If you run a business, you need to make sure it stands out – there are so many other businesses either doing the same things as you or at least something very similar that if you don’t do your best to be noticed, you’ll get lost in the crowd and end up losing money; you might even end up losing your business. 

But what if you’re a small business? Is there really any way to stand out, especially if you’re focused on just one specific area? The answer is yes, and it’s all about using local SEO. With that in mind, let’s look at why local SEO is crucial for your small business – read on to find out more. 

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Targeted Visibility 

One of the best reasons to make sure you use local SEO in your marketing, and to learn as much about how it works and why it’s important is because it means you’ve got targeted visibility. By really optimizing your website for local keywords and the geographic locations you work in or deliver to, for example, you’ll massively increase your chances of your business popping up in someone’s (or ideally a lot of people’s) search results. 

What this means is that when someone in your local area searches for a product or service you offer, your business is more likely to show up because you’re targeting specific people in specific locations to be more visible to. If it sounds like you’re skewing the odds in your favor then why not? All’s fair in business, after all. 

Competitive Edge

As we’ve said, there are lots of businesses out there (and that’s putting it mildly), and many of them are going to be your direct competition. Rather than ignoring them and just doing your own thing, it’s much better to come up with a strategy that takes what they’re doing into account and helps you not just keep up with them, but get past them so you’re the business people come to first and actually prefer buying from and working with. 

Local SEO can help here because it ensures smaller businesses can rank higher in local search results, and if your competitors aren’t in the same area or don’t use local SEO, it’s an easy way to get ahead of them. If you also use local rank tracking as part of your strategy, you’ll be able to monitor your search engine results and make sure you’re still doing well or spot when to make changes in your strategy, and in that way, you won’t run the risk of falling behind. 

Cost Effectiveness

Everything costs money in business, and it can often feel as though your budget is getting out of control and every move you make means money slips through your fingers – it makes looking at your bank account quite uncomfortable, to say the least. 

However, compared to other types of advertising, local SEO is really cost-effective, and with the right strategies in place, you can quickly and easily reach a targeted audience of local customers who will be more than interested in what you’re selling without breaking the bank.