5 Essential Tips For Local Search Marketing
Posted by Seth Bauer on Mon, Aug 22, 2011
You know how Yellow Pages drops off its phone book on the front steps of homeowners? One of my neighbors has literally had a Yellow Pages phone book sitting on his front step for months. Like him, many people simply do not search for businesses in the phone book anymore. Instead, they use local searches, meaning that they search for local businesses using a search engine.
For instance, instead of flipping to the "D" section of the phone book, a resident of Macon, Georgia simply uses his favorite search engine to search "dry cleaners Macon, GA." One estimate put the number of local searches in the United States during June 2010 alone at 3.28 billion! You don't want to miss out on this marketing strategy.
Here are five tips for ensuring that potential customers find your business when they do a local search.
Search Engine Optimization: The Descriptor
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the art and science of using the same keywords in web content that users search. When done properly, search engines will display the content near the top of the search results. Local searches have two components: the descriptor and the location.
The descriptor is a combination of adjectives and nouns that describe the business. For example, "dry cleaners." However, for a dry cleaner in Macon, Georgia, the goal is to be listed ahead of other dry cleaners in Macon, Georgia. Thus, simply ensuring that the words "dry cleaners" appears in the web content is not sufficient, because every other dry cleaner in Macon, Georgia will do the same. You should consider what other searches your potential customers might use, and incorporate those into your content, as well. For instance, people might search "dry cleaners and alterations Macon, GA" or "cheap dry cleaners Macon, GA."
Search Engine Optimization: The Location
A local search also includes a location, and your web content must include that location throughout (not just on the "Contact Us" page). Although choosing the location may seem simple enough (city and state, right?), in some cases it could be more complicated. Consider how far customers are willing to travel to your business, and do your best to limit your location to that area.
In small- or medium-sized towns, city and state will usually work well. But imagine a dry cleaner in Atlanta instead of Macon. No customer will travel across the entire city of Atlanta to find a dry cleaner. In those cases, the web content should also include the neighborhood in which the business is located or the nearest major cross streets.
List Your Business with Major Search Engines
Although many local searches are done with a regular search, most major search engines have some type of search capability devoted to local searches. For instance, Google has Google Maps. By searching "dry cleaners Macon, GA," users are shown a map of Macon which indicates where each of approximately 10 dry cleaners are located.
Do a test search with each search engine's local search capability and ensure that your business is listed and the information is accurate. If not, take the appropriate steps to correct the information. For specific information about each search engine's local search capability, click here.
Do a Cost-Benefit Analysis
The appeal of an online-based marketing is that, when done properly, a business can achieve a good bang for its buck. But that's not to say that the best online-based marketing strategy is a free one. Google AdSense offers a geo-targeting option which displays your ad when only the descriptor is searched; the location portion of the local search is satisfied by the user's IP address. Yahoo! Local offers prominence to paying advertisers when displaying the results of a traditional local search.
And, there are myriad companies which specialize in all sorts of online marketing, including local search marketing. Although free is appealing, the extra mileage you can get from allocating a little money to local search marketing may be worth it.
Make Sure You Have a (Good) Website
Alright, that's sort of a joke. If you're reading this blog, you probably have a website. But make sure it's a good website. You can do everything right in terms of taking advantage of local searches, but all will be for naught if none of the resulting hits are converted to actions or sales. Forbes has some great practical advice for small businesses when it comes to creating and maintaining a website.