Explained: The Importance of Local SEO for SMEs
If you take out your phone and search “the best digital marketing agency in Chandigarh” on Google, you will see the top results from that specific location. That’s what local SEO is about. For small and medium enterprises (SMEs), it’s a boon. Let me tell you why.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has made a significant impact over the past few years. Today, it is an ideal method for businesses to get maximum exposure worldwide. Similarly, local SEO helps small businesses reach local customers.
It is a marketing strategy aimed at improving search engine results in a specific geographical location. If your business relies on customers within a specific location, local SEO can help you create the difference between your small business surviving and thriving.
The Benefits of Local SEO – Explained by a Digital Marketing Agency in Chandigarh
Around half of all Google queries are local. Even if someone performs a normal search, the chances are that Google will show local businesses nearby. That being said, let’s take a look at the benefits local SEO offers to small businesses.
1. More Customers
According to our digital marketing company in Chandigarh, local SEO is the way to reach customers who are ready to buy. 72% of customers that search for a local business visit a shop within five miles. If you’re in local search results, you can capture these leads for your small business.
This simply means that local SEO puts you in front of the customers at the exact moment they’re searching for your product/service. When done right, finding more customers becomes a breeze. All you have to do is to improve your business search engine ranking with a digital marketing company in Chandigarh.
2. More Conversions
Local SEO results in better conversions and sales by driving targeted traffic. This is because the likelihood of conversion is higher for users searching for local content. It is reported that 80% of local searches performed on mobile phones convert into sales.
The consumer might be in the area of the business that they are searching for. Thus, your business has a higher chance of contacting and converting that consumer. On average, you can convert one in three leads into potential customers.
3. Better Brand Reputation
Branding and scaling your small business could be daunting, but not anymore. With local SEO and the right digital marketing agency in Chandigarh, you can target local customers and post relevant content on your website. Include images of your business, products, and updates that give consumers a greater sense of authority. This way, you will be able to establish a reliable brand reputation.
4. Cost-Effective Advertising
It’s true that local SEO requires time and effort. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not affordable. In fact, you can set up local business listings across the web for free. You can use tools like Google My Business and Facebook to make local SEO more cost-effective for online advertising.
5. Qualified Traffic
Local SEO helps you weed out traffic that isn’t likely to contact your business. This is because search engines provide relevant local results based on proximity and intent. So, if someone is 100 miles away, that person probably won’t see your company in the search results. However, the one who’s just a few miles away would see your business.
The Bottom Line
If you’re a small business owner, getting started with your SEO efforts in a specific location, local SEO would help you increase traffic from consumers in that area. Investing in this type of SEO is a proven way to put your small business in the limelight, attract more customers, and get a higher visit-to-sale rate.
As a leading digital marketing agency in Chandigarh, we understand the importance of local SEO for small businesses and work hard to help them reach their full potential. Allow us to take your small business to newer heights of SEO.
FAQs:
1. How do I know if I need local SEO?
If your business is physically located near your target audience or potential customers, then it’s likely you will need local SEO to be seen by them in that specific geographic area.
2. How does local SEO work?
Most search engines have been localizing search results to deliver a better user experience. For instance, if you are in Chandigarh and search for “a digital marketing company in Chandigarh”, Google will display listings of local agencies to your IP address.
3. Will it require making changes to my website?
Yes, you will have to make the required changes to your website, such as adding content and blog posts. This is because search engines prefer relevant content with proper title tags, headers, meta descriptions, ALT tags, etc.
4. Should I hire an agency to handle local SEO?
If learning about local SEO and digital marketing makes your head spin, then consider hiring a digital marketing agency in Chandigarh. This will save you a lot of time, which you can utilize on other business tasks.
Cookieless Future: What do Marketers Need to Know?
As a digital marketing or digital marketing company in Chandigarh, you may have already heard about the cookieless future. Google planned for phasing out 3rd-party cookies at the beginning of 2022. However, in late June 2021, the tech-giant suddenly decided to push back the deprecation timeline to the end of 2023.
Despite all that, the important question is, “what does cookieless future mean and how it is going to impact marketing and advertising in the coming years?”Here’s everything you need to know about the cookieless future.
