Local SEO Consultant – Why You Should Hire Them?
Before we talk about hiring a local SEO Consultant, let’s reach the basics of local SEO. What is it, and what can it make for your company? In the simplest words, Local SEO means helping customers find your local business through search engines. Local SEO is most important for businesses with physical locations (like a retail store) or face-to-face services (like a plumber).
These companies require to reach customers in a geographical area. Local SEO means giving your business the best probable chance of ranking high in local search results. Furthermore, it is most necessary to do this when someone in your local area is searching online for your product or service.
Why Do I Need Local SEO?
Your customers are frequently going online to search for businesses to meet their needs.
According to HubSpot, 18% of local mobile searches lead to a sale within one day—these deals are going to happen; the only question is whether your business will be in the running.
Today’s customer is out and about, searching on their phone for a place to eat or shop, then going there instantly. Only a few results show on a mobile phone, and you need to be one of them.
Not to mention local search results are extremely targeted and timely. Like I said, today’s customer is searching for a nearby market to use right now. If you are one of those top few results, the conversion rate is huge. No other marketing approach gets you in front of a customer who has already asked for your services and is nearby, ready to commit.
Lastly, today’s clients expect you to be available via local search. Say someone searches for “Jo’s Autoparts” based on a recommendation from a friend. The search engine will pretend they want localized results and look for nearby places with this name. If you’re not optimized for local searches, the search engine may not see you. Now your potential customer is performed with alternative auto parts stores, and you have lost credibility for not being easy to find.
How Does Local SEO Work?
Local SEO comes into play in two primary scenarios. When someone searches for something like “pizza,” most search engines automatically think the user wants local results and will return local pizza places based on the person’s location. For two, when someone specifies a spot in a search like “best lawyer in Sacramento,” the search engine will return local results for Sacramento, California, based on the search terms.
But how does the search engine pick which businesses to return to? With any SEO tactics, it’s important to remember that search engines want to show their customers the best possible results. Search engines need to find you if you are a local business that offers a service customers need. Your job is to make it as simple as possible for them to find and validate your existence.
First, you will require to define your NAP: Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP). Consistency is necessary as you grow your web presence because exact matches increase your business legitimacy. If your company is referred to as “Jo’s Auto Parts” in some places and “Jo’s Auto Parts & Repair” in other places, these will seem like two different businesses to Google. Select one primary name, one standardized postal address, and one business phone number. Then use it everywhere. It’s best to have these details on every page of your website, often by including it in the footer.
Search Engines and Social Media
Search Engine local listings
If you haven’t done so already, you will require to claim or establish your Local Search Engine listings starting with Google My Business and Bing Places. It is necessary to distinguish the difference that Google and Bing are powerful search engines or social media portals, not citations, requiring special care.
Social Media Business Pages
The same is accurate for Social Media websites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google +, Instagram, and LinkedIn. People visit these sites every day to communicate and stay in touch with those who are essential to them.
You will need to have a presence on social media to rank well in local searches. Facebook alone has 2 billion monthly active users. Therefore having social media pages are a critical weapon in your local marketing arsenal, and you will want to keep them updated and accurate.
Online Reviews and Specialty sites
Start with Yelp! Wait, isn’t Yelp just for finding good restaurants? Not anymore! Yelp has been branching out into almost all business areas, including home improvement, so you won’t need to ignore them. Yelp’s most important reason is that they have an exclusive relationship with Apple and Bing to display business listings and reviews in local search results.
For Apple, this means when over 700 million iPhone users ask Siri to find a restaurant near me, Yelp results are presented. The same happens when you search using Bing to search for a restaurant, except it depends on the type of business because Microsoft also utilizes its own local Bing Places directory, so you will need to get listed there.
Get help from a Local SEO Consultant
If you do your citations, you don’t have the added value of paying a Local SEO consult. You can focus on your corporation and avoid or correct mistakes like duplicate listings or inaccurate information. You can also determine your list of directories based on your preference. Many directories need manual verification like a postcard, phone call, or text message. Even with an outside firm, you, as the business proprietor, have to be involved in these steps. If you’re on your own, these actions don’t need any coordination with another group.
Utilizing a local SEO consultant or consulting firm will save you a lot of time and energy. These experts specialize in local SEO. Hence with a trustworthy consultant, you should expect them to improve your ranking. They will be more effective and reach a wider audience faster than you. Make sure that the local SEO consultant will concentrate on finding and correcting inaccurate or duplicate listings. Inaccurate data will work against your ranking in search results.
Furthermore, citation building services have access to data aggregators that aid the method by helping distribute data. Therefore you won’t have as a lone wolf. Overall, outsourcing this activity will leave you to focus on your business.
How to hire the best Local SEO Consultant
When choosing a local SEO consultant, the cost is not the only factor. Look at their track record and progress with other customers. Please find out how long their services take and how simple it is to work with them. Like I mentioned above, you will have to be included in the process no matter what.
Knowing the tools the organization uses for building your local SEO presence is essential. Lastly, you require to know what they are doing, so request monthly reports and read them. They are not doing their job if they do the data entry once and bill you for additional work. You are better off doing it yourself.
