The COVID-19 pandemic has altered how many of us operate in our daily lives. With social distancing, imposed curfews, travel limitations, stay-at-home orders and many other ordinances, America is drifting into a mindset centered around the immediate vicinity. This mindset also affects business, as consumers become more concerned with finding local companies to service their everyday needs. As such, when searching sites like Google, Bing, or Yahoo, they are more likely to filter out companies that are too far from their given spaces. However, in a time of calamity, there is also opportunity. As changes in consumer practices favor more local suppliers, businesses have the opportunity to capitalize on these local populations. While unfortunate to say, during times of unrest is where unprepared businesses fall and other businesses thrive and become stronger than before. Much like crops in a garden. We at MyCity Social specialize in assisting businesses large and small with SEO services. Serving the Tampa, FL area, we know how imperative mastering local SEO is to the growth of your businesses. Keep reading to learn, we will cover the importance of local SEO to you and your business.

 

What Are Local SEO Services?

Now, you may be familiar with the power of SEO or you may not be. You may also wonder what makes local SEO different from regular SEO. Fortunately, we will cover, here, the potential of SEO and the difference between regular (also called “organic” or “traditional”) SEO and local SEO. Hopefully, by the end of this posting, you’ll have a greater understanding of SEO practices and how it can impact your business today.

 

As you may know, SEO (search engine optimization) allows for a consumer to find a company or service on the internet. When he or she searches over search engines such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo, companies with better search engine optimization appear higher in the rankings. In today’s dominance of the internet, many companies understand the necessity of such services. A company that cannot stick out over a sea of others vying for attention will likely be submerged. Just as many companies who have no webpages struggle, many others who do still struggle to be found. However, regular (or organic) SEO is an attempt to trumpet one’s voice to an entire nation or the world. Such a feat causes you to compete with every similar business in the world. Fortunately, like in most marketing, a little focus on the audience can go a long way.

 

Many businesses – especially small businesses – can make use of local SEO to help stand out in a crowd. As it sounds, local SEO is when a consumer searches for a company or service that is local. For example, a person may search “grocery stores in the Miami area.” if you owned a grocery store in Miami and if your site is properly optimized, your store may come up as one of the top results. No more competing with the world, nor in even surrounding cities. Because you optimized your site for a local customer, you can reap the benefit of standing out in a crowd. This does not mean local searches are limited to the area where your business’s building resides. It also factors in areas where you operate. Another example: if you search for SEO services Orlando businesses trust, you may find us. 

 

But we hear you. You may wonder, if consumers are searching for companies anyway, why not just have organic SEO? Wouldn’t you still be found? While yes, organic SEO will still help a company get found, there are some nuances that make more localized SEO a beneficial addition to your marketing efforts.

 

The Necessity of Local SEO

As stated before, because of COVID-19, many consumers are relying on local businesses to service their needs. For this cause, a few components add to the desirability of adopting local SEO:

• Shear Numbers – when factoring in the mass of Google searches, local inquiries account for nearly half of them. This means consumers are almost half as likely to filter locality into their searches. This means, if you optimize your pages for locale, your business may appear within those parameters. In other words, increased chances of your site being visited, as yours would be one of the few who survived the scrutiny.

 

• Method and Technology for Searching – In reality, almost everyone has a cell phone. With that cell phone, people will use their installed application to find companies and services they want to visit. Usually, android users have Google Maps preinstalled for locating different businesses. Why is this an important point? Because many cell phones search by location. As many people utilize Google Maps to get around, they’d usually have their “Location” setting on. During this time, google will use the cell phone’s position to filter local sites into a search, whether the user types in a specific location or not. If the Location setting is off, the cell phone will search based on the cell phone holder’s area code. As over 70% of Americans mostly use cell phones for their searches, that means location becomes a default for many of them. This information could impact what SEO services Orlando companies may consider.

• Increased Searches – While we’d mentioned that consumers are even more concerned with finding services within their areas, we did not mention how local optimization is affected by searching in general. You see, because of COVID-19, many people are stuck within their own homes. For this reason, internet usage (and internet searching) has gone up. This means a properly optimized business has a greater chance of being found during this pandemic. A chance worth taking, as many businesses are at risk of failing, with fewer customer interactions.

• Type of Business – There are certain businesses that could see a great benefit in local SEO utilizations. Such include real estate, legal, repair, medical, etc. All businesses that are seeing possibly increased traffic during these times. But especially real estate, as people normally search homes and offices based on location.

 

 

How to Take Advantage of Local SEO

Of course, what’s the point of telling you the benefits of local SEO without telling you how to utilize it? So, if you’re ready for these SEO tactics, get out your board, set up your pieces, and let’s examine some openings that will set you up for the endgame.

 

• Word of Mouth – Wouldn’t you believe it? Apparently, one of the best ways to help a company online is offline. Referrals and recommendations will have new customers not searching for your services, but for your name specifically. Do you not understand the power of a suggestion? Then, please remember your job, your favorite restaurant, or your house. Most likely, someone gave you instructions on how to find at least one of those. For the restaurant, maybe someone recommended it to you. Or did you recommend it to someone else?

• Reviews – Speaking of suggestions, why wait for your name to come up, when your happy clients can speak for you permanently? Get some good reviews, and that’s a recommendation every time someone types your name into a search engine. Get enough of a similar review, and you’ve built a brand – a reputation. A reputation means clients can trust you to deliver a good service. And this means you can trust that you’ll get clients.

• Email – I know email may seem to some as “spammy.” However, as especially small businesses could utilize local SEO, allow me to put your mind at ease. Email marketing doesn’t have to be about trying to obtain clients who would ultimately delete your diligently crafted efforts with the click of a button. It could be a way to tell you current clients, “Hey, remember me?” Statistics show that customers tend to buy from someone they’ve used before. Consistent communication could help those clients remember the good work you’ve done for them. Which would increase retention (and word of mouth).

• Consult Your SEO Specialist – Everyone has a trade and every trade should be left to a specialist. Just as your own industry is constantly evolving, so are the fields of marketing and SEO. Therefore, it would be suggested to find someone who specializes in that field and keeps up with the changes to market for you. That way, you can focus on what you do best and reap the rewards of a properly optimized platform. Nowadays, many companies are outsourcing their SEO needs to specialized agencies and providers. While, yes, you do have some tools to help with your marketing ventures, why do it yourself when you can save (and make) time and money by giving the task to someone who’s done it well for a longer time?

 

 

Contact Us

As you can see, adding local SEO into one’s repertoire could be a boon to a business. During these uncertain times, allying yourself with a company providing SEO services Orlando businesses trust can add a little more confidence. That is why we at MyCity Social are prepared to give our best to companies in Tampa and surrounding areas. Contact us, so we may be of service to you.