The digital marketing landscape is increasingly competitive and saturated. If you want your business to achieve visibility and drive more online leads, you need to stand out. Local SEO is one of the best ways to do that because it helps businesses show up in local search results when potential customers are looking for services in their area. That said, implementing a successful local SEO strategy isn’t easy, nor can it be successfully implemented by everyone or the company. The process requires a solid understanding of how search engines crawl websites and assign value to different pages, as well as which keywords drive the most traffic from local searches and what types of terms users typically enter to find businesses like yours. Fortunately, there are some great local Pearland SEO companies out there that can help you succeed with this challenging strategy — here are five reasons why you should hire one:
1 – You don’t have the time or resources to do it yourself.
If you’re a small business owner, you likely wear a lot of hats — in fact, you might be the only person employed by your company. While you might enjoy being in charge of everything, marketing may not be your strong suit. Even if you have an excellent understanding of how local SEO works, you likely don’t have the time to research the best strategies and stay up to date on changes to the landscape. In fact, you may not even have the resources to hire an intern or junior employee to take on the task. Local SEO isn’t something you can effectively do in your spare time; it requires a significant time investment, as well as ongoing monitoring and refining of your strategies as the digital marketing landscape evolves. If you’re pressed for time, hiring a Pearland SEO expert to handle your strategy is the best way to ensure you stay in front of your customers.
2 – You want to be sure you’re following best practices.
As we mentioned, there are many best practices you need to follow to rank in local search. A big one is making sure you have a high-quality website, which includes a mobile-friendly design whose speed is above average and a seamless user experience. You’ll also want to have a strong presence on social media, and if you’re in the service industry, make sure you have a strong online reputation and are active in your community. Having a detailed understanding of all these factors, as well as how to put them into practice, can be difficult, especially if you don’t have experience with SEO or have a small team that doesn’t have the time or resources to learn everything. For example, if you have a slow-loading website, you risk being demoted in local search results because Google’s algorithms are designed to rate sites higher that are faster. Your web developer might be able to make adjustments to fix the problem, but if they don’t fully understand how SEO works, they might break other parts of your site. If you hire a Houston SEO company, you can rest assured that all their strategies are top-notch, as they’re required to follow industry-standard best practices.
3 – Google is making big changes to its local SEO algorithm.
The rules of the search engine game change often, but the last few years have been particularly dramatic with local SEO. Google has made some significant changes to the algorithm that determines what shows up in local search results, and it’s expected to make more in the near future. Why is this a good reason to hire an SEO company? Because you may be tempted to just wait and see how things play out. You may have made some changes to your site already, hoping that they will help you rank better. You may be waiting for things to settle down. But if you do that, your business could suffer in the short term. Remember, if you don’t make your changes now, they don’t go into effect until next month, which means you miss out on the opportunity to be part of the search results of next month’s Google update. That’s where a good local SEO company is helpful because they can be sure they’re doing everything right to maximize your exposure in the coming months.
4 – Consumers are using local search more than ever before.
You may have noticed that people are increasingly turning to local search to discover local businesses. According to one study, 80% of consumers use local search to find businesses and navigate their daily lives. Local search is definitely on the rise, and if you aren’t making sure you’re part of it, you could miss out on a massive opportunity to drive more online leads, get new customers, and increase revenue. Local search is a great strategy for a few reasons. For starters, it’s affordable and easy to implement, which is great for smaller businesses. It’s also a proven strategy that has been helping businesses succeed for many years.
5 – People trust local brands more than global ones.
Consumers are also more likely to buy from a local brand than a global one. If you’re a local business, you have the edge when it comes to trustworthiness. For example, if you operate a restaurant, you can be sure that your customers will be able to visit you in person and see where and how your food is prepared. You can also take advantage of the fact that you are in your community, attending events and being involved. Taking this extra step to be a part of your customers’ lives is something a global brand has to be much more thoughtful about.
How to hire a great local SEO company
With all of these reasons in mind, it should be clear why you should hire a local SEO company. You might be wondering, then, how to find a great one. There are a few things to keep in mind when hiring a local SEO expert. The first is to make sure they are experienced in your industry. The second is to make sure they use white hat SEO strategies. The first is important because different industries have different needs when it comes to SEO. What works for a law firm won’t be as effective for a gastropub or a music school. The second is important because some SEO companies use black hat methods that could get you penalized or banned from search engines. That’s why it’s also important to make sure that the company you hire has a proven track record and is trustworthy.