Advantages of Local SEO: Why it is worth investing in to outrank competitors 

Nearly 90% of consumers use Google to discover local businesses, but ranking in local search results is more complex than ever. With Google now monetizing the map pack and AI Overview shaking up visibility, even high-quality businesses risk being buried unless their local presence is optimized. That’s why understanding the advantages of local SEO is key to staying visible and competitive in this new search landscape.

Today’s consumers rely on proximity, relevance, and review credibility to make snap decisions. According to Birdeye’s 2025 data, 81% of all reviews are now on Google, and a business’s recency of reviews influences 46% of consumers. Yet, many brands still underinvest in local SEO strategy, missing out on organic growth.

In this guide, we’ll explain why local SEO is important for small businesses and enterprises and offer tips on converting searches into store visits and reviews into revenue.

10 benefits of local SEO every multi-location business must know 

With increasing reliance on local search results and online reviews, businesses must ensure their online presence is optimized for visibility and engagement. 

This section explores the benefits of local search engine optimization and how it can help businesses tackle visibility challenges, connect with the right customers, and stay ahead of the competition.

Drives high-converting traffic with local SEO

One of the most impactful benefits of local SEO is its dramatic increase in website traffic, often surpassing traditional channels. According to Melissa Cameron, VP of Customer Acquisition at National Storage Affiliates:

“Our local listings make up approximately a third, if not more, of our traffic, and it is by far the highest conversion rate of any of the other sources.”

This means ranking in targeted local search results attracts visitors ready to engage and convert.

Similarly, Smile Brands has discovered that optimizing their Google Maps Profile and local listings with detailed descriptions, photos, and Q&As has ensured maximum traffic for their brand. Jody Martin, CMO, shares:

“Our Google listings are nearly as important as our website since a third of our traffic comes through those listings. We spend almost as much time optimizing those listings as our website.”

These insights prove that a strong local SEO strategy creates a steady stream of qualified, high-intent visitors, delivering better ROI and a competitive edge in local search rankings.

Amplifies your online presence across every location

A powerful local SEO strategy extends beyond just boosting traffic—it amplifies your business’s online presence across all your locations, ensuring potential customers find you first. 

Infinity Energy’s Jess Sheehan believes:

“More and more people are finding us on Google, which we attribute to the positive feedback we get on Birdeye. It has helped us with SEO and being listed first on search engines.”

Good Choice Dental’s case study further confirms that consistent local SEO efforts—including optimized listings and review management—lead to stronger visibility and better ranking across Google Maps and other directories.

Turns customer feedback into community trust at scale

Building customer trust is one of the most valuable advantages of local SEO. The easier your profile is to locate, the more customers trust your brand. Showcasing overwhelming positive feedback also ensures that each review contributes to a larger trust-building campaign for the brand. 

Nicolette Dipalma of Bath Fitter shares:

“Negative reviews are even more valuable because they give us a chance to correct mistakes publicly, showing transparency.”

Such active local listing monitoring efforts demonstrate your brand’s commitment to customer experience and excellence. 

Outshines local competitors where it matters the most 

In highly competitive markets, the advantages of local SEO go beyond visibility; they’re about strategically outshining other local businesses. Staying on top of local listing performance helps you understand your standing in the marketplace vs. that of your local and global rivals. 

Bobby Dimovski, CEO of 4MJ Social, stresses the importance of comprehensive optimization by urging businesses to focus on Google, Bing, Apple Maps, and all listing pages to make it easy for customers to connect. The easier your listing is to find, the fewer leads go to your competitors. 

Fairlawn Real Estate took the power of local SEO one step further when it leveraged the data from listing rankings, review sites, and overall review volume to conduct a SWOT analysis of its locations against its competitors. They identified how Fairlawn could differentiate itself in the market and significantly revamped its marketing strategies. 

“With our Birdeye dashboard, we gained new perspectives at every level. Competitors AI ensures we remain aware of our position in individual markets, while Insights AI and Reviews AI provide a more inward look into our overall performance.”

