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We know that an important aspect of marketing for any business, big or small, is procuring an effective position for the brand in results from search engines. As such, it’s crucial to ensure that marketing works toward this goal. This can be difficult and time-consuming, but it doesn’t have to be. There are a number of tricks that can be utilized to get that golden spot you want.
Make Your Website Spotless
We aren’t talking about design or development here, but content. Your website is the most valuable asset you have online so it’s important to make sure that it ranks high in search results that matter for your brand. There are a few ways to do this:
· Make certain that your business’ name, phone number, and address (NAP) are available on the site. Don’t put it on a single page like the homepage and call it good. This should be available on every single page. While you’re at it, make sure everything is spelled and formatted the exact same way. This matters when it comes to search engines so check on it occasionally.
· Use keywords on page titles that give information into your company, services, and location. Again, doing this in more than one place is important so make it a habit for added pages.
· If possible, take the time to ensure your website pages talk about your area. This should go beyond just posting the address. You can talk about sports team, events, and important locations. This allows you to be noticed by people you may not otherwise pull to your page.
Ensure Excellent Link Strategy
Having a strong link profile can lead to better results on search engines. In fact, this is something that some businesses have used to build their entire brand. That said, be careful about what links you use and how often, this is the type of thing that occurs over time rather than as a massive one-time strategy.
· Create a spreadsheet or directory with resources about local places you appreciate. This might include your favorite Chinese restaurant, grocery store, dry cleaner, and any cultural attractions that you’re partial to. This gives you some places to link to and to have return the favor. This can grab views from people who might not otherwise frequent your brand or industry.
· Share links to your website from your social media accounts and ask others to do the same.
· If you utilize newsletters, make sure to include links there too. You can give updates to get even more eyes on your website.
· Avoid “get views fast” strategies like spamming your website on forums or blogs. You should also avoid linking from and to random sites. Make sure that you go for quality so your reputation isn’t damaged, rather than inflated.
Make Listings on Local Sites
Getting your name out is important and one of the best ways to do that, when it comes to local SEO, is by utilizing listings on third-party sites. Search engines look at these sites and can learn more about you and your business. Not listing your business or allowing inaccurate information can have the opposite effect, bringing your search engine ranking lower.
· For a business with more than one location, make listings for each of them to boost your brand and hype each of your locations up.
· Make certain your business is listed in the right area so its properly optimized. You can use keywords to help with this, but don’t go overboard. That can lead to negative effects, so strike a balance.
· Find out what the local listing sites are and make sure you have an appearance. That means claiming your business, checking that NAP are accurate and spelled correctly, and making any changes that are needed. Local sites are of huge importance so take the time to do this right.
· Later on, consider adding photos, URLs, videos, or other information that makes your listings more informational and useful for those who might stumble upon them.
Respond and Acknowledge
Once you have listings on various sites, you’re also going to have reviews and ratings to consider. Engaging with those is an important part of ensuring local SEO. This can be time-consuming but the benefit outweighs that to a large degree.
· Give your customers a chance to leave feedback if they appreciated your work. This could be via an email, flyer, or rating on Yelp or a similar site. The more positive reviews you get from actual customers, the better your business will look on both review sites and on search engines.
· Don’t post reviews that are fake. You may think they will never be discovered but they probably will be. When they are discovered, all of your ratings and reviews are going to be scrutinized and that’s extremely difficult to come back from.
· Respond, respond, respond. If someone leaves positive feedback, thank them and welcome them to use your service in the future. If the post is negative, let the person know you appreciate their review. Then give them a way to contact you so you can address whatever issues they brought up.
Utilize Social Media
Social media has a huge amount of influence on how your business ranks in search results. If you have a great social media strategy, your page will likely find more fans and then come up higher in searches. It’s a win-win and something that needs to be worked on regularly to ensure the best results.
· Engage your social media followers in interesting and fun ways. Offer updates, giveaways, and promotions that get people excited. You can also highlight various customers and offer links or stories that will matter to them. Always make sure you also reach out when questions or feedback come in via your social media page.
· Have a real strategy for your social media on each site you use. Companies that do well on social media engage on a regular basis. The more you interact, the more followers you’ll get, and the higher you’ll rank on search engines.
If you are looking for a way to market your business locally, but you don’t have the money to dip your toe into every pool, you aren’t alone. There are many ways to make an impact on the local area without spending much, or any, of your precious capital on it. Some of these ideas are likely old hat, but you may find that some of them you have not considered. We hope at least one or two of them spark something and give you a way to further market your business without dipping into the bank.
