The Importance and Benefits of Local SEO

Over the course of the past several years, local search engine optimization has risen in importance significantly. Google’s fan-named “Pigeon Update” (launched in July, 2014) brought to light the necessity of staying local when it comes to SEO, leaving innumerable entrepreneurs and business owners to seriously consider what they never before had – utilizing a local tangent to their strategies and campaigns. The “Pigeon Update” is an algorithm used to provide more accurate and relevant local search results, tied much more closely to traditional web ranking signals. While this update made clear the fact that the benefits of local SEO continue to steadily increase, it is widely anticipated that local SEO will only become more impactful and beneficial for businesses (small and large) as time progresses.
Here’s why:

1. Competition Continues to Increase

Every year, thousands of start-up businesses establish themselves as impressive new enterprises, causing search visibility to drop significantly in a number of heavily company-congested areas. How will business owners create any kind of relevant visibility amidst such dense and innovative competition? Simple. Turning to local SEO and optimizing all content locally will force business owners to seek out smaller target audiences, achieving relevant visibility despite steadily increasing competition. For this reason, local SEO will continue to gain importance as competition expands and evolves.

2. Google LOVES Local Businesses

If playing favorites is wrong, Google doesn’t want to be right. Over the years, Google has shown what appears to be obvious favoritism towards small, new, and exceptionally responsive companies. Sure, most of the ranking partialities are directly linked to the authority and history of a given brand – but Google is also known for enabling new business owners to break new ground despite potentially limited access to resources. Pigeon, therefore, is considered by many to be only the beginning of its locally-oriented updates. Utilizing a local SEO company will contribute immensely to the improved online visibility of local companies – and Google (clearly) likes this sort of thing.

3. Individualized Search Results

Google has also become quite a fan of offering highly individualized search results. As long as you are logged into a Google account, your location will play a major role in the customized results you see. The benefits of local SEO unfold further as Google becomes more sophisticated and predictive, and users begin requiring more individualized results than ever before.

4. Ongoing Growth of Mobile Devices

As desktop computers slowly become obsolete, the number of online searches originating from mobile devices increases ad infinitum. Nowadays the vast majority of searches are performed on the move, and with the introduction of wearable devices such as the Apple Watch, consumers will perform on-the-go searches even more frequently. Because of this, local searches are expected to be based on hyper-specific locations, and barriers between physical and digital worlds will become exceedingly less definitive. Local SEO contributes to the specificity of proximity-based searches, offering a far more physically relevant collection of information to mobile users and device wearers.

5. Personalized, Interactive Experience

One of the main benefits of local SEO is the highly personalized and collaborative relationship facilitated between business owners and search engine optimizers. Local SEO companies are but a phone call away – reachable, responsive, and directly invested. Local SEO companies come with a working knowledge of every in and out of local results. Not to mention, hiring on a locally grown SEO company will benefit the local economy. Going local is truly a win-win.
If you are considering starting up a local SEO campaign, or investing in a local search engine optimization company as opposed to one larger-scale, less intimate, and less beneficial overall, there is truly no time like the present. As Google updates continue to point in the direction of locally-oriented assistance, more and more business owners clamor to launch their local campaigns. Relying on an established company with a comprehensive knowledge of local content and relationship building, citation correction, and ongoing strategy is an absolute must. We at Dsquared Media come equipped with a working knowledge of all local campaign essentials, and have years of experience working closely alongside our clients to ensure their online presence stays up-to-date while maintaining consistent growth. As time progresses, the importance of keeping up-to-date with evolving optimization becomes more apparent, and the benefits of local SEO become more observable and evident than ever before. To begin your local campaign alongside a trusted, reputable, and immensely knowledgeable local search engine optimization company, give Dsquared Media a call today. We’ve got your back… links.