Allison Ross, Senior Marketing Specialist, Fairlawn Real Estate

Boosts local rankings 

Local business rankings are no longer confined to traditional channels like Google or Bing—they have expanded to include visibility on AI tools and voice-activated platforms. Most searches now happen on non-traditional channels, and even on traditional channels, the AI overviews appear before anything else. 

Your business must show up on ChatGPT, Gemini, Alexa, and Siri to outrank your competitors. 

Ensuring consistency in business information (across business address, hours, and services) improves your chances of ranking higher across all target platforms. 

“A significant factor for Google’s SEO algorithm changes is that more people use voice to search for businesses near me.’ Updating your Google Business Profile and other listings is critical because this info appears directly in voice search results.”

Bobby Dimovski, founder and CEO of 4MJ Social

Reduces advertising costs with the compounding power of rankings and reviews

One often overlooked advantage of local SEO is how it can help reduce advertising costs. 

Stan Nagle from Energy Seal shares a powerful example of how optimizing their listings for search engines has significantly reduced their advertising budget:

“We used to spend $7,000 to $10,000 monthly on Google ads. Now, because of the volume and quality of reviews we’re getting, people choose us over competitors, reducing our need for paid advertising.”

Higher local ranks and positive online reviews are trusted endorsements, influencing buying decisions more than traditional ads. As a result, businesses can scale back on expensive PPC campaigns while maintaining or increasing local traffic and conversions.

Investing in local SEO offers a sustainable, cost-effective marketing strategy that organically amplifies your business’s online visibility.

Drives foot traffic to individual stores 

One of the most tangible benefits of local SEO is that it brings results that businesses care about, and not just vanity metrics like clicks or impressions. Studies show that businesses with verified Google business profiles see a 70% increase in direction requests, phone calls, and messages. 

Jared Twitchell from Aramsco shares their success in turning Google listings into traffic drivers for their stores:

“We are cleaning up our location data, learning what customers like or dislike at branches, and seeing an increase in Google traffic directed to these stores.”

The Café in Manly case study also highlights how targeted local SEO strategies boost store visits by improving visibility in Google Maps and local search results. Once this establishment started focusing on optimizing listings consistently, it saw a 946% surge in direction requests. 

Continuously refining location data and managing listings judiciously enhances the customer journey from search to visit, turning online interest into real-world sales.

Grows your brand consistently 

For multi-location businesses, maintaining a consistent brand presence across all neighborhoods is a key advantage of local SEO. When every location’s Google Business Profile and local listings are optimized and updated regularly, they build a unified image that customers recognize and trust. This is especially critical for multi-location businesses, where a consistent online presence builds a stronger brand. 

Consistent visibility means your brand repeatedly appears in relevant organic search results, increasing familiarity and the likelihood of conversion. This approach strengthens your online reputation and supports higher rankings across search engines and Google Maps.

By scaling local SEO efforts across all locations, you ensure your brand doesn’t rely on one flagship store but leverages each location’s unique footprint to drive growth and market share.

Builds a strong local community 

In today’s marketing landscape, brands no longer control the narrative—local communities do. Jessika Phillips, founder of NOW Marketing Group, explains:

“Consumers choose communities they trust, where they ask for advice and share referrals. Unless someone leaves positive feedback based on their experience, there’s no way to buy your way into the community.”

One of the most essential advantages of local SEO is building trust through genuine customer interactions and positive online reviews that fuel word-of-mouth in trusted circles.

Local SEO helps your business become a natural part of these conversations by boosting visibility in local searches and promoting engagement through review management.

A strong community presence leads to sustained growth by encouraging repeat business and referrals, and a loyal local customer base that traditional advertising can’t replicate.

Improves online reputation 

Online reputation is a result of many factors. But consistent local listings and positive online reviews play a major role in building and strengthening it. One of the larger benefits of local SEO is that you can shape public perception, significantly improving your online reputation.  