Research the Market
This is an option that costs nothing, at least in terms of money. It may take some time, but it can certainly be worth it in the end. By researching your target market and the characteristics that are shared by them, you can even save money in other ways.
Are you curious how?
Focus your marketing efforts on the people who are most likely to be a customer to begin with. You can also change the way you write messages to make them more likely to pull in those who may be customers down the line.
You can also study your competition and determine what their strengths and weaknesses are. From there you can capitalize on their weaknesses instead of going toe-to-toe in an area where they have an advantage. Turn those weaknesses for them into benefits for your company.
Use Business Cards
Sure, this might seem old-school, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. Meeting people face to face is a great way to get your name out there. Introduce yourself to new people you encounter, whether that happens to be someone in line behind you at the grocery store or the person behind the counter at the gas station. Pull out a card, jot down a freebie code, and sign it with a date. Many will use that business card coupon, and that can lead to returning customers.
Turn to Email
Email marketing is an inexpensive way to get the word out to people. A bare-bones marketing company may cost you only a few dollars a month, yet allow you thousands of contacts and more than enough space and span for a local business to do well. But what makes email stand out is that it is known for having a huge return on marketing dollars.
There are dozens of studies that show consumers prefer email communication. So, give the people what they want and save a bundle while you do it. It’s a situation that’s perfect for you and excellent for your customers, as well.
Engage Quickly
You want to engage and convert as fast as possible in the modern, digital world we live in. Most people look for a service or product online. In fact, studies show that many people use online research so much that they no longer need to ask questions of a sales person. They show up wanting what they want and knowing exactly what they expect.
One means of increased engagement comes through being aware of the device someone uses to browse your site. There are inexpensive methods to offer different iterations of the same site, so it looks great, no matter how a customer chooses to navigate. This can lead to someone who sticks around longer and gives you a sale.
Optimize for Crowds
Most consumers visit the web before making a purchase, and they often do this weeks or months before a decision. People are interested in having all the information they need to make the best choices. This applies whether the item in question is something expensive like a car or something low-budget that may not seem worthy of research. The starting point for buying is searching on the Internet.
Build your sites using best practices of search engine optimization to give yourself a leg up in rankings. Your business will be more prominently displayed and in turn get more traffic as people see you before other offerings.
Consider Cross Promotion
If you know another business that needs some marketing help, think about joining up with them. You could offer them a flyer for their store to pass out with a discount code. You could even offer to do the same back for them. You end up advertising to people out and about who may not know you exist and customers may stop in due to the discount code or other perks you offer them.
Other Ideas
There are tons of other ways to market inexpensively if you get creative. Here are some ideas that you could consider implementing. Each of them is inexpensive, and most won’t take up too much time, either.
· Place a magnet on your company car with your business’ name on it. You could also use a window decal or bumper sticker if preferred.
· Hold a business card drawing. Take visitors cards and then offer a prize to one lucky person at the end of the month based on who is randomly picked.
· Have an event or offer a class. You can often post a flyer with your company name, plus you get to help the community with something.
· Apply online for awards in your industry. Having badges from awards makes your website look more credible and reputable, leading to more sales.
· Offer a small online contest with a prize to the winner. This will pull people in, some of whom will stick around after the competition is over.
· Implement a customer referral program where an existing customer receives a free product or a discount when they refer a new customer.
· Recycle your content by turning a blog post into an eBook or a video into a webinar.
No matter what kind of business you are and what kind of services or products you provide, there are ways to get new customers without spending a ton of money. This list above should be a good basis for finding a few marketing ideas that work for you. Good luck!
You probably know what Instagram is. It’s a social network that is largely photo driven and offers a way for people to show off snippets of their lives. However, it’s also an amazing place for businesses to show off their company and what they stand for. While you may hear about Facebook and Twitter more often when it comes to marketing, that doesn’t mean you should ignore this large community of people.
Like any social network, it’s best to have a strategy when going into it as a business. We’ll go over some of the ways that Instagram excels when it comes to marketing local SEO and bringing attention to your company.
Increase Brand Awareness
Instagram is an excellent place to showcase your company and their services and products. Photography is king on this social media site, with all sorts of styles finding an audience. The site offers tons of filters and effects that you can add to photos. You can also utilize hashtags and advertise in a way that is more personal than you might be able to on Facebook or Twitter.
Of course, you have to be willing to take photos but the good news is that there’s no need for a professional. Photos that seem real and natural tend to get a better response. You don’t want your advertisements to look like advertisements. This may mean getting creative with logo use or photo captures in your business. But if people find and like what you’re posting, they often move on to checking out your website.