Cookieless Future – Explained by a Leading Digital Marketing Agency in Chandigarh
When a user visits a website, it sends text files to the browser. These files are known as “cookies” and appear on most websites today. Their role is to store important data to enhance the overall browsing experience, such as the user’s access history and their interactions.
When we say “a cookieless future,” we are talking about the end of 3rd-party cookies. As the marketing and advertising industry heavily depends on retargeting and data audience to ensure successful campaigns, marketers are now worried about how the internet going cookieless will affect them. According to our digital marketing agency in Chandigarh, this is how it may affect everyone from Google to marketers to users in the future.
- Marketers: With the end of 3rd-party cookies, marketers and advertisers may see a reduction in the availability of user data. In that case, they will need alternatives to adopt new mechanisms.
- Users: A cookieless future may bring more security to users when they browse the web. And this is the intention of this whole cookieless movement. On the other hand, this may also result in a less personalized browsing experience.
- Google: Through its Chrome browser, Google joined the cookieless movement, but the company itself knows how it will be affected. This is because Google’s search engine utilizes cookies to personalize search experiences.
How Marketers Should Prepare for the Cookieless Future?
Once Google implements the cookieless future, most 3rd-party cookies will automatically diminish in size. Then what will you do? Although this implementation is delayed until mid-2023, there are some practical tips for marketers to ensure their business remains future-proof. Below are a few suggestions by a trusted digital marketing agency in Chandigarh.
1. Focus on Building 1st-party Data Assets
When 3rd-party data disappears, get it from somewhere else. Rely on first-party data that you collect directly from your customers or prospects. It may include newsletter subscriptions and purchase histories. This might seem a little easier said than done, but you can use a Customer Data Platform to ingest data from multiple sources and learn PPC ads.
2. Start Taking Consumer Consent Seriously
3rd-party cookies often create the impression of being ‘followed’ through the web, which is the reason why there is a surge to eliminate them completely. Whatever approach you follow in the cookieless future, make sure you don’t make the same mistake – breaking the trust of users. Make sure the data you collect reflects consumer consent. Learn PPC ads and use sign-ups, subscriptions, and newsletters.
3. Find Alternative Targeting Methods
Although 1st-party data is a key part of the cookieless future, it isn’t the whole picture. In the absence of 3rd-party cookies, a whole new host of targeting methods may thrive to fill the void. And you should know which ones will work best for you. For instance, contextual targeting may make a comeback. Also, Google’s FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts) would become a prominent way to target people with similar browsing habits.
4. Invest Your Time in Data Consolidation
To make the most of the user data, marketers have to make sure that it’s fresh, accurate, and complete. This is where data consolidation comes in handy, which combines and stores varied user data in a single place. It allows marketers to streamline their data resources, explore new patterns, and gain crucial insights from multiple viewpoints. Further, data consolidation is the way to customize interactions and correlate online conversion data.
5. Be Transparent
In the age of concerns about the privacy of user data and the validity of data protection, you need to be transparent. There is no other way than to have clear guidelines to collect users’ data. Let them know how and why you want to collect their data. Create a privacy policy that clearly defines the data protection guidelines. As a knowledgeable digital marketing agency in Chandigarh, we recommend that you make it accessible on the internet.
Wrapping Up
In case you don’t know, 3rd-party cookies have already vanished on Firefox and Safari. So, the cookieless future is almost here! Whether it’s a digital marketing agency or a digital marketing company in Chandigarh, there is no time left to waste. Not only does it mean building up a solid 1st-party data asset, but also assembling a whole new suite of addressability solutions.
Need help? Let us know.
FAQs:
1. Will retargeting end with the cookieless future?
No, retargeting will not end. Instead, it may evolve and provide technology-driven privacy guarantees to users. It will be driven by the concept of ‘cohorts’ – a group of people who share similar interests.
2. Can you help me create a personalised ad without using cookies?
Yes! Being a leading digital marketing agency in Chandigarh, we can help you create personalised ads and reach consumers. What happens between consumers and the ad on a device will stay on the device itself.
