Marketing Strategies – Local Search / SEO

I
small businesses don’t need local search
unless they want customers to find them
many small companies simply do not have
the bandwidth to manage a fully
optimized website blog social media
campaign PPC ad strategy and overall SEO
effort while actually running the
business with a long list of options to
start with business owners must often
make choices as to which online
marketing activities they’ll engage in
in order to make the right decisions
it’s important to understand the
benefits associated with each program or
activity if it isn’t already local
search marketing sometimes referred to
as local SEO should be at the top of
your list if you’re interested in being
found by prospects that is what is local
search marketing local search marketing
is essentially the local version of SEO
it’s the means by which your company can
be found by someone looking for a
specific business within a specific
geographical area for example a person
who performs a search for dry cleaners
in Carlsbad does not want to see a list
of dry cleaners in Philadelphia only
those within a certain radius of
carlsbad similarly if you’re a dry
cleaner in Philadelphia you don’t want
your ad or site to be returned in a
search for dry cleaners in Carlsbad but
if you’re a dry cleaner in Carlsbad you
do want to be shown local search
marketing creates these geographically
appropriate search results this allows
you to target your audience and maximize
your marketing dollars and resources six
key elements of a local SEO program a
really good local SEO program includes
multiple components some require more
upfront work but then minimal upkeep
while others will be more consistent in
volume on an ongoing basis to really put
local search marketing to work for you
you should plan to get cited a citation
in the world of SEO is any mention of
your company’s name address and phone
number na pee on the Internet this can
be on a website a PPC ad a directory
listing online yellow pages or more even
if your company has no website you can
still have na pees all over the internet
because others have mentioned you
somewhere every citation has the ability
to improve your credibility as a viable
business with Google if you’ve taken the
time to ensure that all of your
citations are consistent and career
as you work through your citations focus
first on the most reliable sources and
go down the list from there it’s the
quality of the citation that matters
more than the quantity claimed your
listings similar to citations mentions
of your company are likely found on
multiple directories or local places
pages online and they can help or hurt
you depending upon their completeness
and accuracy unlike citations however
which are simply your n AP many of these
listings will allow you to post images
business hours and basic service or
product information do not skimp and
leave any of this information blank
filling out all the elements will
immediately separate you from the
competition in both the eyes of Google
and your potential customers roll them
videos allow you to establish yourself
as a leader and a trusted resource
especially if you offer good how to
content it’s a great way to show what
you know without just saying you know it
YouTube’s four plus billion daily views
automatically give you a broad audience
but videos are also returnable in search
results and when properly optimized for
local search they can greatly enhance
your SEO videos are also one of the most
shared forms of content allowing your
name to get seen more frequently by
crawlers host your videos on YouTube
with Geo rich descriptions for maximum
benefit be the social butterfly videos
are not the only content ripe for
sharing every share of your social posts
registers with search engine crawlers
letting them know that folks are looking
at you garnering these shares is another
way to boost your relevance to them in
part due to the improved domain
authority that results from the
engagement every share is also
registered as a value blink creating the
type of link network that Google is
looking for indexing speeds for pages
with high levels of social activity are
also faster letting your site be shown
before others generate reviews customer
reviews can be extremely powerful in
swaying people to engage or not with you
people looking for local businesses are
especially in tune to peer reviews your
review program should include methods
both for garnering reviews but also for
responding to reviews yes the positive
ones and the negative ones the number of
reviews and the ratings factors heavily
into Google search algorithms directly
affect
your search result placement optimize
your website at a minimum your website
should include a good amount of
geographically rich content indicating
the areas you serve if your range
extends to multiple cities create a
landing page for each one of them that
focuses on that specific locale by
building an online reputation as an
authority creating a healthy link
structure and engaging with your
audience your company can improve
visibility to your local prospect base
the more you’re found by the people you
want to be found by the better chance
you have of turning those prospects into
customers make it mobile in everything
you do online ensuring that your actions
and content can be seen and navigated on
mobile devices is a must this is no
longer an option especially for local
businesses it’s estimated that
three-fourths of consumers in the United
States access location-based services on
their mobile phones and nearly half of
all smartphone users look for local
businesses on their phones go local
local businesses of all flavors can
benefit from local SEO this includes
brick-and-mortar businesses with
websites devoted to lead generation it
also includes companies that operate
both ecommerce and physical storefront
locations research shows the move back
toward a preference for local businesses
among many consumers armed with this
knowledge there’s no reason to ignore
the local aspect of your search engine
marketing any longer