· Milos Lazarevic · 4 min read
Why Local SEO is More Important Than Your Social Media
Small business owners waste hours trying to go viral on Instagram. Here is why you need to focus on Google instead.
I talked to a roofer last month who was spending two hours a day trying to make TikTok videos. He had forty followers. Nobody in his local area was seeing them. Meanwhile his actual Google Business Profile was missing his phone number.
This happens all the time. Small business owners hear they need to “be on social media” so they pour all their energy into Instagram or Facebook. They try to go viral. They stress over likes. But they ignore the one place people actually go when they need to hire someone.
Think about how you behave when your sink starts leaking. You don’t open Instagram and hope the algorithm shows you a local plumber. You go to Google and type “plumber near me.”
Intent vs. Interruption
That is the difference between intent and interruption. And it changes everything about how you should market your local business.
Social media is an interruption
Social media is interruption marketing. People are there to look at pictures of their friends or watch funny videos. You are interrupting them with your business. That works for lifestyle brands and restaurants. It is terrible for service businesses. If someone’s roof isn’t leaking today, they don’t care about your roofing video. They will swipe right past it. You are shouting into a void hoping someone who needs you is listening at that exact second.
Google is all about intent
Google is intent marketing. When someone searches for a local business on Google, they already have a problem. They have their wallet out. They are looking for someone to solve their problem right now. They aren’t browsing for fun. They are actively trying to spend money.
If you don’t show up in those top three local map results, you lose that customer. It’s really that simple. Those top three spots are called the Local Pack. Getting your business in there is the single most profitable thing you can do.
How to Win Without Going Viral
You don’t need to post every day to rank well locally. You just need to get the basics right.
First you need a complete Google Business Profile. Fill out every single field. Upload high-quality photos of your team working. Get real reviews from actual customers. According to research from BrightLocal, almost all consumers read online reviews for local businesses. If your competitor has fifty reviews and you have two, guess who gets the phone call.
Second you need a fast website that clearly says what you do and where you do it. Google looks at your website to figure out if you are a legitimate local business. If your site takes ten seconds to load or looks broken on a phone, Google won’t show you to their users. They want to provide a good experience.
That takes work up front. But once it is set up correctly, it works for you around the clock. You don’t have to keep feeding the beast with new content every single day just to stay relevant. You do the heavy lifting once and then reap the rewards for years.
Put Your Ladder Against the Right Wall
I get so excited talking about this because I see businesses double their leads just by fixing their website and getting their Google profile sorted out. They stop stressing about their follower count. They just answer the phone when it rings. They get their weekends back instead of filming awkward videos.
If you are spending hours on social media but your website hasn’t been updated since 2019, you are putting your ladder against the wrong wall. Put your effort where your customers are actually looking.
We build local SEO directly into all of our flat-rate website packages. We handle the fast hosting, the mobile design, and the Google Business Profile setup so you don’t have to think about it. You just run your business.
