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How to Know if Local SEO Should be Prioritized for Your Business

How to Know if Local SEO Should be Prioritized for Your Business

If you run a start-up or small business, your main digital marketing goal is probably to achieve a commercial level of internet visibility. Only when that happens does your business stand a chance of being a financially rewarding venture. To achieve this, you must correctly implement an SEO strategy with the help of a competent SEO and web design company.
When it comes to SEO implementation, there are different options that may suit your business depending on the objectives you have set. Among the popular options is local SEO, which has consistently proven to be a very potent digital marketing strategy.

What is Local SEO?

This is an aspect of SEO that drastically improves a website’s capacity to target locally-based consumers. This simply means that your business, via its website, becomes more visible to those that are close to you.

Local SEO can be narrowed down to specifically target a community within a state and can also be expanded to a whole country. The degree of implementation really depends on your capacity as a business to service the prospective customers in your reach.

Before you give your SEO consultant the go-ahead to carry out a comprehensive local SEO strategy, you must first check to confirm that your business is ideal for it. Here are a few ways to know that you should prioritise local SEO for your business.

Your Website Uses a Country Code TLD

If your business website uses any of the country code top-level domains, then it’s more likely that your primary target market is the country that is assigned to that particular code. For example, a website that ends with the domain extension .co.nz is likely to target customers that are living in New Zealand, while one with the extension .co.uk is for UK residents.

If you belong to this category, then it means your business is tailored to service customers that reside within the territory of the ccTLD. Hence, the SEO strategy you choose to implement must specifically target the residents of that country or region. For instance, a URL like https://synapsesearch.nz/paid-search/, literally tells a user that the site offers paid search services to consumers in New Zealand.

The use of a Country Code TLD can also be a way of applying local SEO, since the domain extension communicates with the search engine to inform it of its target location. So, it is even safe to conclude that the first step to take if you want to implement local SEO is to make use of a ccTLD.
Country Code TLDs can be acquired cheaply on hosting websites, so cost shouldn’t hinder you from purchasing one for your business website.

Your Business is in its Infancy Stage

If your business is new, then it is at a stage where most of its prospective clients will likely be local consumers. To ensure that it is able to generate revenue at this early stage, it is smart if the consumers you service are based within your locale.

This means you must prioritize successful service delivery over business expansion, because the former allows you to grow your customer base organically.

Local SEO is a critical marketing tool for businesses that are in this stage of their growth. It helps to amplify the presence of a business within a locality and create a foundation from which global expansion can occur.

However, before you choose to expand your brand globally, you must ensure that your local reach is already saturated to the point that all local SEO efforts only have a consolidating effect. At this stage, you must instruct your SEO consultant to broaden the strategy in place.  

Your Budget is Small

It is possible that your business just doesn’t have the funds to compete with the big players when it comes to the application of SEO strategy. If you’re dealing with a small marketing budget, it is wise for you to strategically direct your SEO efforts to a local audience.  

The low risk involved in doing this, as well as the promising reward attached, makes it the best option for new businesses or small start-ups that are still financially handicapped.

A small budget shouldn’t be the end of your business’ SEO goals; in fact, if it is smartly used, it can bring about a positive outcome that helps raise your business revenue.

Your Business Requires Physical Patronage

Though a lot of services offered by business entities can now be accessed via the internet, many businesses still require the physical presence of consumers to provide the services they offer.

If your business belongs to this category, then local SEO is the ideal fit for you. This is because most of your prospective customers are certain to come from the location your business is based in. It is pointless and also counterproductive to engage in a global SEO campaign if the service you render isn’t mobile.

Here are a few examples of businesses that are ideal for local SEO:

Medical Services

Whether you offer general medical services, dental services, plastic surgery services or even mental health services, your priority as a business should be to successfully reach out to those that reside close to your location.

With local SEO, your medical or dental practice can be effectively marketed to clients who can actually visit your office for a consultation session.

Restaurants and Bars

Restaurants, dinners, fast-food chains and bars are also examples of businesses that must implement local SEO if they are to increase their customer base. Since the services that they offer are generally confined to the locations they are based in, it is just pointless to make use of any other strategy apart from local SEO.

Handyman Services

Household services like plumbing, painting, carpentry, and gardening, require the physical presence of the service provider in the home or office of the client. If your business involves any one of these services, then the best solution to your digital marketing needs is local SEO.

Local SEO ensures that your handyman business is easily accessible to residents who stay close to your location. With more people now willing to carry out online searches for their household maintenance needs, you can expand your local reach by optimising your business website to be more visible on search engines.

Conclusion

So, before proceeding to engage the services of an SEO company, assess your business to know whether local SEO should be your priority.

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Noud

Noud is an experienced web developer and founder of Data Roots. His passion is to develop high-quality websites for his customers that will last for many years. Noud's got 20 years experience developing websites for companies of all sizes and loves to help. Contact Noud.

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