Why Businesses Should Consider Local Listing?

December 2, 2019 mandar12 0 comment

Local Listings have always played a vital role for customers in finding a business. In the Olden days, phone books dominated the world. Local Businesses had to sit back and wait for the customers to find them. For instance, if a customer needed a brick and mortar store, they could easily look it up on a phone book. Customers easily found their way to local businesses and this resulted in increased conversions.

Today, there is immense pressure on local businesses to make themselves available to the public. When a customer is looking for a restaurant the first thing, they do is a quick search on their phone to obtain nearby search results. If a local business is not visible online it won’t show up in search results amongst its competitors.

Following are the benefits of Local Listing one should consider to increase online visibility of a business:

  • Boost Online Presence:

A local business should have a primary goal to reach a wide number of potential customers. Search Engine strategies like online directories play a crucial role in boosting online presence. This results in increased website traffic as well as more visits to a storefront. Another important factor that local businesses should consider is voice search. Nearly 40% of mobile searches have local intent. Local businesses must have relevant information available online including business location, business hours, phone number and the services they offer.

  • Enhances Reputation with Customers:

According to Edelman Trust Barometer 64% of consumers trust online search engines more than anything else. Customers are more likely to try a well-reviewed business on google. Billboards, print ads and other words of mouth methods are no longer sufficient to gain the trust of the customers. It is of utmost importance that a local business should have a genuine and accurate online listing.

  • Customer Feedback and Sharing:

According to hostingtribunal.com 70% of consumers read reviews before they can trust a business Honest customer feedback helps local businesses to increase customer interaction. Businesses can then respond to both positive and negative reviews. This helps local businesses to improve their reputation on various review sites.

  • Increases Chances to Rank Above Competitors:

Local businesses with positive reviews and accurate information helps local businesses to build a reputation and help businesses to rank above their competitors. Local listings help small businesses to compete with large organizations. When it comes to local listings the size of the business doesn’t matter. Local Listings are solely based on accurate information and trust. Getting backlinks from authoritative websites helps local businesses to rank above their competitors in an organically.

  • Optimize Local listing for Voice Search:

According to Bright Local Survey, 47% of users use voice search for local search and business review ratings to discover new businesses. Local businesses should add more voice-related keywords to increase online visibility.

  • Free Online Advertising:

Many online directories including Google My Business helps local businesses to boost brand awareness by allowing businesses to submit information for free. It increases online visibility without paid advertising. Google My Business is one of the effective ways to increase brand awareness.

  • Helps to Improve Organic SEO:

Local listing helps to improve SEO through organic search rankings. It helps to increase citations and quality links to your website and proves your business to be more credible.

Hence, Local listing helps to increase online presence for your business.

Get in touch with Digimark Global and see how we can help.