Local SEO & Your Sales: What You Need To Know
First, it should be said that most people assume Local SEO and Organic SEO are one and the same. They are not. It’s important to understand the different elements of SEO before we connect the dots as to WHY Local SEO can have an impact on sales and rentals.
So what is Local SEO?
Local SEO refers to the optimization of your business locations, i.e., Google Maps, Apple Maps, Bing, etc., and the results that populate for a given query.
To provide you with a better understanding of what Local SEO looks like, take a look at the search return below. This image is a search result showing the top three businesses on Google (Map Pack) and their ratings. Below that is where you begin to see the Organic Search results.
As you can see, there are two different types of SEO at play here – Local SEO and Organic SEO.
So, what’s the difference between Organic and Local SEO?
The main difference between Local SEO and Organic SEO, especially as it relates to Google is that Local SEO is geared toward getting your business to show up in the Maps, one of the most vital being the Google Maps pack.
Organic SEO’s goal is geared toward getting your website to rank highly in the organic search results (above for below maps) for both Mobile and Desktop. Organic SEO requires various elements of SEO work that include both onsite and offsite SEO, pages, posts, meta, titles, schema, and more.
How Can SEO Affect My Sales?
SEO and your sales are connected in more ways than you might think. Here’s a look at how that state of your site’s SEO can affect your sales.
When it comes to Organic SEO, there are a few key factors that can affect your Container sales or rentals, we’ll cover the two major ones here.
Website Ranking
One is your website’s ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). If you’re not appearing on the first page for relevant searches, potential customers may never even find you.
Design & User Experience![mobile-friendly-design]()
Your website’s design and user experience (UX) are also important. If your website is hard to navigate or doesn’t provide the information people are looking for, they’re likely to click away and look elsewhere. The speed at which your site loads is also vital as, the slower your site loads, the more likely a user is to leave and find another provider whose site loads faster.
The two items listed above are married to organic SEO. A large and vital piece of Local SEO is Google Maps. This is the third leg we will focus on below.
Google Maps
An important factor that relates to Local SEO is online reviews. People trust online reviews just as much as personal recommendations, so if you have positive reviews from past customers, that can go a long way in enticing new ones. On the other hand, negative reviews can deter people from doing business with you.
Google Maps Algorithm Changes
There may have been a time when you got a ton of traffic and engagement on the map, maybe even a large number of sales and rentals, if you’ve seen that drop, you can thank algorithm updates at Google Maps. Previously, you may have been able to reach a wider radius with your listing but that may no longer be the case for many Storage Container providers.
If you google “Best Pizza”, you’re probably aware that Google Maps will give you a list of the closest Pizza Restaurants near you. That is also the case when it comes to Storage Containers. If you’ve seen volume drop from the map and/or your Google Business listing is showing you in the negative, the GMB algorithm updates may be the culprit. Of course, the fact that you’re no longer in the top 3 means that sales are not as strong as when they are if you are comfortably positioned at the top of Maps.
How Can I Climb Back Up?
There are ways to engage the larger radius again and build branches back out to those geo-coverage areas that you may have lost after the algorithm change.
Three Tips to increase your Radius in the GMB and climb your way back up
- Get more GMB Reviews from customers covering those Geo Areas.
- Engage with positive reviews.
- Regularly post videos and images into your GMB listing.
SEO is an important part of every marketing strategy with an emphasis on Local SEO and it can have a direct impact on your sales. It’s also important to remember that you can reach customers in all of your targeted geo areas that you may have lost but it does take a dose of patience and consistency. So if you want to improve your Local SEO and boost your sales, it’s important to consider all sides of the SEO equation.
eVisionSEM