So, what does a 500% increase on “Near Me” searches mean? Since “Near Me” searches aren’t just about places anymore, but also about things and services too, this massive increase in searches in the last two years means that more people are relying on the internet to get them where they need and what they need when they need it.

People want immediate results, and having a selection of places offering the same product gives them options for which businesses are most conducive to serving their needs. Having a listing that ranks in Google’s top ten makes your business one of the choicest options, and people are more likely to buy from a business that Google approves of.

The last two years included a year of the pandemic when everyone stayed at home and had their needs delivered to them, contributing to the 500% increase in “Near Me” searches. As a result, supermarkets, salons, pharmacies, and restaurants with Google listings were extremely busy, especially when they appeared on the search results’ first page.

Now, you may think that the competition is tough and that you can’t compare with big industry names. But, wait! We’re talking local here – local searches are a completely different thing because people searching for local results are most likely to buy. 

They certainly aren’t searching for a hairdresser or a coffee shop just because they are bored – they are probably searching because they need these services and they need them now! This is why 76% of people that do local searches on a smartphone or mobile device will visit a physical place in the next 24 hours. What kind of image is your business showing online? 

Is that image in alignment with the quality of products and services you offer or it doesn’t represent them to their full potential? You should try your best to improve your presence on Google – as a result, your sales will increase.

Google is where people all across the world go first to find what they are looking for. Most people find what they are looking for in the first couple of results. That’s why your business needs to be ranked high in the local Google search result

I am sure that if you want a share of that business, in fact, I am sure you want a GIANT SIZED share of that business, here is a list of the amount of clicks that first 10 results on Google get:

1. #1 Organic Search Result gets 28.5% of the clicks
2. #2 Organic Search Result gets 15.7% of the clicks
3. #3 Organic Search Result gets 11% of the clicks
4. #4 Organic Search Result gets 8% of the clicks
5. #5 Organic Search Result gets 7.2% of the clicks
6. Anything else on the first page of the search results is still getting you less than 5% of the total search volume for your target keywords

The first 10 positions are stealing more than 90% of the business and you need to rank on the first page of Google if you want to see any significant gains in traffic, local brand awareness, than customers.

According to a study by Local Marketing Institute, less than 44% of local business have actually claimed their Google My Business listing. If you already have already added your business to Google Maps in the first place, then you should claim its listing. A Google Map business listing highlight’s the name, location, and category. 

The best way to claim or verify such a listing is to provide accurate and comprehensive details. The more accurate and detailed the information is, the higher your chances of getting a top ranking.

Write a good description of your business such that it gives a vivid representation of what you are offering. This is the best opportunity for you to attract your target audience. You want to engage them from the word go hence you shouldn’t overload them with excess details.

Make your business profile fun and engaging by offering additional information such as working hours, official website as well as questions and answers. Remember that local SEO can be highly competitive and if there are multiple businesses within your region with the same type of business, then you need to put extra effort to clinch the top spot when it comes to Google Listing based on your location.

Now that’s a lot a local searches: almost half the internet! This is why if you have a local business, it’s extremely important to get your business online!

Now don’t get me wrong, backlinks are still a major Google ranking factor, but it shouldn’t be your main focus when doing SEO on your website.

Most SEO “experts” will tell you that one of the best ways to increase visibility in search engines is to build links. The more high-quality links you make, the higher your brand recognition, and your search engine rankings will improve, while that is true, there are other factors involved.

Even before introducing the Google RankBrain update, which prioritizes relevance, context, and quality, we already saw changes. The RankBrain algorithm focuses on the user’s intent as the primary objective. Your website should cater to the searcher’s intent before you can build links.

Google takes a great deal of pride in its searches. With Google Maps, one of the things it’s most concerned about is spam or fake businesses. The company works quickly to remove any listings that might be out of date, inaccurate, or otherwise confusing to users. 