Use Text Overlays, Captions, and Keywords
Overlays are a great way to add information to a photo while not detracting from the aesthetic. There are many simple and free editing tools that let you add text to your photos. This allows you to communicate prices, dates, or other important information that your customers will want to know. Amplify this effect by using smart captions. Leave your call-to-action here to drive traffic to your main website. The final part of this is hashtags. You can add about 10 hashtags to each photo so use them. Use things that are relatable and interesting in the same way as you would use SEO keywords. But remember, timely hashtags and fun references are also good options.
Understand Business Tools
Instagram has a few business tools that can be helpful if used properly. You can get metrics that show you how well certain posts do. The data includes insights, reach, engagement, shares, and more for every paid advertisement. Take this data and use it find out what people are reacting to in order to give them more of this in the future. Pay attention to what keywords and hashtags offer the most reach and interaction.
Be Aware of Post Frequency
As with any other site, don’t spam. You shouldn’t be posting all your photos one by one at the same time. People will get frustrated and want to stop paying attention. Instead, consider having a schedule for when you post photos. This way you ensure you don’t go a long time without posting but you also don’t upload 20 photos in an hour and turn off viewers. The good news is that it’s actually easier to feature your products in a creative way if you aren’t posting every moment, so it all works together.
Engage Your Audience and Promote Traffic
It’s easier to engage with contests and photos, which is part of what makes Instagram such a unique site. People are there to share their lives and show their creativity and you can be a part of that. Do what you can to stay involved with people by replying to comments and using hashtags as you would keywords. Interesting content is important no matter where you are, but Instagram really appreciates and applauds creativity in marketing.
Hold a Photo Contest
Photo contests are huge on Instagram and for good reason, the entire site revolves around photos. How you make this work for you is by holding a contest of your own that somehow ties in with your brand. You could require a product of yours be in the photo, for instance. This gets you free promotion from others when they snap those photos and put them up on their own pages.
You should also have a hashtag you use for the contest and talk it up for a while before it launches. Anytime the hashtag is used, that’s more of an audience hearing about you and the contest. As for a prize, you can consider a free product of some sort. Of course, that takes money but you’ll likely make up for that with the new followers you pull in throughout the contest.
Partner with a Non-Profit
People love to support companies that support others, especially when these companies are in their own communities. One of the simplest ways to have a part in this is by donating a part of your profits to an organization close to your industry and having a hashtag that speaks to that partnership. The other organization may speak about you, as well, giving you even more publicity as a company that cares about others.
Conclusion
These should arm you with some interesting ideas for how to make Instagram a part of your social media marketing arsenal. All it takes is some time, interesting photos, and a plan, just like any other marketing option. The difference is that Instagram is a creative powerhouse where more unique options will often be embraced.
So, if you don’t have an Instagram, now is the time to make one. If you do have one and aren’t using it to its full ability, make a few changes for the better. You may be surprised to see the community spirit there, which can lead to more views on your website and other social media profiles, as well as a higher rate of conversion and money in your pocket.
Whether you pay for search engine optimization (SEO) or do it on your own, it’s important to know how it’s paying off for your local company or brand. Of course, this is easier said than done as it’s nearly impossible to determine whether you are top-ranked on search engines.
What you can determine is how many people are coming to your site and what leads to conversion and money in your hand. There are a number of ways to check return on investment (ROI) on SEO for your brand. We’ll go over a few of them below, specifically those related to Google Analytics, which makes checking on stats extremely easy.
Determine Need for Mobile Site
You can check under your Visitors menu to see whether a mobile version of your site would be beneficial. There is a Mobile option on the page where you can see what devices are used on your site and the percentage of people browsing from mobile.
Be sure to check out your bounce rate and average time on site here as it shows how long people stay on the site. If you find the mobile users spend less time on the site, you can determine that you are losing traffic and potential sales by not having a mobile site option.
Understand Shopping Cart Abandonment
For those with an online shopping cart and multiple step checkout, you can set up a Goal Funnel to understand what is causing people to leave. You just click on Goals and then create a new goal based on URL Destination. Toward the end of the goal you will include the last URL of checkout, which may be a thank you page. Click on Use Funnel to enter all the other URLs that correspond to making a purchase.
This lets you view reports that show when people leave the site while in the middle of purchasing. If a ton of people leave on the shipping page or payment page, that page needs work to make it friendlier to shoppers. Find out what is causing the issue and then fix it to bump up the number of sales you get.
