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What You Need to Know About Local SEO in 2022

Has your company done work in the local SEO field? If it hasn’t, then you are potentially missing around half of your market when they hit the search engines. In 2022, local SEO and local search are one of the hottest online marketing trends, and for good reason.

What Is Local SEO?

Local SEO is a tactic that uses local search terms and local optimization strategies to better reach clients that live in a brand’s geographic target market. For example, a law firm that is targeting personal injury clients’ needs to reach only those clients who live in the area where the attorneys carry a license to practice law. Local SEO strives to drive this kind of targeted traffic to a site.

Why Local SEO Matters in 2022

Local SEO continues to grow in importance, and in 2022 it is one of the best strategies to not only increase traffic, but also to increase conversions from that traffic. Each month in the United States, around 60 billion Google searches happen. That’s a significant number, but the reality is you don’t want all of those searches coming to your website, because many of them aren’t people you can serve. Interestingly, of those searches, around 46% have local intent These are internet users who need something they can buy or someone they can hire that is local to them. These are the people you want to reach with your marketing efforts. This statistic also means that a failure to focus on local search will hurt your ability to reach about half of the online audience you could serve.

How to Rank Well for Local Search in 2022

So how can you rank well for local search in the current search engine landscape? In past years, using geographic-specific terms or the phrase “near me” was the key, but Google is constantly evolving and getting smarter. Now, you can still use geographic-specific keywords, and you should to an extent, but you’ll also want to focus on making your physical address a key part of your online marketing. List yourself in directories, update your Google My Business page, and make sure the address listed on your website matches these addresses. Google can pick up on all of that and connect those factors to your website. Then, it will show searchers businesses that are in close proximity to their geographic location. Thus, when someone searches for a drug store, they get a list of drug stores not far from where they are.

You also need to focus on making your website relevant to the search terms your clients will use and credible. These SEO best practices help with your local SEO as much as your overall SEO.

Local SEO is not something you can afford to ignore, but it’s also not as difficult as you might think. Once you know the right strategies, you can rank well in your local market. The best way to ensure you keep up with these and other Google changes is to work with a credible online marketing firm, like InfoStream. Reach out today to let us help you build your local SEO presence.