The rise of e-commerce and SEO has changed the face of business forever. Combining the internet with commercial activities lets businesses reach out to a greater number of clients through various platforms. Google has been fundamental to marketing success. Google commands nearly 78% of the entire world’s share of online searches. In fact, 46% of all Google searches now refer to a local business or activity.

If marketing involves all activities to maintain a presence in your consumer’s sphere of consciousness, then marketing is now synonymous with improving your SERP rankings, particularly on Google. Any business that fails to keep improving its rankings will be overcome by competition that is more effective at SEO.

SEO comes to light as one of the most important marketing tools at any business’s disposal. With the growing number of local search queries on Google, your websites can garner more attention than ever before through internal SEO or hired SEO services. Local SEO can be a game changer for your website.

How local SEO can be a game changer for your website

Some ways that local SEO services can improve your website traffic are the following:

1. Local business searches are increasing in number

The internet is perhaps the single greatest collection of information in the world. Humans, by virtue of their psychology, need information that they can act on. It’s really simple. If you don’t know that a door leads to the kitchen you probably won’t take the door if you wanted food.

The same principle applies to Google and consumer purchasing decisions. In fact, 91% of all adults use search engines to find information on the web. And nearly 50% research a business on Google before doing business with them. The consumers believes whatever Google tells them. You can improve your chances of getting customers if you can maintain a consistent presence on Google.

The principle isn’t restricted to just Google, the principle applies to all search engines because it’s just how humans work.

2. People have begun to rely on SERPs to make purchases

It isn’t a coincidence that 72% of all consumers who conduct a local search visit a store within 5 miles of their location. There is an undeniable link between information and a purchasing decision. Of course, locations aren’t the only things that compel customers to purchase goods or services. People also look up product reviews, blog posts about services, and much more.

A successful SEO strategy lets businesses plug in to the consumers’ information stream and has them look at your websites. The best way to increase your traffic is to improve search engine rankings. This will lead to more website traffic and this will increase your chances of making sales.

3. Local SEO is proven to improve website and business potential

Research indicates that 76% of all people who conduct a local business search visit the store in the next 24 hours. Additionally, the number of search queries for local events/business has increased by 900% over the past few years.

Clearly, your customers are on Google looking up your services and not showing up when they need you to won’t help. The impact of local SEO on business is summarized in the following statistics:

• 78% of all local mobile searches and 61% of all local laptop searches led to offline sales.
• 61% of all internet users making a local business search call up the business later.
• 50% of all local searches lead to a visit to the store later.

Local SEO services open up a whole new world of potential opportunities for businesses. Every business owner should consider improving their SEO capabilities or hire a local SEO service.

4. Higher rankings and greater visibility

The statistics mentioned above all point to how your consumer circles are moving to Google to find businesses in their vicinity and acting on the information. As you rank higher on Google, it’s more likely that people will visit your website because you’ll become much more apparent in their line of sight. Research indicates that 75% of all Google users refuse to scroll past the first page of the rankings. If you aren’t there, they’ll never find out about you.

5. Local SEO improves website and business credibility

Many consumers rely on Google to provide accurate information about services and businesses. The best local SEO practices include back-linking to reliable websites, offering reviews and location addresses which instill a sense of confidence in the consumer. Great SEO implies better information and better information often leads to higher click-through rates (CTRs) for your website.

6. Local SEO considers all potential marketing channels

An effective SEO strategy utilizes all of the marketing channels at your disposal. This involves using social media, content marketing and Google My Business to maximize your visibility to the Google user. The number of local Google search queries is increasing. Also, the number of online marketing channels you can utilize for your business is also rising.

7. The market is switching to local SEO

Market dynamics also present businesses with the potential to improve on their website traffic. If your competitors are working on their local SEO, it’s likely that they’re trying to improve their business potentials by catering to their market niches. As they continue to improve local SEO, the consumer would also begin to rely on online searches because these will become more accurate and informative. While search engines aren’t the only source of information, each improvement in SEO shows that search engines will become the primary sources of information. As a greater number of people seek out business opportunities online, you can capitalize on this surge to increase website traffic through your own local SEO strategies.

Local SEO can be a game changer for your website

Expenditure on SEO services is expected to rise to $79.27 billion by 2020 to not only improve SEO efficacy but also to potentially increase the number of Google searches taking place. As you work with your local SEO services, you might just tap into some unrealized market segment to increase website traffic and perhaps take on some of your competitor’s market shares.

This guest blog article was written by Joseph Dyson, who is an expert on local SEO at Search Berg. The company provides SEO services and specializes in helping companies build an online presence via social media management, content marketing, web-design, and local SEO services.