Positive reviews boost brand prominence and influence organic search engine results pages, improving your business’s chances of being found by potential customers actively searching for services.

By actively managing reviews and engagement, you convert customer feedback into a growth engine, building trust, authority, and higher rankings that keep your business competitive in the local market.

“Birdeye gives our company instant credibility and helps us amass lots of reviews, which is what customers look at online. We’ve seen more customers contacting us directly, boosting trust and opening doors.”

Aaron Novello, The Novello Group 

Implementing a strong Local SEO strategy 

To fully leverage the benefits of local SEO, businesses must adopt a comprehensive, multi-faceted approach. This involves optimizing your Google listings and aligning your entire digital presence to the expectations of both customers and search engines. 

Here are the critical steps every multi-location business should focus on:

• Optimize Google Profile: Ensure your profile has accurate contact details, business hours, service categories, and high-quality photos. Keeping your profile updated improves your local search rankings and user engagement.
• Identify local keywords: Research for the most relevant and high-traffic local keywords for each location. Incorporate these naturally into your website content, listings, and reviews to align with how local customers search.
• Audit local SEO rankings: Regularly monitor how your business ranks for important local searches across different locations. Use insights from the local SEO Audit tools to identify gaps and opportunities to refine your local SEO strategy.
• Monitor competitor performance: Track your competitors’ performance in local search results and review volumes. Understanding their tactics helps you stay competitive and discover areas to differentiate your brand.
• Generate online reviews across locations: Encourage and manage reviews at every location. As Birdeye data shows, 81% of reviews now come from Google, and recency heavily impacts customer decisions. Positive, fresh reviews improve both online visibility and consumer trust.
• Create local content: Develop content tailored to each location, including blogs, events, or news that resonate with the local audience. Ensure you craft your content to answer common questions and provide clear, structured information. This helps establish relevance and supports more substantial rankings in organic and AI search engines.
• Choose the right local SEO service: Partner with platforms like Birdeye that offer centralized management of listings, reviews, and insights, enabling scalable and effective execution of your local SEO efforts.

Bottom line: Local search engine optimization is the key to unlocking growth opportunities

The advantages of local SEO extend far beyond improved rankings—they transform how multi-location businesses attract, engage, and convert local customers in today’s digital-first marketplace. By focusing on critical factors like proximity, prominence, and authority, and implementing a comprehensive local SEO strategy, you build lasting trust, increase foot traffic, and reduce reliance on costly advertising.

Birdeye empowers businesses with tools to manage Google Business Profiles, generate authentic online reviews, monitor competitors, and optimize local listings at scale. This integrated approach delivers measurable growth in local search rankings, customer trust, and revenue.

Investing in local SEO today means becoming the go-to brand in every neighborhood tomorrow.

FAQs on the advantages of local SEO 

Rank higher and be the brand every client chooses with Birdeye 

Birdeye is the #1 AI platform built for multi-location businesses looking to dominate local SEO and convert more local searches into customers. Our purpose-built GenAI technology streamlines your entire local marketing ecosystem with powerful tools to:

• Optimize Google Business Profiles across all locations with accurate, up-to-date listings with Listings AI
• Manage online reviews effortlessly by automating review requests, monitoring sentiment, and responding promptly with Reviews AI
• Track local SEO rankings and customer insights in real time with Insights AI
• Benchmark your reputation and visibility against competitors using Competitors AI for a strategic advantage
• Generate AI-driven local content tailored to each location’s audience and search behavior
• Centralize listings management to ensure consistency and accuracy across all major search engines and directories
• Leverage automated workflows that save time while maximizing customer engagement and conversion
• Harness advanced analytics and reporting to measure ROI and optimize your local SEO strategy continuously

With Birdeye, you gain a scalable, intelligent solution designed to unlock the full advantages of local SEO, helping your brand grow stronger in every neighborhood.

Ready to elevate your local presence? Schedule your free demo with Birdeye today.