How a solid local SEO strategy can reap huge rewards for your business
With so many strategies for promoting your products and services online, you might be wondering if the benefits of local SEO are really worth the investment for your business.
If you’re a company that relies on local customers, statistics show that dedicating resources to local SEO is one of the best uses of your marketing budget, and that neglecting it could see you losing out to competitors.
So, what are the benefits of local SEO and how can you leverage tools like Semrush’s Listing Management to see results faster?
According to Think With Google , searches for “open now near me” have skyrocketed around the world by more than 400% YoY.
While you can’t always appear in top results for “near me” searches (because it’s largely dependent on the user’s distance from your business), you can make sure you stand out from competitors, even if they are a little closer to the user.
A strong directory presence, 4.0+ average rating and up-to-date profiles will go a long way to pointing more users in your direction.
But if your business doesn’t appear in the top three results on Google (known as the Google local pack, 3-pack or snack pack), chances are that users will go with a competitor.
Local directories are another great place to showcase your business. Not only are they a go-to resource for people looking for local information, but they also appear prominently in Google results.
Earning as much real estate on SERPs (search engine ranking pages) as possible gets you more exposure to local customers and all the local SEO benefits that come with it.
Boosting your local visibility requires a lot of upfront work, including distributing business listings to top directories to build your online prominence. Start seeing your business at the top of local search results faster with Semrush´s Listing Management tool , which can publish citations to 70+ directories at once.
Don’t forget: With a smart review-generation campaign, you should soon see customer feedback pouring in, but replying to them all can be hard work. Try the Reply Rate feature from Semrush’s Listing Management so you never let a review go without a “thank you”.
Reporting tip: Use tracking links like UTMs to discover which local directories are bringing in the greatest local SEO benefits and which you might need to focus on a little more.
When you dedicate time, energy and money to a particular marketing strategy, you’ll want to get the best bang for your buck—and an investment in local SEO is likely to get you just that.
A huge 76% of smartphone users visit a business within 24 hours of searching, making local SEO a very high-converting marketing channel.
When you can start to see the benefits of local SEO, it’s easier to justify spending more of your budget to get your business ranking even higher in local results. And fortunately, it doesn't cost that much for those results to materialize.
Unlike PPC (pay per click) advertising, local SEO benefits can be achieved with little to no investment.
Working on your citations, local content, and review generation is something any small business can do in just a few hours a week, and you don’t need to spend a cent to get started.
Businesses that take their local SEO seriously invest in industry-standard tools to make sure they’re outranking their competitors, but even then it’s not necessary to spend even a fraction of the average local PPC budget.
Get started for free: Semrush’s Listing Management allows you to audit up to five locations per day, check your status in top directories and see your average review rating.
Be consistent: Imagine having a successful directory listing, only for people to find the phone number no longer works... Semrush’s Listing Management allows you to edit all your citations at once and keeps an eye out for inconsistent listings so you don’t have to.
More on Local SEO: deep dive into all aspects of local SEO by taking our Semrush Academy course .