Marketing Soup | Page 18

Why Focus on Dominating Local SEO? How about some stats to give you a little perspective:  Around 3 billion search queries per month consist of local key phrases  51% of consumers look for local businesses on their smartphones/tablets (while on the go)  70% of consumers use local search to find brick and mortar businesses  40% of consumers prefer to purchase at a store versus online (if they knew where a local store was)  50% of consumers use their smartphone to search for local businesses  80% of consumers use search engines to find local info  30% of Google searches are for local info This says a whole lot about local search and it should get you excited about taking a piece of this gigantic pie. Now, let’s see the different ways you can do just that. Optimizing for local search can increase your online and offline traffic tremendously, if you play your cards right. Here are the steps to take: 5 Ways to Boost Local Traffic  Classify Your Business as a Local Business People won’t know that you’re a local business if you don’t let them know. In search engines that have indexed your business, you want to ensure that you are categorized as a local business. First, you need to claim your Google My Business page and then classify your biz as a local one. You should then optimize the page by including all the info needed for your profile, including a description of your business. Also input your address and local phone number. You’ll have to choose relevant categories related to your business. Avoid spamming your page because Google frowns upon this and won’t hesitate to penalize you.