Virtually all businesses require web presences in the digital age. According to a report from Visual Objects, approximately 76% of consumers will research a business’s web presence before deciding to visit it.
If you’re a locksmith, you need to be online. You also need to ensure your website helps you attract customers. A local search engine optimization (SEO) strategy can help you achieve this goal.
What Locksmiths Need to Know About Local SEO
Ranking high in search results when a potential customer performs a relevant Google search is important for any business. Research indicates the links on the first page of Google search results account for 71% of all clicks.
Business owners across all industries invest in SEO services accordingly. SEO involves refining various factors of a site (and its individual pages) to improve search result rankings.
Local SEO is a subset of SEO that involves optimizing a site so its content ranks high when users perform searches related to a particular region, city, state, etc. For example, a global company like Apple might benefit from general SEO services. A company that only serves customers in a given area benefits from local SEO.
A locksmith can benefit from local SEO in numerous ways. The following are merely a few noteworthy examples:
Reaching the Right Users
A locksmith operates an extremely location-specific business. Due to the nature of their services, a locksmith can’t serve customers who aren’t in their geographic area.
Investing only in general SEO services may thus be a waste of time and money for a locksmith. Even if their content ranks high in Google search results pages, the benefit to their business could be minimal if the users who see their content don’t live or work in their region.
Local SEO guards against this issue. With a proper local SEO strategy, a locksmith can ensure their content ranks high when users in their area perform relevant Google searches. As such, their site is more likely to get attention from users who have the potential to become paying customers.
Tailoring Content to Local Needs
Blog entries and other forms of content can play a significant role in any SEO strategy. A site is more likely to perform well in search results if its content offers value to users.
For a locksmith, valuable content can take the form of blogs offering tips for dealing with common lock problems. A locksmith business with an effective local SEO strategy may tailor its content to the specific needs of people in the region.
For instance, a frozen lock is a type of issue a homeowner might encounter in a part of the country that’s prone to cold weather. A locksmith in such a region might address this issue in their website content if they’ve implemented a local SEO strategy. A locksmith in a warmer region might not need to touch on this topic.
Boosting Overall Competitiveness
Your customers aren’t the only ones who are local when you run a locksmithing business: your competitors are also local as well.
With a general SEO strategy, you may be competing with all locksmithing businesses across the country (or continent). A local SEO strategy ensures you’re competing with other locksmithing businesses in your area. As a result, you’ll have less competition, boosting your odds of ranking high in Google search results.
The Importance of Local SEO for Locksmiths
The above are just a few reasons locksmiths benefit from local SEO services. Be aware, you don’t need to develop and implement a local SEO strategy on your own. Instead, you may focus on running your business, hiring SEO specialists to assist with your strategy. Doing so is key to tapping into a local market through the internet.
Main Street ROI offers local SEO services to locksmiths and other such local small business owners.