to highly-rated local businesses without users asking for these products and services in a specific location.
Don’t get left behind in the local SEO rankings, contact WSIOMS today for help with your SEO and inbound marketing strategy.