Smartphones, tablets, and computers have totally transformed the way local information is located and discovered. Over 10 billion searches are performed on each and every month, which keep on growing exponentially. Out of these searches, approximately 55% of mobile searches consist of local intent, while 20% of all computer based searches are focused locally.

The benefits of Local Search need not be exaggerated. Numerous marketers and businesses are now taking advantage of these benefits. Some of the reasons why you need to start thinking about local search for your small business include:

1. Searches Start as General Searches for a Business: More than half of every local search start with no particular business in mind. This translates to the fact that individuals are simply searching for various services and products as well as help online. Searches may look like “roofing contractor andover ma,” “headshot photographer west Hollywood ca,” or “plumber middletown ny.” For a small business that is locally focused, a huge opportunity lies here to optimize their business for Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. to be located high in organic search, the Google 7 Pack, have an optimized Google My Business Page with reviews, Google+ page, and more, to be found, clicked on, and generate a prospective customer much more easily.
2. Voice Search is Being Used More than Ever: Voice Search is predominantly used for looking for local locations to purchase products and services.  One of the things which is recently influencing the way search engines perceive and provide a response to search queries is voice search. Creating conversational and helpful content on your blog or website will help in improving the ability of your blog or website to rank for searches about your services and products. Voice Search is generating more traffic and visitors to local businesses websites today, and it is also a great way of converting this traffic into leads.
3. Optimized Local SEO is a Profit Maker: If the steps and processes are correctly followed, local SEO helps businesses in making a lot of profit coupled with the much-required online exposure. You can immediately and exponentially increase traffic for your website or blog in case your site or blog comes out top in various search engine results.
4. You Need to Understand the Customer Purchase Path: Implementing local search and analytics solution in your small business will help you in understanding where most of your leads are being generated from. With these, you have the opportunity of tracking the particular marketing campaigns, channels, as well as sites, which are driving traffic and sales to your business. This means a lot for both your business and your marketing strategies.  You can then dump those marketing platforms or methods that are not generating online traffic, calls, foot traffic, etc. for those methods that are.
5. Social Sharing and Link Building: Another benefit of making use of local Search is to create potential partnerships online between two or more business organizations. This creates a connection between them. It also serves as a way of social sharing purposes. Furthermore, it assists marketers in meeting potential customers who can help in growing your business later. Marketers are able to build and share links using local search engines such as Google Places, Yahoo Local, Bing Places, Yelp, and so on, which may help when a potential customer is searching for you or your online partner’s business.
6. As an Extension of Your Business: By making use of local SEO, you are making it stress-free for the users and customers to interact with your business. With this, locating and reviewing the web page of your business just got easier, and so did the opportunity for you to get a phone call, walk in traffic, or an email for your products and/or services.

Local SEO Optimization, depending on your business type, may be more important than general SEO optimization.  Even if you are already a successful business, with ample traffic, a few tweaks online can help accelerate new business by making you available to a group of people who could not find you, prior. Try as much as possible to be providing the right content for the right people. This will keep on driving their respective online searches to your small business. Also, try as much as possible to update it with engaging and informative contents that are relevant for your business growth in the future.

If you are looking for a better way to be found online, call us now, or email Mixed Media Ventures to learn more.  We’ll take the time to learn your business, sit down with you, and understand your goals.