If you operate a local brick and mortar business and have a physical storefront, you probably already know that your business needs a professionally designed website that requires Local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and a process for how to get reviews from your customers. That is how you found this page to begin with =)
A lot of businesses lose sales to competitors that have spent considerable time and resources to push their online brand up the ranks on Google to drive more traffic to their business. More and more businesses are pushing to gain an online presence and visibility to get in front of a bigger potential audience to showcase their available services and products on Google.
The old model is you would go find the customer, the new model is the customer is finding your business and our communications evolves on the web, there is a growing opportunity to grab a much wider audience than ever before in history. For many brick and mortar business owners, local SEO and getting reviews from customers is mostly a confusing thing; what does “Local SEO” mean and does my business need it?
What Types of Businesses Need Local SEO?
Any business that sources most of its customers locally should leverage Local SEO. Many of those in the trades like Plumbers, restaurants, Doctors, Dentists, Lawyers, and local retail stores. They all would benefit from being ranked locally in Google’s search engine. If you have a physical address in a city and expect people to go there based on that location, your business needs local SEO.
Local SEO should not be confused with national SEO, where websites are trying to rank for a different string of keywords or search phrases. If you’re trying to understand exactly how these two approaches differ, check out our breakdown of Local SEO vs. Traditional SEO. National SEO is expensive but is a valuable investment, especially if you source your customers nationally or internationally.
For example, if you had a website that sold a nutritional coaching programs online and you shipped in the USA or globally, then you would want to rank for keywords like “nutritional coaching programs” or “nutritional coach” etc., if a brick and mortar business sells life coaching products and sourced most of their customers locally, then you’ll probably want to try local SEO and rank for keywords such as “nutritional coach North Park” for example.
Are There Any Companies or Websites That Specialize In Local SEO?
Thankfully, if you’re struggling to maintain your online presence or have no clue, you can simply pay a Local SEO company to take care of it for you. But for that, quality comes with a price tag and you’ll get what you pay for, so it’s worth asking yourself: does your Local SEO consultant get you results? There’s usually an upfront set-up cost, and month to month fee depending on the package you choose with the company. Ideally, with a good SEO company, they should be utilizing a strategy that gives your website and service new reviews, citations, social media shares, and backlinks almost every month.