Physical stores still require an SEO online presence because the modern consumer journey almost always begins with a search, even if the final purchase happens in-store. Most people who search for something nearby on their smartphone visit a related business within a day, making local search optimisation crucial for driving foot traffic and sales. Physical stores without a strong SEO online presence can end up receiving less customers, which can stunt their growth.
This guide will explore why physical stores need to target SEO to achieve a stronger online presence and how they can do this without their marketing campaigns. Continue reading to find out more.
Why an Online Presence is Good for a Physical Store
Research Before Purchase
Most shoppers research online before visiting a physical store, as it reassures them that they’re going to find what they’re looking for without wasting a journey. Without an SEO-optimised website, a physical store is invisible to consumers comparing products, checking prices or looking for nearby options. This means that you could end up losing your customer base to a competitor who has a stronger presence on Google Search Results Pages (SERPs).
Local Searches
A large number of online searches have local intent, as customers are often on the lookout for stores “near me.” Searches for local products/services have grown by 500% in recent years, making location-specific landing page visibility essential if you’re going to succeed in a competitive market. For example, if you search for a shopping centre in Essex, you’ll get the results of the most popular shopping centres in that region and without SEO, yours could be disregarded for the higher ranking competitors.
Instant Actions
An optimised local presence converts searches into immediate actions, such as phone calls, navigation requests or store visits. These can all help you to build trust with potential customers, as you give them quick solutions to any queries that they have about your store. This instant feedback improves the chances of them visiting your store and purchasing something from you.
Referrals
The majority of customers read online reviews before visiting a local business, as it gives them a clearer indication of what other customers thought of the store. An active online presence allows stores to manage their reputation and showcase positive feedback on their website, which builds trust with customers and increases the chances of them arriving at your store in person. You can also implement a schema that shows your store on rich snippets on SERPs, displaying a star rating next to your website.
Information Availability
Consumers look for accurate operating hours, address and inventory before visiting, so they know exactly when they should be visiting. If your store isn’t open past 5pm or on a weekend, this will be good information for customers to know before they begin their journey to your store. A neglected online presence leads to missed opportunities if information is outdated.
Targeted Reach
Local SEO ensures that marketing efforts reach the exact audience in the immediate vicinity who are ready to buy, providing a higher return on investment than traditional advertising. If you only have a store in a specific geographic area, you’ll only want to appeal to customers within that location.
How to Improve Online Presence with SEO
Keyword Research
You can use relevant keywords in titles, meta descriptions and throughout content. When you hit the perfect keyword density in your content, it can be perfect for ranking higher on search engines as it makes it sound authentic while still getting a good amount of keyword mentions. The ideal keyword density is around 1-2% for a website to rank well on Google.
Technical SEO
Ensuring search engines can access and navigate your pages without hitting dead ends like broken links is important, which can say to Google that your website isn’t functional enough and they could decide not to rank your website highly. This can deter customers from visiting your website, as poor technical SEO can prevent you from ranking well on SERPs.
Content Optimisation
Structuring text for readability using headers, short paragraphs and bullet points will help users skim for answers and allow Google to better understand your content after their EEAT update. High-quality content also integrates multimedia like compressed images with descriptive alt text, and strategic internal and external linking to cite authoritative sources and guide users deeper into your website. This can provide them with more useful information that can encourage them to visit your physical store.
Final Thoughts
Sometimes, having a physical store isn’t enough, as your online presence can still be crucial for your success as a business. The modern consumer almost always looks online for information about a store before they visit it in person, so they can get a better idea of what to expect. Local SEO can be the catalyst for getting your store in the eyes of more customers in the area, increasing your chances of seeing them in-store.
