One question we hear a lot from companies in Mesa is, “Does my company really need local search engine optimization?”
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Obviously, the answer is “YES!” But to understand why this is, and how harnessing the power of local business SEO can help take companies in Mesa to the next level and achieve their goals, we need to dive into what local SEO is; how it differs from organic SEO; and a snapshot of some types of businesses in Mesa that can definitely benefit from taking a locally-minded approach to SEO. Be sure to stay tuned afterward for FAQs about local search engine optimization from Mesa business owners just like you!
Local SEO 101: The Basics
Local search engine optimization, or SEO, is designed to help customers in your area more effectively find your business. Unlike organic SEO, which is mostly concerned with ranking for keywords without regard to where the business is based, local SEO is focused on a specific industry niche, location and customer type. One example of this is Google’s Google My Business tool, which facilitates local business listings so customers can find out what businesses are nearby, open and available to help them with their specific needs.
You can see this for yourself by opening a Google search on your computer and entering “[business type] + [Mesa AZ].” Let’s say, for example, you’re looking for somewhere new to eat. You would enter “Italian restaurant” + “Mesa, AZ.” Google will show you which businesses, listed on GMB, are nearby and what the hours are. Simple, right?
Here’s the drawback: If your business doesn’t have a Google My Business listing, it won’t rank as highly in Mesa local search engine results pages, or SERPs, as those that are.
This means Google prioritizes businesses that take the time to verify themselves and bump them to the top of listings in the search engine ranking for potential customers to see. Of course, there’s significantly more to local SEO than that, especially since the Google Penguin and Panda algorithms were deployed, but this is a quick and dirty “cookbook” SEO example right at your fingertips.
What if you’re the proprietor of an Italian restaurant that doesn’t come up in Google search results, even though your food is consistently rated the best in town? You’ve got the Yelp! reviews and maybe your restaurant is even listed on TripAdvisor—but without a GMB listing, your restaurant isn’t being seen the way it should in seo is leaving money on the table for your competitors to grab!
And no business owner wants that, right?
Local Versus Organic SEO
We’ve already mentioned there’s a difference here, but it’s important to understand why that difference exists and how it impacts customer behavior.
Organic SEO thinks on a broader, more global scale. The object here is to rank for a given keyword or search string against everyone else on the Internet using that keyword. If you have an international business, you’re probably more concerned with organic business SEO and your local SEO is likely an afterthought.
For locally focused Mesa businesses, though, showing up in Mesa local search results is integral to their search engine marketing and is a matter of life and death.
Your customers live, work and play here. Maybe you cater heavily to Mesa AZ’s tourist trade. In these cases, where you’re talking about a small local business with only a couple of locations or maybe even a small area or regional chain, having an online presence in local search can make all the difference in being found by potential customers.
Part of this is because people’s search behavior is changing. Google’s algorithms look at where and how people search for things they need or want, such as whether they’re using a phone or a laptop; whether they’re moving or stationary; and what they’re looking for at a given time of day. More than half of all searches on Google start on a smartphone and this is only becoming more commonplace, which means there are customers who are actively looking for something specific right now. Companies that know this have a higher chance of staying competitive and attracting both new clients and repeat business. You also increase your chances of conversion from “just-looking” to “I’ll take it!” because you’re dealing with a motivated client base who literally came looking for you! A company that can effectively and correctly use local SEO has an instant advantage over their competitors who don’t and are more likely to show a consistent ROI over time.
Who Needs Local SEO?
As we’ve established, just about any business offering any products and services can benefit from an effective local SEO gameplan to rev up their inbound marketing strategy, from the law firm in Queen Creek to the small bakery and cafe in Chandler to the real estate office in Scottsdale, AZ. But let’s take a closer look at three business types that often overlook the advantages of being present in Mesa, Arizona local search to their own detriment—and sometimes their downfall.
Snapshot #1: Plumbers
When you think of Mesa digital marketing, you probably don’t think of plumbers or anyone in construction trades, for that matter. But you’d be wrong. In fact, plumbing is a perfect example of why an online presence in local search results is so important. You’ve got local customers with a real need, often one that’s urgent and time-sensitive, and they’re looking for someone to help them with their problem NOW! Why give “the big guys” with virtually endless online marketing budgets business that by rights could be yours, when with a little know-how of internet marketing, you could be handling more of those calls yourself? Localized SEO can make all the difference for small operations in staying afloat—and helping their friends and neighbors keep things flowing the way they ought to!