The first layer of Google’s defense against fake businesses is the verification process. It’s a simple bit of two-way communication that ensures that the person who edits a location’s information actually works there. 

For most businesses, verification is simple: you tell Google that you own your business, they send you a postcard, and you give them some information that you find on the postcard. 

It’s like SMS verification except through mail. Just like with SMS verification, make sure you don’t get the postcard confused with spam and throw it away by accident. You can tell if your business is verified by looking at the business listing that appears after a normal Google search. 

The relationship between location and search ranking is complicated. Location affects the amount of content you have access to, the quality of your backlinks, and even how well-optimized keywords are for local searches. 

Location matters a lot when it comes to SEO rankings – but what does that mean? When we talk about “location,” people often think they only need their geographic area in mind: 

If an individual business sells something specific like clothes or services, then those locations will be important as far as keyword optimization goes because potential customers may type into Google phrases related with their region such as “clothing stores near me” or “cleaning services near me”.

It’s not just geography, though; many other factors play into this, too, including having access to valuable sources online (such things relating directly to your industry) Google’s search engine has been designed to rank the most helpful websites available. 

Among these SEO factors is location (perhaps a physical store location), and this factor can significantly impact your rankings depending on the specific keyword you’re targeting for that ranking campaign. 

Location does not just refer to where in the world or country someone lives when thinking about how best to serve their needs – it also includes which city they happen to live in as well as what state and zip code information are listed within Google Maps of all points-of-interest with instructions pertaining specifically toward them being located near users who conduct queries centered around any given geographical area at varying distances away from each other according to an individual query’s contents (miles). 

Location is not just a ranking factor that sometimes matters. Searches with local intent use an entirely different algorithm, and locations in other countries can drastically change what people look for to find on the internet.

Search engine optimization has been a critical key to business success since the 1990s, though it may not have been as widely known then as it is now. The process itself has evolved in the intervening years, and the SEO process is now refined enough that in the hands of a successful SEO company, businesses can see real results. So why is SEO still important today? 

First and foremost is the continued trends in the digital space. The generations that were resistant to online shopping and locating their answers on the internet are a smaller and smaller share of the market each year. 

The opposite of course holds: more and more consumers are searching for products/services online before buying them, and a larger and larger share of businesses get their customers from online search results. 

Word-of-mouth and traditional paid advertisements still play a role, but search engines are a bigger individual driver than either of these “old” marketing strategies. 

The global pandemic served to accelerate these trends, creating new online consumers, even among those previously skeptical of the process. SEO is what allows a business to capitalize on these trends. 

Without effectively managed SEO, business owners risk never reaching the eyes of potential customers, who will instead be captured by the organizations that better employ SEO to their advantage. SEO in Houston is even more critical than elsewhere, as the dense area brings competitors in larger numbers than elsewhere. 

A company in a rural area in Missouri may not have to worry about too many competitors appearing above them in search results. In Houston, however, that is a major concern. So how specifically does a Houston SEO company make sure these factors work to your benefit?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a part of digital marketing where it helps your business to get higher in the search engine results. It uses keywords from your niche, special phrases, and meta descriptions to bring your website closer to the eyes of internet users. 

While this strategy is a bit more difficult than email marketing, for example, it gives instead an increased value for your online promotion and eventually provides you with a higher chance of becoming visible in the vast internet environment. 

The great thing about SEO is that you can do a part of it yourself in case you have talent in writing engaging content and setting up a website. By doing some SEO tasks on your own, you save money that can be invested in more promotion for your business.

An important step to bringing your business closer to success is to build trust with customers. 

Let’s face it when you type a product name in the search engine, you always click on the websites that are on the first page of search results. 

A higher ranking on Google automatically instills more credibility. In this way, you will get more people visiting your site which will eventually help you expand your customer pool. 

Of course, not all your page visitors end up buying, but a certain percentage of them will do. So, the higher the number of visitors, the more new clients you get. But, you also have to provide the visitors with quality content to ensure they stay longer on your site.