SEO Expert

How to use SEO to reach local customers?

Are you still wondering if you should get SEO services? Every minute that you spend wondering and not working on an SEO strategy, you are losing money. All current studies on SEO and its relation with website ROI show that not having an optimization strategy is leaving money on the table. In case your business is not profitable enough, you might have the lack of an SEO strategy to blame for that. You might have the latest range of products and world-class services for your customers, but the target audience won’t know about your existence unless you manage to climb to the top of the Google SRL. No digital marketing strategy can be successful without a dedicated flow of visitors to your website.

If you don’t have a strategy to optimize your presence for the search engines, there is no way you can build an audience. Without an audience, you will never be able to monetize your products or services.

SEO strategy might be the best instrument to build a dedicated visitor base

Google releases several updates every day to make the browsing experience more rewarding for people all across the world. One of the latest updates has fine-tuned the local search options on Google. When people run “near me” searches, they get to see the top 3 location results on the Google Maps with an option to see “more locations” and the rest in the form of the standard SRL. The new development has increased the competition between similar businesses in one locality since they have to compete for the first three places on the locations list. 

For example – when a person is looking for salons offers or discounted services in the Minneapolis and St Paul’s area, they can run a search along the lines of “discounted salon services near me.” The level of optimization of the salon websites will determine which ones show up at the top of the list. In spite of making the competition tougher, local SEO it is also making trade easier for the new enterprises by eliminating the competition from other areas. Now the establishments within the given location have to compete with each other for visibility. The race is no longer among all the salons in Minnesota, but only among the services available within the twin cities.

What is the intent behind the “near me” searches?

Current statistics show that close to 28% of the “near me” searches result in a purchase. The users have a prominent buying intent while using the “near me” phrase during searches. For example – people are searching for “best holiday shopping destinations near me” or “places to buy school supplies near me.” almost every day. Research shows that it is a variant of the “to buy” and “Can I buy searches” that people used a couple of months ago. With the rise of mobile, the near me searches have gained significant prominence. They have grown by over 500% in the last two years!

Why is optimizing for local searches important in Minneapolis and Saint Pauls?

Statistics show that 76% of the people who run these searches visit the related business within 24 hours. The mobile devices contribute to over 85% of the traffic. Therefore, it is high time you began thinking about optimizing your online presence for the audience in the Twin Cities. For any business located in Minneapolis – Saint Paul area, the most significant advantage is attracting the potential customers from the most populous city of the state. You can target audiences from both cities through your new local SEO strategy.

If you already have a dormant SEO plan in place, you need to take advice from the Twin Cities SEO Premier SEO Ninjas to spruce it up a bit. It is possible to revitalize an old SEO strategy without spending a fortune and turn your website into a traffic magnet. Your SEO team needs the understanding of the latest Google local SEO updates to make the most of every ranking opportunity. As Google revisits their local ranking algorithms, it opens up new possibilities for the new local businesses frequently. 

Why should you give local SEO a try this year?

The small businesses in Minnesota have employed over 1.2 million people as of the last quarter of 2017. There have been increases in the employment rate in the private sectors. Startups and small businesses have been bustling in the state. Finding a new company that sells the same products and services as you will not take more than a couple of minutes for any user. So, unless you have a constructive plan to keep yourself visible and famous for all the days to come, you need to think about a robust SEO plan for your Minneapolis – Saint Paul business.

Here’s why you need an SEO strategy –

  1. It does not cost a bomb

Haters might say otherwise, but playing by the rules of search engines do not require much. Not optimizing will attract Google penalties that might cost you more than getting a new SEO strategy. SEO companies worth their salt can make old digital marketing strategies work as well, by making necessary adjustments and adding new elements to your old plans.

  1. It will bring organic traffic

All businesses that have struggled for a while know that organic traffic is the best kind of traffic you can get. They have the best conversion rates. People, who visit your money site directly from Google (and other search engines) SRL, comprise organic traffic. Any website with high ranking attracts considerable organic traffic. For example – nobody scrolls past the first page of Google SERPs.

  1. All experiences begin with search engines

Over 93% of all online experiences start with Google searches. People happily ignore paid ads that appear on top of the SERPs, since they only trust the high ranking pages that show up within the first page and in the answer box. Additionally, over 50% users who run local searches visit the shop/business within 24-hours of searching.

Google changes its search engine algorithm between 500 and 600 times per year. If you are not capitalizing on search engine traffic, you may be losing out on significant business revenue. Search engines like Google drive over 300% more traffic than social media. If you are not using an SEO strategy, this is your chance to get ahead of the game.