Badly Performing Pages
On the content menu, you’ll see your top pages with your top exit pages below that. This shows you where people are coming into your site and where they are choosing to exit. If there are specific pages where people leave on a regular basis and that seem confusing, there may be a problem that is leading them to do so. It’s a good idea to evaluate these pages and content to see whether people are getting what they want. You could also post a call to action like purchasing a product or joining a mailing list.
Top Performing Pages
So, now that the badly performing pages are out of the way, let’s check out the best performing ones. Click on the Content Menu and click on Pages under Site Content. This lets you see information about pages that keep visitors for a long period of time or that lead them to visit more pages on your website. These are pages that are doing well and analyzing them can lead to making improvements elsewhere.
Visualize Clicks
If you want to know what people are clicking on more than average, go to In-Page Analytics under Content. Here you can see the percentage of clicks on each link your site has. You can hover over and click on these links to find out more information which may help to understand what people are clicking on and why. If you have something you want people to visit, try placing it somewhere that gets more clicks than other pages.
Search Results
Of course, keywords bring visitors to your site from places like Google and Bing. But it can be interesting to see what visitors are searching for on your actual site, too. If your site has a search box, head to Analytics and Profile Settings. Select the option to track site searches. Fill that in appropriately so Analytics takes a look at searches made.
For results, visit the Site Search area. You can see what terms are being searched for under Usage. It will also show whether they left, browsed more, or exited. This can help you understand if people are finding what they want. Seeing searches can also help you see what people want from your site so you can tune your content to be helpful for them.
Online Campaign Traffic
You can also check out how your marketing campaigns are doing and what is bringing the most traffic. You do this by going to Advanced Segments and building a new customer segment. You will fill in sites you have profiles on if you want to see how search directories are helping. Once you’ve added these, you can go back in later and see how traffic and conversion are working on each website so you can determine where to spend more time to enhance ROI.
Determine Best Locations
If you aren’t sure who to target with ads, it can be a difficult decision to make. You may want to focus on certain countries or areas if those give better results, but first you have to know. Google Analytics makes that easy. Check out your Visitors menu to see Location data about your visitors. This gives information on average time on site, bounce rates, and more. You can also move into a country and see stats from certain regions. From there, you have a great list to target; who you know already are interested in your services.
Conclusion
If you are new to Google Analytics or want to delve into it more deeply, these suggestions will help you determine where to start or where to go from where you are. There are hundreds of other ways to utilize this tool, but doing even a few of the listed options here will help you find the people you want and turn that traffic into ROI and conversions to keep your business healthy.
What is a retail company to do when the digital world is so immersive and full of activity?
Use the opportunity to reach people you might not otherwise, that’s what!
You can use the real-world relationships you have to transform them into online fans. You can also do the opposite, make online fans who will turn into real-world customers. It’s the best of both worlds and it isn’t as daunting as many may think it is at first look.
Implement eCommerce and Profit
If your retail store doesn’t do eCommerce, you’re missing out on tons of potential customers and sales. Selling online has never been easier and everyone from charities, community groups, and entrepreneurs are running their own web stores without having to stress over much web development.
How? I’m glad you asked.
· Services like Shopify allow people to start their own stores, selling their products to people across the globe. These services take care of all the technological stuff so you can focus on posting products, communicating with buyers, and otherwise marketing your business and making money.
· Sites like Etsy are another great option for creatives. There’s no need to know any web design or development to sign up. Having an ability with the camera can help, though. Post your products online and wait for the sales. Everyone else is out there doing it.
· Jump all in with an eCommerce site. You can build it yourself if you’re feeling motivated, or you can hire someone to do it for you. Either way, it gives another way to run into people who would love to buy your products but perhaps aren’t in the local area to do so.
Social Media Marketing
Social media is a great way to get involved in the online world. It’s an excellent way to tell people about your company and answer questions. Social media also has huge numbers of people who can become fans, which leads to more conversion and popularity for your company.
· Local businesses can gain followings on social media by being nothing but honest and relatable. There are millions of corporate social media accounts out there, but they’re hard to feel a connection with. Offering something new and providing a means of value will quickly have you picking up fans who will stick around.
· You can give great customer experiences online as there are so many ways to interact. Make sure your fans and customers always feel appreciated, even if that’s by doing something simple like thanking a person for a good review. It makes them feel better about shopping with you.
Digital Recommendations
Everyone knows that word of mouth can lead to more customers and more interest in your brand. That’s true with online interaction, as well. With endorsements and excellent reviews, you can pull more people into your marketing web and snag sales down the line.
