Success in business is an amalgamation of good products, great service, and excellent consumer awareness.
Particularly in the digital age where consumer behavior is increasingly driven by smartphones, disappearing on digital marketing channels is a mistake that modern businesses, no matter how big or small, cannot make. Many marketers are searching for the best way to optimize the businesses according to the top SEO Trends in 2021.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO is a proven way to get the attention of your local customers, who are more likely to make a purchase. Simply put, it increases the likelihood of your business selling products by promoting your business to nearby customers searching for the products and services your business offers.
What do the numbers say?
Statistics never lie and this is true even for search purposes. Here is a tweet by digital marketing expert Nick Wilson.
On the mystery of the Local Search Conference in Google HQ, Nick Wilson quoted “Now 46% of searches have local intent – excerpt from Google Representative Official Presentation. Ever since I last looked at that state, it has grown” – Nick Willesdon (@ nickwilsdon) October 10, 2014
This is a tweet of 2018, and it would be no surprise if local search intent commands more than 50% of Google queries in 2021.
An equally visible change in users’ Google search behavior is the rapid increase in “near me” searches (around 150%) compared to traditional searches. But most importantly, the real eye-opener for local businesses should be the fact that more than 7 out of 10 people doing local searches arrive at the store on the same day.
What is driving local search?
You do not need to be a Google search expert to know the answer. The answer is crystal clear:
It helps people find exactly the products and services they are looking for. As our SEO lead says: “Local SEO is like a hyperloop of marketing. It instantly connects the right products and services to the right customers. ” A Digital Marketing Agency Alaska assist in optimizing and eliminating the barrier between the customers and the product.
Local SEO benefits both business owners and customers alike:
• Local SEO makes the customer shopping experience easy and convenient.
• Local SEO connects the right customers to the right vendors.
• Local SEO gives online visibility to local businesses which increases business sales.
• Local SEO helps local business owners to promote products and services at exactly the right time i.e. the time when the customer is most likely to buy or receive the service.
• Last but not least, local SEO saves customers time and effort otherwise from moving from one shop to another in a busy market.
Top GOOGLE SEO Trends in 2021
Now that we know that local SEO is now essential for the growth of local business, what are the top Google SEO trends for 2021? Here is everything you need not only to improve local SEO rankings but also to drive business sales in 2021.
Good Customer Reviews: Gold Standard for Local SEO
Customer review is one of the primary standards used by local SEO algorithms for ranking local businesses. If two businesses are selling the same product or service, Google will put one ahead of the other with better ratings and reviews.
Therefore, if you want a significant increase in local SEO rank, then make sure that you are loved and rated by the customers who have come to you.
Is your business popular on the Internet?
Business popularity on the Internet is a by-product of affiliations. A business that enjoys a reliable online reputation and is consistently promoted by happy-customers in Internet forums and communities has seen a significant jump in its Google SEO rankings.
Voice SEO: A Clearly Obvious Transition
As voice bots are getting smarter with each passing day, it is natural that SEO ranking will also be driven by voice search. This means that conversational search queries include longer sentences rather than keyword phrases. Studies show that the majority of smart users were opting for voice search to find grocery stores and restaurants nearby. This trend is expected to pick up pace in 2021.
Business listings: to be exact is the new normal
Relevance, distance, and Prominence (RDP) remains a crucial ranking factor in local SEO. Avoid making unwanted mistakes on Google My Business listings. Ensure that your business name, address, product description, etc. are accurate and relevant. Also, share good quality product images and invite your existing customers for feedback and reviews. Google allows users to filter local search queries based on factors such as customer reviews, price, and business hours.
By ensuring that your Google My Business listings are relevant and up-to-date, you target your potential customers more effectively than ever before.
Don’t forget long-tail keywords
With increased voice-searches, 2021 may be the year that businesses specifically target long-tailed keywords to improve both traditional and local SEO rankings. You should research the questions that your potential customers use to get product information.
For example, a general voice search for brown leather bags might look like: ‘Which are the best bag shops in Connaught Place, Delhi?’
Ideally, Quora is a good place to start looking for questions that customers around you are asking on the Internet. In addition, you can also create your profile to answer location-based user queries relevant to your business. This will not only help you build engagement but also improve brand awareness.
Customer Survey: a powerful way to identify popular customer queries
Are your local customers looking for brown leather bags or black leather bags? Are they more interested in affordability or brand? These are questions that can be answered only if you are willing to go the extra mile. Create a questionnaire that primarily aims to identify the search objectives of your customers:
• Which products do they search for the most related to your business?
• Location phrases such as “Near Me”, “Near Connaught Place”, “Near Block C”, “Near Central Park” are most commonly used by him.
• Once you have collected a significant amount of data, you can analyze it and improve your Google Business Listing feed accordingly so as to target a larger section of the surrounding audience.
Keep an eye on your competitors
While there is nothing better than a unique and innovative brand name in digital marketing, it is always wise to look and learn from competitors who are doing better than you. This is of particular importance in the case of local SEO where your competitors are not more than a few blocks or streets away. And if they are successfully targeting online customers, then you can pick up from what you are doing better and try to emulate them in your local SEO efforts.
Ignore fake reviews
While you may feel that not a single fake review will have any effect on your online reputation, it certainly does, and more often than not, you may not understand it if you are not fond of the Internet. Simple research will give you a list of businesses that have lost billions due to poor app reviews, poor customer ratings.
It is now easier than ever for social media influencers to create a bad review, create a blog with a catchy title such as ‘The 10 Worst Customer Reviews on the Internet’.
And the next thing you know, his millions of followers have shared information with millions of other Internet users. This is an irreparable loss to your online reputation.
The solution is simple:
Report a fake review as inappropriate immediately. You can do this by going to the ‘Review’ option on Google Maps. However, use this feature when you check that the review is fake.
Search engine algorithms are getting smarter in ranking local businesses. Today it is not enough to just feed GMB listings and expect all your potential customers to come to your store.
Today, Friday-night party invitations do not see the high number of people without sneaking a peek into the party-theme, the performers, the atmosphere, and so on.
Therefore, expecting local business listings to attract potential customers on their own is not a wise business strategy. Factors such as social media engagement, digital consumer awareness, business mentions and online credibility will play an important role in differentiating you from your competitors.
At Reinvent Digital, we help businesses create a reliable digital footprint that not only improves local SEO rankings but also contributes significantly to long-term branding and business promotion.
We are a leading digital marketing agency in India, helping businesses build incredible credibility and loyalty among their existing and potential customers with our result-oriented SEO professional services. Book your consultation and website audit with us today and launch your brand in the forefront in this new era.
