With the average small business set to spend around $75,000 a year on digital marketing, startups and low-budget companies struggle to compete. One of the ways that companies have the chance to match larger competitors is on search engines. With web design and SEO companies swearing by local SEO, it’s because it’s a fairly simple and unintrusive way to attract an audience.

Here are three reasons companies swear by it.

1. Search Engines Swear By It

One of the reasons to swear by local SEO is because it’s vitally important to search engines.

Go on any search engine and type in “pizza”. In the old days, you’d get a dictionary definition of pizza or information on how to make one. After years of tweaking the algorithm, search engines know that when people search for a food item, they usually want to know the nearest place to find that item.

The way to figure that out is to look at where the search originates from and what their history is. When you get a response from search engines, you’re going to get information about where the nearest pizza is to you. This is usually the most relevant result for search audiences and is heavily based on local terms and user reviews.

2. Target Your Local Audience

The best way to build a stable customer base is by reaching out to the people nearest to you. When your customers can get your products and service in their own backyard, they’re more inclined to go to you than to online retailers. However, you need to work on letting them know you’re in their backyard.

By using local SEO, you can add neighborhood names, zip codes, city, and state information to tell customers where you are. When customers know where to find you, they’ll start seeing you when you drive by. They’ll pick up on where you’re located and start changing their route to get over to your business.

People love the feeling of buying locally and supporting their local economy. Local SEO helps you to give them what they want.

3. If You’re Already Doing SEO…

If you’re already doing the work to put together an SEO campaign, it’s no harder to implement local SEO than to do a standard campaign. Local SEO is in how you pivot your text and what you include in content. If you’re ready to implement an SEO campaign, work on pivoting for local SEO.

If you’re not prepared to do the work on your own, hire a consultant to make sure it’s done right. While SEO is a factor that needs to be constantly massaged, once you get the hang of it, you can do it yourself in the future.

Web Design and SEO Companies Know Best

If you want to know the way to get noticed online, just ask web design and SEO companies. You’ll get straightforward answers leading you toward local SEO. This is the best way to build your audience in the coming years.

When you capture your audience, make sure you’re following our tips to give your customers the ideal experience online.