Snapshot #2: Auto Mechanics and Body Shops
Just like plumbers, when someone needs a qualified, skilled auto mechanic, they usually need them right now. Whether it’s a simple steering alignment or the aftermath of a major breakdown on the interstate, people don’t want to spend a lot of time figuring out who’s going to fix their problem. They just want it done. Auto mechanics and body shops that make investments in digital marketing like social media marketing and Google ads that prioritize localized SEO a priority are likely to get more business, with less downtime than those who don’t.
Snapshot #3: Restaurants and Food Service
If you sell food, from a simple cup of coffee and a bagel to five-star cuisine, it is important that you have as many ways for customers to find you as possible. Try Googling your business right now. Does it show up on Google Maps? Are your hours of operation complete, correct, and up-to-date? If you’ve just opened another location, is it listed as well? Especially if you cater to the Mesa area’s tourist trade, you can increase your business and reach your sales goal by making sure you’ve got every possible avenue for searchers to find you as possible. But even if your clientele is mostly local, it’s still worth making sure you show up in local searches so newcomers to the Mesa area can find where you’re located and give you a try for themselves!
By now, it should be obvious that local search optimization Mesa businesses can trust can make a huge difference in improving your business outcomes, no matter what industry you’re in. Online Advantages Mesa SEO can handle “all that online marketing stuff” while helping you establish the lead in your niche that your hard work and dedication deserve.
To find out more about how Online Advantages Mesa SEO can increase your business’s ROI with an internet marketing company that takes time to understand your company’s unique needs and objectives, click here to schedule a free, no-obligation SEO audit and website evaluation.
To learn more about local SEO and why it matters, keep reading for our FAQs about Mesa local SEO from business owners like you!
Frequently Asked Questions about Mesa Local Search Engine Optimization
Online Advantages Mesa SEO is here to help with straight answers and real talk about all your SEO needs!
Question: How can I tell if my business is doing well in local Mesa search results? –Guy, Chandler, AZ
Answer: The easiest way to check is by simply searching your business and seeing what comes up. For example, if you own an auto parts store, you might put in “auto parts Mesa Arizona” or “best auto parts Mesa AZ” and check out the results. If your business is in the top three listings, then congratulations! You’re in good shape to be found by potential customers. If your business is the first thing you see, then you’re doing great! An estimated 91% of all clicks from motivated buyers on Google occur in the top three results, with #1 owning about 43% by itself. Once you drop past the third result, you’ve lost roughly 95% of all the eyes you could potentially be getting on your site. This placement is known as “below the fold,” referencing back to the days when print newspapers were the preferred medium of written news transmission.
Now, before you get too excited or discouraged, you need to check across platforms. Your mobile device shows you different results than your laptop or tablet, because Google assumes you’re a) on the move and b) actively looking. This means comparing the results from platform to platform is essential to getting a good baseline for where you’re at in SERPs. If your cell phone is showing your company at #1, but your laptop shows you at #3, that’s a very solid result. If your laptop shows you at #2 and your mobile shows you at #4, it’s still not bad—but you could be doing better. As Google offers a suite of easy-to-use free SEO tools to make your business more visible in local searches, there’s really no reason you shouldn’t be ranking unless something is very wrong with the user experience on your website or your online reputation management isn’t doing what it’s supposed to. If either of these is the case, you may find your business can benefit from bringing in an SEO company in Mesa specializing in local search engine optimization services to help claw back some of that ground your competitors are taking up.
Question: Aren’t all Mesa AZ SEO companies the same? –Enid, Gilbert, AZ
Answer: Sadly, no. Anyone can bill themselves as an SEO consultant or SEO expert and provide SEO services in Mesa or anywhere else, but this doesn’t mean their SEO strategies are in step with current best practices as adopted by Google and other search engines.