· Choose a way to collect online reviews and make it easy for the other party to use. You could add a review form to your social media or business newsletters or try something else. The important thing is having a means for collecting these reviews, as they can serve you well later down the road.
· Make sure to treat your customers well, whether in real-life or in digital interactions. Capture happy feedback for later use. Manufactured reviews often appear like just that, which nobody is going to take seriously.
· Get people involved. Once you have customers who love your brand, find a way to get them making videos or taking photos that show your brand in a good light. You can then use these things in email campaigns later to bring even more fans and customers over to your brand.
Digital PR Matters
Find a way to get your real-world relationships online. Find a way to get the online ones in the real-world. Always consider how relationships can morph and merge between the two, because you may find mutually beneficial ways to take advantage of these relationships.
· Join some social media groups on LinkedIn or Facebook to learn more about other new businesses and who else is around the area. By being active and approachable, you’re likely to meet people who are interested in what you’re doing and want to be a party of it.
· When you meet someone online who is local, think about how you could work together. Maybe you could feature them in some work you’re doing or the two of you could work on PR together somewhere local. These relationships and just being nice to people can lead to some stellar benefits if you do what you want to drive them in that direction.
Local SEO Still Matters
You need to have a decent SEO if you want to be seen and heard, and that’s just as important for local retail as anyone else. This means that search engines need to know about you and who you are, which is something that requires a bit of work. However, there are a few great ways to start the process.
· Keep your information consistent from site to site. Make sure things are spelled the same and detailed in the same way. This makes it more likely all your web marketing will tie together and push you up the page on Bing.
· If you own a website, make sure you offer the physical address and phone number so people can find you locally and get in contact.
· Use Google+ Business, and other listings, to put your businesses (literally) on the map where people can find you. Someone searching for something nearby may click on your business and end up a customer. That won’t happen if there are no listings to begin with.
· Join business associations that offer listings and use those as a way to get your name out there.
There are many ways to use the online digital world as a forum for selling your retail products. Just be sure you are providing ways for people to find you. Of course, there’s more to local SEO than that, but just ensuring you’re out there where you should be and taking advantage of situations can help a whole lot.
Everyone knows that marketing with social media is important. This holds true whether you have a global company or a local business that is marketing in nearby areas. In fact, it may be even more important for a smaller business owner to utilize various social media sites to get their information and names out there. Here’s why:
Engaged Contact List
Gaining fans on social media is not easy and the people who follow you want to be engaged. If you can manage to make your brand fun or interesting, more people are likely to pay attention to what you post, tweet, or snap. But here’s the best part – once you have fans on social media, you also have a customer base that will pay attention to your advertisements at no cost.
Having an excellent social media strategy and a social audience will lead to referral traffic, conversions, and more money in your pocket.
Search Engine Optimization
The major search engines have confirmed again and again that social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram influence a company’s SEO. Having active social profiles will push your name up on Google and give you more opportunity for traffic.
If social media isn’t part of your marketing plan, you’re leaving traffic and money on the table. So not only must you have profiles, but you must be active and give people what they want on these profiles.
Management of Reputation
If you own a social media page with your company name on it, nobody else can do so. If you don’t grab up that opportunity, chances are someone else well. This makes it harder to prove you are who you say you are. It also makes it difficult to prove someone posting in your name isn’t connected to the company. Even if you don’t make updates on some social sites, having the account is something you should not ignore.
Using Social Sites as Part of Your Social Media Strategy
First off, there are some social media sites that are more important than others. Even if you don’t want to jump into every site, ensure you have profiles or pages available on these very important pages:
Facebook
Facebook is the most important account you can have, because nearly everyone has a personal account there. As a business, what you want is to start a Facebook Page. These represent companies, organizations, and public figures. In addition, Facebook allows you to advertise on their website. They even go so far as allowing you to ensure your advertisements get to those who matter – the people in your local area who can utilize your company.
LinkedIn
On LinkedIn, you can create a company page, which gives tons of information about your business. You can list the site, type, industry, employees, and more. You can also add updates and post articles in order to gain exposure.
Google+ Business
A business page on Google+ is different from a personal profile, just as pages are different than profiles on Facebook. Google+ doesn’t yet have the ability to advertise, but they do offer page listings in Google search results, so you should have a page set up.
Google+ Local
The Google+ Local account is often ignored, but it should not be. It’s probably one of the most important places to have a presence. This is because they display reviews from Zagat, a competitor to Yelp and similar sites. Google is integrating these with Google+ Business pages, which will make the two even more important.
