Local Search for MedSpas

What is Local Search?

Local Search, or Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO), is the critical process of modifying a website to elevate its position and rank higher in localized search results. This particular type of SEO allows websites to enhance their digital visibility and climb up local result rankings when potential nearby customers search terms such as “spa near me” or “medspa in Raleigh.” When these terms are typed into a search engine, Local Search increases your particular spa’s chance of being discovered by the searchers. Businesses of all sizes and everywhere should have a Local Search strategy to accelerate their rank in local search results. By implementing efficient Local Search strategies, such as optimizing your website content with location-specific keywords, Medspas like yours are able to see a marked improvement in local rankings.

How Is Local Search Different from National Search?

The core contrast between Local Search and National or traditional SEO is their audience targeting and goals. National SEO looks to maximize a website’s visibility across a broad geographic area to reach a wide range of viewers. This sort of SEO is centered around common, broader keywords and adjusting the website to rank well nationally or worldwide. As you may imagine, a smaller Medspa with only one or two locations has basically no need to advertise to users outside their area.

Conversely, Local Search is designed to forge links between brands and nearby clients actively searching for Medspa services close by. The main goal is to get community members to the most suitable nearby companies. This type of SEO also includes enhancing a website and digital appearance to be prominent in regional search engine outcomes, local directories, maps, and other location-dependent sites. Local Search emphasizes localized keywords and materials, positive community testimonials, local citations, and the management of local listings and profiles such as Google Business Profile (GBP).

Is Local Search A Better Choice for MedSpas?

For any company in the health and wellness industry, utilizing Local Search is a beneficial way to tap into the surrounding customer base. Generally, Local Search is highly recommended as part of any Healthcare industry establishment’s core marketing strategy. Here are some reasons why you should add it to your strategy ASAP:

Location-based targeting

One of the significant benefits of implementing a Local Search strategy is its capability to target separately determined audiences. This means that most traffic sent to your website is highly relevant and much more likely to convert into a paying client. If your company operates primarily within a specific geographical area or serves clients within a particular area, then Local Search should be the foundation of your marketing efforts. This helps you connect with nearby consumers actively searching for Medspa services. After adding this, your business is best optimized for prominent visibility within your community. This allows your business to ensure its marketing dollars are spent effectively and can also accelerate your physical location’s foot traffic, as the customers closest to you still search online for what nearby Medspa is best for them. In the end, location-based targeting allows your Medspa to focus marketing campaigns on the audiences that are most likely to be interested, leading to overall better customer acquisition and retention.

Low Cost and ROI

This method can be a much more cost-effective SEO approach, especially for small businesses and those with a market budget on the smaller side. Selecting particular geographic limits significantly minimizes your competition and allows a higher ROI than campaigns encompassing an entire nation.

Elements of Local Search

Google Business and Maps Listings

In recent years, Google Business Profiles (GBP) have rapidly grown in popularity. It is widely known that Google is responsible for about 90% of the search engine market share, meaning 9 out of 10 searches are conducted via Google. Simply being visible on Google allows your brand to reach many more eyes. Consumers are constantly looking for and interacting with local businesses, so a GBP is essential for establishments that depend on being found locally. By optimizing these listings, you are, in turn, reducing the number of clicks a consumer must make in order to reach your site. Google has built this entire platform tailored for people to find nearby businesses, and it is increasingly becoming a valuable source of income for small and local companies. 

Google Business Listings allow local users to do more than just any standard Yellow Pages listing. Interactions such as asking questions, direct messaging, appointment booking, and review posting can all be accomplished through this single platform. While many business owners may simply claim their listing and not return to it, successful brands understand the importance of maintaining and keeping their information up-to-date. By ensuring tasks such as updating holiday hours, adding photos, and posting regularly, visibility and activity are boosted dramatically.

We cannot stress enough that the accuracy of the details provided in your Google Business Profile is of utmost importance. Anything contradictory can erode trust from Google and other search engines and cloud the reputation of your business. Having multiple sources of accurate, consistent information will allow your business to demonstrate to Google that it is legitimate and will help you build brand authority. 

Reputation Management

An integral part of Local Search involves keeping up with online ratings and customer reviews. Brands that are averaging below a two-star rating will find that nearly 86% of their potential customers are deterred away. Even worse, as much as 15% of your existing customer base may be no longer interested. This highlights just how detrimental one negative review can be to a brand’s reputation.

Customer reviews that speak favorably of your brand can drastically elevate your credibility and reputation. Also, they have a significant influence on prospective customers, with 95% of them conducting research through online reviews before committing to a purchase decision.

A substantial aspect of Local Search is prompting customers to provide feedback about their experience and having your company respond quickly. Having favorable reviews creates trustworthiness, drastically boosts brand credibility, and advances your Local search ranking. Without reviews, however, your business may appear unestablished to customers. This makes it much more difficult for them to have faith in your Medspa, and they may be more uncertain when considering doing business with you. 

Citations 

Citations, while they may seem daunting, are really quite simple. Essentially, citations are listings of your business’s information, like your Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP), on several websites. Maintaining consistency across all the NAP information available that relates to your business reinforces to search engines that you are a legitimate and reliable entity. These citations are the driving force behind your Google Maps rankings. Even with a perfectly optimized website, you will have difficulty appearing on Google rankings without being in some notable citation or directory sources.

Plenty of platforms can count as citations for your brand, from a Google Business Profile to Yellow Pages or Yelp listings. Even your official social media profiles are considered citations because they display your NAP details and help reinforce your credibility with search engines. Several very high-quality paid solutions will produce your desired outcome but, of course, take a bit out of your pocket. However, purchasing is not required to get your business the credibility it deserves. Many free options can you need to ensure you’re on. The best place to start is going for the most prominent and cost-effective platforms – Apple Maps, GBP, Yelp, Bing Maps, LinkedIn, Yahoo, BBB, etc. Be sure to fill these out as thoroughly and correctly as you can.

Google strives to deliver the most accurate results to users based on their geographical area through local Search. However, Google is still cautious not to showcase and website that needs to be better optimized or fit the user’s needs. The more trust earned by your website, the higher it will end up ranking in local search results. Any website that Google cannot trust will not be promoted in search results. The more citations your company has, the more it will be viewed as authentic and pushed forward in rankings. As mentioned earlier, Google dominates the search engine market share, so you will want to optimize your online presence to Google’s liking. 

At MedSpa Marketing, we are experienced in the industry and know what your local audience is searching for as well as how to best target them. Contact us today, and let’s discuss what we can do to boost your digital presence in your community.