Here’s an example: Doing keyword research is relatively quick and easy, and it’s an important part of the content creation process. But just because you have a keyword or search phrase doesn’t mean you have everything you need to proceed. You also need to know the related keywords and search terms and how to put them together in a way that’s pleasing and authoritative to the human eye but also effective at attracting search engine crawler bots. This is as much an art as a skill. Some SEO agencies from Honolulu to Los Angeles to Phoenix AZ use AI-crafted content to make for more affordable SEO package prices. In many cases, a casual reader can’t tell the difference, but this content will often seem a little—off, somehow. It doesn’t quite read naturally, and the human brain will pick that up even if the eye can’t readily discern why there’s a slight feeling of the “uncanny valley” about the content. These companies get results—but they’re probably not the results you want to risk your potential clientele finding!
Of course, any reputable SEO agencies will tell you that your onsite optimization, which is to say everything a visitor to your site will see, is only part of the puzzle.
Search engines look at everything from whether you’ve taken the time to optimize your website for cross-platform performance to your social media management and activity to how your business is rated on trusted review sites like Yelp! The problem here is that just because an SEO consultant can tell you your site is underperforming compared to your competitors doesn’t mean they can tell you why—or what needs to happen to fix it. A reputable SEO and social media marketing company will not only be able to use SEO audits to tell you where your online presence could be stronger versus your competition, but they’ll also have the resources to maximize your presence, from mobile app developers to video production and video marketing, web design, social media management and SEO so you know your visitors and customers are always getting the right information, presented in the right way to make your brand shine the way it should.
Question: Your site looks cheap. Why should I trust you with my AZ SEO needs? –Whitney, Scottsdale, AZ
Answer: When we started building the site for Online Advantages Mesa SEO, we decided to buck conventional wisdom and go somewhat lower-tech as a sort of research question: “Could we deliver the same great SEO optimization by using a ‘lighter,’ more streamlined site?” By using a basic, stripped-down WordPress website design with minimal features, we were able to trim load times by nearly half a second across platforms on average. This may not sound like much, but load speed is one of the key metrics Google algorithms look at when they’re deciding which sites to showcase first. Another metric we emphasized was efficiency. If your site is too cluttered, no matter how great it looks, individual visitors will have a harder time finding the information they need and want. This leads to higher bounce rates, less satisfied clients, and more people who wind up going somewhere else where they can find the information they need quickly.
The beauty of this utilitarian approach to our Mesa campaign is that overall, it has succeeded beyond our wildest expectations. With a combination of great content on the page, strong SEO signals baked into the site architecture, and minimal “clutter,” we’ve generated enough data to verify that you don’t need a huge, expensive website with all the latest bells and whistles to achieve SEO success. In fact, it appears that more stripped-down sites built for quick load speed, performance, and readability by human and electronic eyes alike are in the process of becoming the next big trend in local search SEO, and could signal a major sea change in how web developers look at their websites to ensure their employers and clients stay competitive in the future. If you’d like the complete list of all the metrics we’re looking at and how we use this data to come to this conclusion, we would love the opportunity to sit down with you and discuss it—and maybe we can offer you one of our no-cost, no-obligation SEO audits at the same time. Just click here to contact us!
Question: What other services does Online Advantages Mesa SEO offer? –Clifton, Queen River, AZ
Answer: Online Advantages Mesa SEO is proud to be the digital marketing SEO company that can help with campaigns for clients of any size or description, from bakeries to big construction. Our proven techniques and strategies have stood the test of time and follow search engine best practices without compromise, giving us data we can stand behind and clients who will stand by us when it comes to who delivers the best SEO services out there.
Online Advantages Mesa SEO proudly offers the following suite of digital marketing and SEO services:
- Content marketing
- Content writing
- Conversion optimization
- Keyword research
- Landing pages
- Link building using quality links that boost your authority and online presence quickly and organically
- Mobile app development
- Pay Per Click, or PPC ads
- Press releases
- Online reputation management
- SEO audits
- Social media management
- Video marketing
- Video production
- Website content
- Website hosting
- YouTube content creation
- And much, much more!
If you are ready to achieve Mesa SEO success and upgrade your 2022 marketing goal sheet, Online Advantages Mesa SEO is here to help with a customized approach, proven techniques, and tactics and the human touch that takes digital marketing from technology to art. We’re confident once you see what Online Advantages Mesa SEO can do for your company’s online reputation and presence, you’ll agree we are the only agency you need for all your SEO and web design and development requirements.