Is your business website getting a sudden surge of traffic from the east coast? It might be strange, but without local SEO, it is likely for companies on one side of the country to get irrelevant traffic from another coast.
Irrelevant traffic is the bulk of non-paying visitors that contribute to high bounce rates and low conversion rates. It is more than a mere annoyance for small businesses trying to stabilize their hold on the local market.
Many small and indie companies in Seattle, WA, receive visitors from Idaho, California, Nevada, and British Columbia because they are neighbors. While it does represent a sudden surge in organic traffic to your website, it does little to feed the profits and sales.
What your Seattle business needs is hyper-localization. So, what is this hyper localization the SEO experts speak of? If localization refers to optimizing your site and content for all of Seattle, hyper localization is the process of targeting a single neighborhood, maybe a couple of blocks around your business or even a particular street.
Why do small and medium-sized business require hyper local SEO?
Small businesses that do not have the workforce to carry out deliveries to all addresses within the city or those who only have walk-in POS find hyper localization incredibly helpful. The larger businesses that do have the amenities for pan-Seattle services benefit by making their brand more visible to the local consumers around them.
It is an excellent and budget-friendly way to market business within a specific radius of the brick-and-mortar store. Sometimes, it can be as simple as changing your branding from a “Seattle store” to a “Lake Union” store. Focusing on your neighborhood is the key to success for small and medium-sized companies in and around the city.
The small changes under hyper localization of your site SEO can have a significant impact on who can see your website. Think of it as the difference between making your customers drive for 30 minutes to visit your store and helping a passerby or tourist locate your store from 200 meters away.
Why is targeting a local crowd necessary for boosting sales and profits?
Research shows that potential customers are more likely to visit a local business that they find in their Google local pack. They are less likely to visit a similar store that demands a 20-minute drive or 1 km walk! Sales are all about the consumer experience. If you can make it easier for online Google users to locate you, there is a high chance of boosting your business.
The hyper localization strategy is ideal for small bakeries, confectioneries, ice cream stores, cafes, restaurants, local or indie shops and several other localized services that cater to selected neighborhoods only. Larger businesses might not require hyper localization as much as the smaller ones. However, new branches of retail stores or franchise stores might benefit from boosting their visibility on the Google Local Business Pack via hyper localizing their content.
What are the benefits of hyper-local SEO?
Hyper localization can boost visibility, conversion, and sales, but that is not the end of it. It bears several other advantages that no SEO and digital marketing team can deny. According to Sydney SEO Company, some of the most significant benefits include –
- Less competition from similar businesses from other streets/districts/neighborhoods
- Less keyword competition
- Highly targeted and relevant visitors
- More chances of building an online community
- Better visibility against pertinent search queries from the area
When you change your business identity from “XYZ Bakers, Seattle” to “XYZ Bakers, Union Lake,” people looking forward to a sweet treat in and around Union Lake are more likely to chance upon you on the Google SERP.
How can you begin the implementation of hyper-local SEO on your online presence?
Apart from implementing finer changes on your website, you need to consider switching up your SEO on social media sites as well. Each social media post and story mentioning your business counts as a link. It is already a significant part of your off-site SEO if you have an active Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram presence.
Even the mentions on third-party review sites count as links and SEO elements. Therefore, try to include the name of the specific street and block you are on. Including the landmarks around your store can help you attract more paying customers.
While hyper localizing your SEO, remember not to include the names of any competitors. If there is a non-competing store that can serve as a landmark, go for it! It can improve your visibility effectively, but do so with their permission.
Why is working with an SEO team necessary for achieving hyper localization?
Your SEO team can help you find the right balance between staying on top of Google algorithm updates and optimizing your hyper-local SEO. Hyper localization is not a new concept. Nonetheless, it has never been more critical for local businesses in all the cities across the US.
With more than 543,000 businesses beginning each month in the US, small and medium-sized businesses need to reduce competition to survive. Startups and SMBs rarely have the budget for paid ad campaigns and traditional advertising. Hyper localization can level the ground for them to compete with the big fish.
It can cut out unnecessary competition from nearby streets and roads that have larger retail stores that draw all the traffic. Hyper localization is enough to arouse the curiosity of the potential customer to visit a store. Once inside, the visitor is likely to turn into a customer real soon, as per statistics.
Only around one-third of the new small businesses last for ten years or more in the US market. It is a harsh terrain that demands all the help you can get. Hyper localization is an excellent way to boost your prominence to the local Google users. It costs next-to-nothing to modify your site’s content and address in the online indexes when you already have a trusty SEO team by your site. Speak to your SEO expert today about the prospects of your company upon hyper localizing your presence on the web.