Twitter
Twitter is another social media site that has the base of people that you want finding your page and site. You should absolutely make an account on Twitter. If you don’t have the time to keep it updated, at least ensure you fill out the bio with your location and website, which can lead people to you.
Foursquare
This social media site offers recommendations to users based on places nearby that are similar to what they and friends are already visiting. As such, this is a gold mine for getting your name out in the local area and converting visitors. People can find out who you are and what you do, along with things like hours, and even check out reviews.
Additional Possibilities
Snapchat
Snapchat has some great options for local SEO, including geofilters. These allow you to create a filter and make it available to a geographic area for a certain amount of time. When people use these filters, it’s simple advertisement and can spark conversation about your brand and what you bring to the table.
Quora
Quora is a community question forum that can be used to elevate a local brand. The site is a place where people ask questions. You can visit it and answer questions in your industry. You simply make a profile, start answering questions, and you can tack on a link to a blog or website where people can learn more about your company.
Where to go from Here
It can be difficult to find out what opportunities work best for local brands looking to build SEO in their area. It’s not impossible though. It’s a great idea to start small, with one or two sites, and keep up a presence. By trial and error, you’ll encounter things that work and things that don’t work.
That said, there are new social media sites that pop up all the time and many don’t last long. One way to have a constant presence is by being one of the first local companies in your industry to adopt a new service. This can give you a whole new group of people to market toward who you may not find elsewhere.
Social media is not just for the big guys, it’s for everyone. Local marketing teams can make a lot of headway using the sites that are popular. Be active and try to fill a need and you can find conversion paths from all sort of services.
Looking for some interesting ways to market your business in the local area? Having a strong marketing strategy is a great way to be competitive and stand up to the big chains and franchises in the area. Being creative with that marketing can go a long way toward building your brand and reputation in the area.
So, what are some unique ways to market yourself that others aren’t? We have quite a few and some of them are sure to resonate with your company and style of marketing.
Use Images of Your Business in Advertisements
When you use your business location in your advertisements, you can tie together both your online and real-world environments. Someone who drives by your location on the way to work each day, who then sees an advertisement showing that location, may have their interest piqued and check out your page. That could lead to a new customer or fan.
List Directions on Your Website
Nearly everyone has a page on their site explaining where the location is and how to get there. If you want to see how this leads to conversion, the process is simple. All you do is set up your directions page as a destination URL goal in your Google Analytics account. Then, you can check out this data and see the result of various campaigns. For instance, you could spend $100 on advertisements one month and $200 another and see how much that leads to revenue growth.
Mobile Emailed Coupons
It can be hard to track offline conversion rates, something every business struggles with. A great way to handle this is through emailed coupons. These coupons go to the customer through email. When they get to your location, they show the coupon on their phone and go ahead with their purchase. This is a great way to track conversion and execution.
Correct Yelp Categories
Yelp is important, and ensuring your business is listed in the right category is crucial. Why? Because when advertising on Yelp your ads show up based on what categories are chosen. Sometimes someone who is searching for a specific service will type that in a search engine and Yelp often pops up near the top of the results. If you’re listed as providing the service they need, there’s a better chance that person will check out your website.
Remarketing for Reviews
Sometimes a customer loves what you’re doing but doesn’t think to leave you a review. As time goes on, it’s even less likely that they will consider it unless something reminds them. You can be that something that reminds them to stop in and post a review. If you already have a confirmation page when people fill out something that is linked to Google Analytics, you can add a tracking code to the confirmation page and set up a list that tags who visits the URL. Something simple that reminds your customers to leave a review can go a long way.
Local Activity Advertisements
Talking about your business is, of course, important but so is talking about things that your fans and customers enjoy. This is especially useful in the local market because you can make content about events and locations nearby. Let’s say you own a business that delivers prescription medications. Let’s further say that the local hospital sometimes runs events that encourage locals to be aware of their health.
You can then cover that event, which is important and people will appreciate, yet keep the content in your wheelhouse. People who may not follow you could see this article and choose to visit your social media page or website. You may end up with all new customers who never would have known about you before. You show you care about the community and want others to succeed.
Neighborhood Facebook Ads
Facebook ads can lead to local SEO bumps, as Google and other search engines do pay attention to these things. By having ads for the local area, your name is going to be out there. If people know you on Facebook as the pharmacy delivery experts, that will stay there. This may lead to situations where a friend or family member has a need which you can fill and your name immediately comes to mind.
