When evaluating the types of digital marketing that will be most successful for your small or medium sized business, one thing is clear – local marketing via Google search is more important than ever before.

How Has the Algorithm Changed?

You may have heard that the Google algorithm has been undergoing changes in 2024 – but what does that mean for your business?

Through March and April 2024, Google launched a core algorithm update, one of the most complex Google updates ever released. According to Impression Digital, the update sought to reduce spammy content by over 40%, and to adjust settings so that Google is not treating “low quality spam” with the same severity as pure spam. The update also targeted link spam, including creating low-value content for manipulative links and repurposing expired domains with drastically different content. The core update marked a shift in Google’s ranking criteria, reducing the importance of links and emphasizing quality, credibility, and substantive content.

This means, for your business, that when considering digital marketing, a focus on high-quality content on your business’s website is more important than ever.

Despite these shifts in the Google algorithm, one thing hasn’t changed – the importance of local SEO for reaching your audience via digital marketing.

What Is Local Marketing and Local Marketing SEO?

Also known as neighborhood marketing or local store marketing, local marketing is a marketing strategy that targets consumers and customers within a certain radius of the physical location(s) of a business. As a small or medium sized business, reaching an audience of customers in your area is incredibly important.

It’s also important to understand exactly what local SEO is. Local SEO is a strategy that helps your business be more visible in local search results on Google. Local SEO is an important tool to use when promoting your business to potential customers in your area.

To dig a bit deeper into how local SEO operates, let’s first look again at how Google works.

How Does Google Work?

Since local SEO is a part of the Google ecosystem of searches and algorithms, it’s helpful to have a background on how the biggest search engine in the world functions.

According to a blog by Google, “search algorithms look at many factors and signals, including the words of your query, relevance, and usability of pages, expertise of sources, and your location and settings. The weight applied to each factor varies depending on the nature of your query. For example, the freshness of the content plays a bigger role in answering queries about current news topics than it does about dictionary definitions.”

Google searches operate by checking ranking factors of your website in order to generate a list to match a search. A Google search uses the Google Index, a stored copy of all the sites it has discovered.

The programs Google uses to build its index are known as “spiders.” These spiders start on a single page, then follow links on that page to find content on new pages. The content discovered is stored in the Google Index at an incredibly rapid pace.

Ranking Search Results

Google uses its algorithm to rank the many sites it stores in its Index. A search triggers an algorithm to check the index and generate the list of websites to match search results. When you Google a topic, how often do you go to the second page of Google results? Likely, you stay on the first page and may even only click on the very top results – which means the ranking order of results is important and is why you want to place your business as high on the list as possible.

Search results are ranked based on relevance, prominence, popularity and also location. The Google algorithm understands that when someone is searching for a topic – particularly for a product or service – they are most interested in searches that are close to them in physical proximity. When someone is craving pizza, it is second nature for them to plug in “pizza shops near me” in the Google search engine – and this is also true for completely different services, such as veterinarians or hardware stores. Harnessing local SEO to promote your products or services means having a strong presence online that Google can index and present to searchers.

How Does Local Make a Difference For My Business?

To further emphasize the importance of local SEO for your Lancaster, PA business, it’s important to understand how often location matters to people conducting Google searches. According to Search Engine Journal, almost a third of all Google searches have local intent, meaning the searcher is looking for something nearby or located in a specific area.

In order to be more helpful to these frequent searches, Google has included proximity as a factor when it ranks search results.

In a blog on its Google Business Profile Help site, Google communicates that proximity is important in determining local search ranking, saying “local results are based on primary relevance, distance, and prominence. A combination of these factors helps us find the best match for your service.” The blog also informs marketers that “distance considers how far each potential search result is from the location term used in a search. If a user doesn’t specify a location in their search, we’ll calculate distance based on what we do know about their location.” So, even when someone is searching on Google and not specifying where they are, location matters.

Why Does Local Matter So Much Now?

Consumers Are Often Searching For Businesses That Are “Open Now Near Me”

One thing is certain – in this day and age, consumers typically do not prioritize patience. Think With Google’s 2022 Retail Marketing Guide showed that the local search term “open now near me” had a 400% year-over-year increase between the periods of September 2019 to August 2020 and September 2020 to August 2021. If your business pops up in search engine results pages, consumers can see your business hours and distance or directions on Google Maps, which can increase foot traffic significantly.

Further, an incredible 76% of users visit a business within 24 hours of searching for the product or service they need, according to mobile local search statistics from Think With Google.

