SEO is now the most powerful marketing tool for businesses and brands. However, with this comes a constantly evolving arena that, if not monitored closely, can result in failed marketing campaigns if experts are not on hand. With Local SEO being a new post-pandemic trend, hiring a local SEO consultant is smart for 2022 and beyond.
What we look to do in this article is point people who are looking to embark on a local SEO campaign in the right direction of what to look for in your quest, so let’s get to it.
7 Tips for Hiring the Best Local SEO Consultant in Your Area
1. What is the Definition of a Local SEO Expert?
SEO agencies are plentiful but looking for a local SEO consultant has many benefits over an SEO agency that deals with large corporations and enterprises. You may find they won’t have the attention to detail to get the localised results you desire. Do they want to help grow small to medium-sized businesses or simply look for more significant marketing budgets to work with?
You can find affordable professional assistance with thorough research.
Local SEO expertise is gained from experience and an innate understanding of localised trends and demographics. Performance-focused strategies can be tailored to how a community will embrace certain products and services.
Suppose you are hiring a local SEO agency. In that case, you can be assured they will be more in-tuned with marketing strategies that have and have not worked in the area. This knowledge can save a smaller company from wasting its valuable marketing budget.
2. Local Cheap SEO V Affordable SEO
Let’s make this crystal clear in 2022, there is no such thing as cheap SEO anymore. There are no corners to be cut. The search engines have worked tirelessly for years to clean up digital marketing and get to the core of what they want to achieve for their users. A seamless, informative, and engaging online experience delivered to their users for what they were looking for with their search terms.
Great local insight and campaign planning do not come off the shelf in a ready-made, one-size-fits-all marketing solution.
SEO can be affordable once you have worked out your ROI and expected timeframes. However, be very careful with a company that quotes you a fee without a thorough initial interview process and a lot of background research into your business and industry.
If you go down the cheap option, you could do more harm than good. When a local SEO agency takes on a new project, they may spend a lot of time and money at the start cleaning up issues that cheap SEO agencies have implemented before.
Cheap SEO can be outsourced to countries for more affordable work, leaving you with substandard link building and damage to your brand. Conducting some initial research within your local area is essential.
3. What Does a Local SEO Expert do?
Localised SEO has been around for many years. Still, the spotlight has never been focused on it more in digital marketing than in 2022.
Local business shone through during lockdowns in many cities across the Western world, a trend that communities have not forgotten.
The new interest in local businesses is a great thing to see, so now you want to make the most of it and be visible in your local area for what you provide.
A local SEO expert will ensure your website is optimised and you are signed up for Google Business Profile. You are on the right path to getting yourself on the first page of Google for local search terms by providing that your NAP details are correct and your geo-location information is accurate.
Let’s take a quick look at some statistics to show the importance of local SEO:
As you can see, the ‘near me’ search trend is now in full effect, which is what a local SEO expert will base their strategy around.
4. Benefits of Using a Local SEO Expert
- Content curation is tailored by a business that understands the local community and how to structure your marketing accordingly.
- A face to a name. You are not a number when dealing with a local SEO agency. Sitting down with people to discuss and tweak your marketing campaign is a bonus.
- Designated account manager. Having someone as a local go-to person who knows your business and the area inside out is far better than dealing with a large corporation in another city or state.
- Localised listings and citation solutions from people who understand the local environment will help kickstart a marketing campaign.
5. Local SEO Consultants can be Budget-friendly
Considering what we mentioned about avoiding cheap SEO, affordable SEO is in everyone’s interest.
One of the main points to consider when looking to hire SEO services is finding the right fit.
Naturally, someone who works or has grown up in the area you are targeting will be advantageous, but another factor is size.
You will probably conduct a Google search for the ‘best SEO agency near me.’ This will give you a shortlist of companies to approach.
One of the factors you need to be aware of is finding a suitable fit. For example, finding the number one company on Google for ‘ best SEO agency near me’ seems like the perfect match; however, do they deal with start-ups and small businesses?
If you approach an agency that deals with substantial marketing budgets and yours are small, they may not be the best fit to help and guide you towards growth for as little as AU$1000 per month.
A local SEO agency is more likely to work with your budget than an agency that deals with global companies.
Local SEO shares a similar trait to organic SEO; these things take time, and your budget is a significant consideration.
6. Local SEO Experts with Case Studies
Local case studies are one of the criteria to establish when hiring a local SEO consultant.
Never be wary of asking for a proven track record within your area.
All SEO professionals should jump at the chance to show you detailed case studies that have helped grow local businesses. The strategy should be transparent, and they should be able to explain how a variant of a proven strategy can work for your business.
Also, looking at customer testimonials and online rankings for results and service are good indicators that you are on the right path.
7. Check Their Rankings
This may sound a little too obvious, but would you take advice from a company that tells you they will get you on page one of Google when they are not there for common search terms?
Well, I wouldn’t.
Having done several searches for SEO agencies in your area, taking an aggregate of who regularly appears on the first page of Google for four or five variations of that search term will give you a benchmark. The benchmark is that they know how to optimise, which is a massive part of on-page SEO and forms the spine of local SEO.
Make sure you use the word ‘local’ throughout your searches and make a shortlist to contact.
SUMMARY
Finding the right local SEO consultant can be the cornerstone of building your online presence from the ground up. You want honesty and transparency, which you are far more likely to get in your local high street than you would from more prominent agencies where you can be left behind with a small budget. Local SEO can help balance out your online presence and set you up for bigger things in the future.