Implement Call-Only Ads
If you make money driving sales through phone calls, a call-only ad can be a great option for your business. For those who don’t have a full ad team or custom landing pages, call-only ads allow you to advertise exactly what you want, and the customer to give you a call. Of course, this does mean having great ad copy that clearly explains who you are and what you do to ensure the calls you get are useful for the both of you.
Consider Third-Person Copy
Using third person copy can lead to higher click through rate because the language speaks to the customer and their specific needs. One way to utilize this in your own copy is by using reviews from your customers. Check out those Yelp or Facebook or Google My Business reviews and use some of them to show what people are saying or thinking. It’s a unique way to position yourself as different from the rest of the pack.
Conclusion
There are literally hundreds of unique ways to market your business to stand out. The handful featured here may not all be gold for you and your business, but we hope some of them make a difference. If nothing else, you have a place to start. Consider how to combine or tweak these tips to work best for your industry and location. Advertising is hard work but it can also be a fun and creative pursuit. We hope to help you make it both while also ensuring views and page clicks come to you. So give some of these tips a try and see how they work for you. If you come up with some even more unique ideas, let us know!
Have you heard about the importance of using localization to help gain more traction for your business and to improve your SEO?
In addition to using localization in the content that you write for your website and blog, or for your social media outlets, you will also want to make sure you are on local listings.
You will find plenty of excellent benefits when it comes to placing your company on local online directories.
Let’s get a closer look at how these local listings can help your business so you can see just why it is such a good idea to start using them.
Advertising is essential if you want to have more customers come into your establishment. You should always be looking for ways that you can advertise your business, and local listings are an ideal fit for any company that has a brick and mortar component. You can put your business information in front of people who are actively looking for a business in your area that does exactly what you do. You have the potential to drastically increase your business, or at least your company’s exposure, when you are on local listings.
Of course, one of the best reasons to use local listings is because they will add another link to your site, in most cases, and they will help you to rise in the ranks on the search engine pages. Local listings are fantastic for helping to boost your search engine optimization.
Again, by adding the location, it aids people who are looking for businesses like yours in a certain geographic area, such as the Outer Banks. It helps with all your other SEO efforts, as well.
Having multiple links going to your site from multiple local listings provides you with quality links.
The search engines tend to give more credence to these types of links, just as they do with social media links. Together, they can help to boost your SEO ranking.
Have you had trouble getting reviews for your business?
Are you unsure of just where people should be leaving reviews?
You will find that many of the local listing directories will also have areas where the customers can leave reviews about the companies they do business with. You can even remind customers that they can leave a review for your business on those sites. While not everyone will, you can be sure that there will be some who want to let others know about the treat experience they had.
Of course, there will also be those who write negative reviews. It is the nature of the Internet. You need to be careful and make sure that you respond to those negative reviews quickly and responsibly. Do not engage negatively and argue with someone online. Respond to their review professionally, and see what you can do to make it right.
Also, make sure that what you do is transparent, so others can see the interaction. This will show them that you care about your customers.
One of the reasons companies today have trouble succeeding is because they cannot afford advertising, or they are advertising in the wrong locations. One of the great things about local directories is that adding your business name and information tends to be free. This gives you some great advertising and marketing benefits, and the only thing you have to spend is a bit of time.
Even if you do have a large marketing budget, it is still in your best interest to utilize local directories given the benefits they can offer.
Now that you know just how beneficial these listings can be for you, it is time that you started to put your business up on directories. You can find hundreds of different listing directories that you can add your business to, including local directories that cater to businesses right in your area, such as Outer Banks Concierge.
Be sure to put your business on some of the larger directories as well, as this can help you to get seen by more people.
Some of the most popular and effective of the larger directories include Google+, Facebook, Yahoo, Bing, Yelp, and Angie’s List. Determine the directories that are right for your business, and then add your business to them.
Keep in mind that the local listings can include various types of information. You will want to make sure that you include and fill all the information when you are adding your business. The more information you include the better. You will want to include the name, address, phone number, and your website. In addition, you should include the hours or operation.
Some of the listings may also allow you to include the methods of payment that you are able to accept, as well as a description of your business, and even images. Some will also have customer reviews, such as you see on places like Yelp.
By providing as much information as possible, it gives improves your visibility when people are looking up companies like yours in your specific area. It provides them with the address, contact information, and everything they need to know. Doing this will also provide your business with some excellent SEO benefits.
Now that you see the benefits that local listings can offer for SEO, an in other areas, it is time that you got started in this field. It is easy to sign up for the local listings, and it will not cost you anything more than some time. Make sure you keep coming back and updating the listings for any large changes to your company, such as changing the phone number or changing the address.
