10 Local SEO Stats You Need To Know

10-LOCAL-SEO-STATS-YOU-NEED-TO-KNOW

Local SEO gives your business the potential to dominate the local area search. See when someone conducts near me search, you’re no longer competing with the thousands of companies around the country or even the world. Without local SEO, you may as well hang up a sign that reads, “closed for business.” Okay, that’s a little extreme, I’ll admit. But without Local SEO, your business can suffer from serious revenue loss. If you don’t know how your business appears online, take a minute and make a quick search for your business in Google. Special attention to local SEO can increase foot traffic to your shop and attract local customers that are usually ready to act since they are nearby.

You can get your online listings report by clicking here.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO is one of the best ways to promote your business online because it places your business, your products and services when and where local customers are looking for them. A classic example is – Shoe repair near me or Mexican restaurant near me.

Why is Local SEO Important for my Business?

  • According to Social Media Today, 86% of consumers rely on the internet to find a local business
  • 50% of consumers who searched using their mobile phones visit a store within 24 hrs.
  • 4 out of 5 users use search engines to find local information.

Crucial Factors for Local SEO

  • Reviews
  • Proximity to searcher
  • Physical address in city of search
  • Google My Business

Other Factors Influencing Local SEO Rank

Mobile First Indexing: Google has started implementing something called Mobile First Indexing when deciding where to rank websites. Mobile First Indexing is when a website has both Desktop and Mobile version, Google spiders will rank websites with a mobile version before those without.

Google also ranks websites with the most complete information – the more information you can provide and the more consistent it is across the various platforms it’s listed on, the more relevant your business will be to searchers. This type of information includes:

  • NAP data (Name, Address, Phone Number)
  • Directories – especially Google My Business
  • Keywords
  • Reviews
  • Higher count of backlinks from quality sources
  • Updated and current information on Google My Business
    • The more current, the more useful and relevant
    • Even information like parking can be persuasive
    • Make sure GMB listing is comprehensive
    • Include images (especially helpful with service based businesses like restaurants and salons)

Near Me Searches & The Rise of Voice Search

SEO has been previously heavily based on what people type. Now people are beginning to search using voice assistants (Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, Google’s Ok Google). This means language used by searchers differ from typing (optimize for conversational content). Whereas, on a typical search (typed), people might search nail salons which is then auto-populated with nearby nail salons. When using voice search, it might be more like – Siri, where is the best nail salon that does acrylics (near me/close to me/ around here/ close to house).

Knowing this, your website is now more important than ever!

Voice search is a huge part of SEO since 10% of total searches are made up of voice search.

There has been a 150% increase in “near me” searches in the past year.

  • Today, Google’s word accuracy rate is over 95%
  • Mobile voice related search is 3x more likely to be location based than text
  • Most people use it for directions while driving: 53% use near me voice search while driving while 39% in household
  • 40% of mobile searches have local intent.
  • 82% of smartphone shoppers conduct ‘near me’ searches.

Key Takeaways

Local SEO is a valuable asset to brick-and-mortar businesses or companies looking to attract local consumers. You may be anxious to improve your local search strategy. So, what are some steps you can take to implement local search for your business?

  1. Check your local listings for consistency and completeness across all directories.
  2. Build credibility through online reviews
  3. Monitor your traffic and conversion resulting from your local listings and reviews

Our Local SEO and Review Management webinar is a great jumpstart to taking advantage of local SEO for your business. You’ll learn how to:

  • get listed so as to increase website traffic, foot traffic, and phone calls
  • Enhance their listing to increase conversion
  • build and respond to reviews

Register for the webinar today.

Author
Karen Leonard
Date
August 28, 2019

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