The Crucial Importance of Local SEO for Your Business

While there are certain types of businesses that don’t need to worry about local advertising and marketing, chances are that your own company relies upon local traffic to grow its customer base. Since 80 percent of consumers now utilize search engines like Google and Bing to find information and make important decisions, it’s more important than ever to get your local SEO in order. This is especially true if you are in the legal and medical services industries.

As a legal or medical practice, you thrive on the needs of your local residents. It’s rare that a patient from California will select a doctor in Arizona, or that a client in New York will search for a lawyer in Louisiana. You need to use local SEO to capture the needs of the customers in your immediate vicinity by making your name and brand frequently and clearly visible. Lawyers, doctors, and dentists have very specific sets of skills that can change the lives of their clients and patients, which means that the more traffic you can capture from people searching for your skills, the more successful you will be.

This sounds great, but how do you practically go about enhancing your company’s local SEO to bring in more business? Building local SEO is a complex process best completed by professional SEO companies, but you should still know the essentials. Key elements include utilizing your Google My Business page, listing yourself in other relevant directories, building positive local reviews, and establishing important local web links.

Google My Business is the first and most important step you can take to establish local SEO. Customers look to Google as a source of legitimate information, and if your company lacks a strong presence on Google, your credibility will be damaged. The Google My Business page gives you the ultimate place to describe your business, choose its categories, upload photos, list contact information, provide hours of operation, and collect reviews from real customers. It’s nothing short of essential.

The other local SEO tasks are equally as important. Other directories outside of Google, like Yelp and more local options in your community, will add to your legitimacy and make your business easier to find. Garnering positive reviews will encourage new customers to give you a shot, and working in local web links with press releases, interviews, publications, and events will boost your brand image.