How to Show The Value of Local SEO
Introduction
Many businesses are keen on establishing an online presence especially during this time of COVID-19. There are several ways they could approach this one being performing local SEO. However, like with any other investment any business would surely like to determine whether it is worth the risk. In other words, what’s the margin of returns on investment. It is easier to determine this through other forms of digital marketing, however with local SEO, some techniques have to be applied to determine its effectiveness. Below we have a look at some of the strategies you can use to determine the effectiveness of local SEO.
What is the value of local SEO?
SEO needs to meet plenty of milestones like increasing traffic, reducing bounce rates, and finally the most important contributing to increased conversion. Comparing data on such metrics before and after SEO could prove to be one of the most effective ways of showing the value added by SEO to the business.
Daily Updates
SEO at the end of the day is performed by bots and search engine algorithms. It doesn’t magically occur once a business has been optimized for search. Therefore, it could prove difficult to determine its effectiveness, unless data is monitored on a daily basis. To prove the effectiveness of SEO to your clients, provide daily status updates. This could help them see the gradual improvements SEO offers. It is also good to set up milestones and targets for future projections of some search metrics such as conversion rates.
Daily Traffic reports
Traffic is the simplest way to show the effectiveness of SEO, for it can be easily monitored and compared with several tools like Google Analytics, Cloud flare, and several others. Comparing traffic metrics can also be easily done as the data is usually readily available and visualized. However, it is good to note that comparing traffic metrics could be a suitable method, only if the business has not employed alternative methods to optimize their website for search.
Analyzing click-through rates
Daily traffic reports as highlighted previously have one flaw if the business has employed other search optimization strategies. However, using tools such as Keywords everywhere to find traffic that went through the Google my business link of the company, before finally visiting their actual website, could be a clever way to estimate the amount of traffic Local SEO contributed towards the general traffic received on the business’ website.
Conversion Rate report
The final goal for SEO is to increase the conversion rate. Generating a report on conversion rate after a given period of time could be a great way of illustrating the effectiveness of your Local SEO efforts. With increased traffic, it is natural that conversion rates should increase and the traffic and conversion metrics are expected to be proportional.
Ranking
The main objective of SEO is to increase the ranking of a business on various search engines. If done well, a business is expected to rank higher and higher with time for certain keywords. Using keyword research tools such as ahrefs, you could get data on the Keywords which the business ranks high and also compare the keyword metrics for the business against competitors. If SEO is done effectively, the business will rank higher with time and this data could be tangible evidence of SEO promoting the brand.
Request for customer data
There are several statistics in favor of local SEO and its positive contribution towards conversion even if the conversion doesn’t occur online. According to HubSpot marketing analytics, 72% of consumers did a local search before visiting a store within five miles. Such statistics could provide data on the effectiveness of local SEO if customers could be requested to provide data on details such as from where did they hear of the business. This could be done if they visit the store for the first time physically or through a form digitally before making a purchase.
Compare traffic demographics
Traffic is usually a general metric, as it could be from various sources. To determine the contribution of local SEO towards traffic, data on demographics especially geolocation could reveal the source of traffic. Tools such as Google Analytics, Cloud flare ad services, all provide geolocation data on website visits. If local SEO is performed, search data should reveal the number of visits a business obtains locally. If local SEO is done well, this number is expected to increase with time.
Find data on local brand mentions
Once SEO has been performed, finding data on local brand mentions could also provide insight on how much the online presence of the brand has increased after SEO efforts. This could be done by using keyword research tools. To determine if SEO has contributed to the local mentions, you could compare the occurrence of mentions both before and after SEO to get some insight.
Revenue statistics
Revenue can be classified as the most important metric that contributes to demonstrating the benefits of local SEO. The revenue is expected to increase after local SEO is done however, a business will need more data on the margin of revenue that is actually as a result of local SEO, for probably sales would have just increased by sheer luck. Data on revenue as a result of local SEO can be estimated by determining the actual amount of sales that could have probably occurred, as a result of conversions from traffic through local SEO. With this data, it is easier to determine, sales as a result of local SEO.
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Conclusion
If you are a business owner, you could seek the services of an Austin digital marketing agency, or other Marketing agencies in Dallas to get more insight on how to implement the above steps in determining the contribution of local SEO to your business. Basically, the process just involves the analysis of various metrics such as traffic, conversion, revenue, and keyword analytics among others. With this data, the effectiveness of local SEO can surely be determined.
