If you are a business owner, you cannot afford to ignore the internet, but just slapping up a website and creating a Facebook page is not enough. If you want to be successful in the offline world, you need to pay close attention to your online presence.

Keeping your online presence fresh and up to date is essential, even if your business is primarily in the brick-and-mortar world. If you never sell a single product online and do not know what a checkout page is, the web is how your customers find you.

Local businesses often overlook the importance of online search, but you ignore it at your peril. The advantages of strong SEO in Lexington, Kentucky, are just too significant to ignore.

For the uninitiated, SEO stands for search engine optimization, a strategy whereby online content, headlines, and file names combine to help businesses rise to the top of search engine results. When you type a search term into Google or Bing, the results you see are heavily influenced by search engine optimization.

You do not have to be a search engine optimization (SEO) wizard to benefit from the power of search. In fact, many powerful SEO strategies are available for use without professional help, so you do not have to spend a fortune to enjoy these substantial benefits. When you do implement local SEO for your Lexington business, here are eight of the top benefits you can expect to experience.

1. Less wasted time — When your SEO is not targeted and optimized for Lexington, Kentucky, you could end up with a lot of unnecessary phone calls and inquiries. You might, for instance, receive a call from Alabama about your Lexington, KY, car wash – a waste of time for everyone.

2. Better return on your online investment — Optimizing your website for search engines can be complicated and expensive, and more targeted SEO for Lexington, KY, can help you realize the highest return on your investment.

3. Smarter advertising — Targeted local SEO should be part of your marketing strategy, and optimizing your web properties for Lexington, KY, can help you more efficiently spend your advertising dollars.

4. Better use of your time — You only have so much time to spend, and you want to make the most of it. When you optimize your website, blog and social media properties with SEO for Lexington, KY, you can make better use of your time. Every business owner knows that time is money, so you do the math.

5. More meaningful leads — Finding qualified leads for your business is always a difficult thing to do, and it is even harder if your SEO is not optimized and well targeted. Building your online strategy with SEO for Lexington, KY, in mind can provide you with higher quality leads, so you can close more sales and welcome more customers through your doors.

6. Increased local traffic — Online traffic is important, but real traffic is what brings customers to your store. Improving your local SEO for Lexington, KY, can drive more customers to your door. You can even incorporate maps and local directions into your SEO strategy so that customers can find you more easily.

7. A more mobile-friendly design — These days a majority of shoppers start their search on mobile devices, and that makes a substantial mobile-friendly SEO strategy a necessity. When you build your SEO for Lexington, KY, you can give your visitors a more mobile-friendly experience.

8. Easier results tracking — When it comes to marketing your business, it is not always easy to tell what works and what does not work. Luckily, SEO for Lexington, KY, can provide you with valuable information, data you can feed into various algorithms in exchange for vital information. Armed with this information, you can build on what works best, eliminate the things that do not work and continue to fine-tune your marketing efforts.

If your Lexington, KY, business is not yet optimized for local search, you could be missing out on a golden opportunity. Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential for every business, no matter where they are, but local search optimization can be an even more powerful tool. By building SEO for Lexington, KY, in from the ground up, you can improve your results, build your brand identity and boost your profits in a big way.