When you’re looking for a local business that’ll fix up your car, sell you the latest bestseller or provide food catering for your next family gathering, how do you find it? You do a little online research using a search engine. If you’ve been doing this, chances are your customers are doing it as well. They will be turning to search engines when they look for services or products that they need.

Local SEO marketing is the key to allowing customers in your area to find you. It is a highly effective form of marketing that allows you to promote your services to your local customers at the same time they are looking for your type of business.
The Numbers
Out of all local searches, 50% of people who did a local search on their smartphone and 34% who did on computer or tablet visited a local store within a day. 50% of people conducting local mobile searches are looking for business information like a local address. The numbers go on, but it’s clear to see that without a local online presence, your business will not be getting the attention that it could be.

Reviews are Gold
Reviews are a huge part of the internet. Without local SEO, your business might not be gaining positive reviews online or even worse, you may be getting unfavorable ones. Up to 88% of people read online reviews to find out about the quality products or services provided by local businesses. That is a huge number and, if you want to capitalize on the local market, a resource like local SEO marketing should be high in your list of priorities..
The Internet is King
Just looking at the figures for local searches and search engine use, you can see why local SEO marketing gives one of the highest conversion rates of all local advertising channels. A recent study found that 78% of local mobile searches and 61% of local laptop searches resulted in conversion to sales offline. When you consider that there are around 7 billion unique monthly local searches, you can see why you need to get your business listed online locally.
A local SEO marketing expert can provide your business with all the things that you need for your business to be a force to be reckoned with in your area. Knowing how many people are conducting local searches and what the conversion rates are, you would be foolish not to invest in improving your local SEO.
Sources:
The Importance of User Reviews for Local SEO, SearchEngineWatch.com
Why Local SEO is About to Become Even More Important, Entrepreneur.com