Consumers Will Directly Contact Local Businesses from Search Results

When you have a solid Google Business Profile for your business, it can boost the amount of calls you receive. Think With Google also revealed that “60% of smartphone users have contacted a business directly using the search results (e.g., “click to call” options). This conversion between Google searches and genuine inquiries is largely due to having key contact information (name, address, phone number) in your business’s Google Business Profile and all other business listings. This demonstrates the importance of making sure all of the information is accurate and consistent.

46% Of All Search Users Are Specifically Searching for Local Businesses

A Google representative was quoted saying that 46% of searches have local intent, which illustrates how important it is to improve organic results with high-quality local content. Focus on marketing in a way that makes it easy for potential customers to easily find your businesses, learn about it, be engaged by your online presence, easily communicate with you, and then visit your business within the next 24 hours.

American Consumers Prioritize Shopping Local

These high statistics may make more sense when we take a look at the national trends of small, local businesses across the country. Studies show that, overall, consumers in America prefer to shop local and have a positive view of small businesses.

According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, most U.S. adults (86%) say small businesses have a positive effect on the way things are going in the country. Further, small businesses actually receive by far the most positive reviews of any of the nine U.S. institutions Pew asked about, among the military, churches and religious organizations, the military, labor unions, technology companies, K-12 public schools, colleges and universities, banks and other financial institutions, and large corporations.

Further, according to a survey from Bentley University and Gallup, more than six in 10 Americans (63%) believe businesses overall have a somewhat or extremely positive impact on people’s lives, marking a seven-percentage-point increase since 2022. When asked about small and large businesses specifically, 85% of Americans reported small businesses have a somewhat or extremely positive impact on people’s lives, compared with 42% who said the same about large businesses.

Research from IPX 1031 reports the following statistics related to Americans’ perception of small businesses:

  • 57% of Americans are willing to pay more to support local businesses.
  • 2 in 3 Americans try to shop locally over shopping at large retail chains.
  • 90% of Americans would like to see more locally-owned businesses open in their area.
  • 1 in 5 Americans shop at small businesses often.

These statistics from paint a clear picture: the perception of small, local businesses is generally positive throughout the country, and Americans are eager to find small local businesses to patronize. As a small business owner, you can capitalize on this positive public perception – and LNP Media Group can help you do it.

How Can I Best Leverage Local Marketing?

Local marketing is clearly important – so how can you start to truly harness its power for your small or medium sized business?

  • Ensure local listings online are accurate and that your business is correctly listed when people search for your product or service in your area.
  • Build strong content on your website – and don’t shy away from location-centric content.
    • This includes being detailed about the products and services you offer, what specials you may carry, and what makes your business stand out.
    • Your website copy should also be focused on the user. Make sure you are building copy that is directed toward useful engagement with your audience and helps users solve the problems or needs that brought them to your site in the first place.
  • Verify and strengthen your Google Business Profile. As mentioned earlier, a strong Google Business Profile is key to strengthening your digital marketing presence.
How Can I Have the Best Google Business Profile?

To help your business appear higher in the list of search results, follow these steps, with links included from Google Support to help:

  • Ensure your business’s information is updated and fully complete. Search results will prioritize profiles that have complete, accurate information. Accurate information on your profile will also lead to more engagement with potential customers. If your address or phone number changes, be sure to update your profile. Make sure to also include accurate business hours, including holiday, weekend, or any special hours.
  • Manage and respond to reviews. Reviews can be tricky. But when you engage authentically with comments that customers leave on Google reviews, potential customers who come across your site will be encouraged by your responsiveness. When you receive positive reviews, it can boost your visibility and credibility. Read more about creating a link for customer reviews.
  • Verify your business’s location. You can do this across various Google products, including Maps and Search. It is important that people are able to find your physical location with ease. Read more about Google Verification
  • Include photos and visuals of your business, your products and/or your team. Photos can tell the story of your business, and potential customers like to place faces to names when discovering a new business for the first time. You can easily add photos, or other visuals, like short video clips, to your profile.

LNP Media Group can help you ramp up your local marketing efforts so that consumers can find your business and shop there! Contact us today, and we’ll help you develop a strategy that leverages local marketing and captures the right local customer base for you.

TL;DR:

Local marketing for online searches matters more than ever because Google’s algorithms prioritize physical proximity to the searcher. Consumers value the convenience of Google searches, and consumers demonstrate strong support for small, community businesses. LNP Media Group can help you maximize your business’s visibility online to a local audience that is searching for products and services like the ones your business offers.