Working with local listings, and staying on top of them, can be a fantastic boost that your business needs.
Marketing is vital to the survival of any business, whether you have an online only company or a fantastic shop nestled in the Outer Banks. You need to understand that marketing in today’s world has some differences from advertising in the past. In fact, it is even different from what it was a few years ago. Local SEO has become more important than ever, and you need to integrate this with your current content and SEO work.
New SEO
One of the other things you will need to remember when it comes to working with SEO is that in the past, SEO would focus on single keywords. That is no longer the case today. Utilizing keywords phrases and longtail searches is more important. When you are working on SEO, you need to think about what a person is going to enter into the search string to attempt to find companies such as yours. It is your job to make sure the phrases you are using, and your content, match those searches. In addition, remember to think local, as we will discuss. Put the location in those keyword phrases, and you will start to see better results for your brick and mortar business.
Think Local
One of the other things you will want to make sure you do when you are creating content is to make sure that you remember to add your locale. Add these to the content and your keywords naturally. This will help you to boost your local SEO, which will place you higher in the rankings when people are searching for your type of products or services in your area. You can do this in your content on your blog and site, as well as on your social media posts.
How Can You Add Localization to Content?
First, you need to make sure that you are considering your website overall. Each of your pages, including the blog, should have a footer that includes your company name, location, and phone number. In addition, in some of the posts that you create should also feature the location of your business. For example, if you have a company based in the Outer Banks, and you run a fishing charter, your posts about fishing, things to do in the area, or anything else, should generally contain mention of the outer banks, along with the type of business you run.
For example, “if you are looking for a fantastic fishing charter in the Outer Banks, AAA Fishing has just what you need. Check out some of the fish our guests caught the last time we went out.” You would then add the location and name of your business in a similar manner once or twice more through the content. You never want it to seem too forced. If you stuff too many keywords into the content, local or otherwise, you will find that Google could strip you of your ranking, believing you are trying to game the system.
It is quite simple to add work with local SEO, as you can see. You will find that it can be just as easy when you work with social media and local SEO.
How Can Social Media Help?
In addition to content marketing on your blog, you will want to make sure you are on social media and that you are active. Social media is still technically a form of content marketing, as you are providing content – your posts, images, etc. – to your audience. However, there are certain things that you can do to make this more effective, and to help gear it toward a local audience.
Your content for your website or blog can work along with your social media posts. By creating quality content on your site, and then linking to it through your blog, using local terms along with your keywords, it can help to boost your SEO rankings. However, you do need to make sure you are creating quality content that people will want to share. It should never be geared solely toward marketing and trying to sell someone on your products or services. Instead, it should be about enlightening or entertaining the audience. They are more likely to share, which will help to boost your SEO rankings, which helps get more eyes on your store online, and offline if you are using local SEO to good effect.
Can Social Links Boost Your Ranking?
Social links do have the potential to help boost your ranking in search engines. This is because search engines such as google tend to put a lot of weight behind the importance of social links. Therefore, when you have links that go from your social media site to your website, and when people on social media share those links, it can help with your ranking. The more of these quality links you have the better. By adding localization to your posts that have these links – simply mentioning your location – it can help with your local SEO efforts.
This is not going to be a boost that happens overnight. However, with time and a bit of effort, it can help with your rankings, and it should be a part of your SEO practices. This does not mean that you need to add localization to all your posts – it would start to look ridiculous to have your location in everything you post. Just do it naturally.
You can make local SEO work for you by incorporating it in social media outlets and the content you write for your site. In addition, always be on the lookout for other ways that you can boost your local SEO on the web, such as becoming part of local directories. You can find these from Google, Yahoo, Bing, and more. If you have a brick and mortar business, focusing on local SEO is becoming more and more important. Your competitors are doing it, and you must do it to if you hope to survive and thrive.
Are you having trouble getting enough people into your brick and mortar store? If so, it could be due to a range of things. If you are sure that your products and services are on point, and that you are treating customers well, it might just be your marketing. Many business owners, especially those who have relatively small businesses, find that it is difficult to market properly, simply because they do not have the time or the budget for it.
One of the biggest problems, however, is due to the website not doing its job. Let’s look at some things you can do to help get your website in line with what’s needed in today’s competitive world.
Is the Website Modern and Aesthetically Pleasing?
In the past, when businesses were first getting online and using websites, they were not very attractive. They would have flashy, bright graphics, sounds that played as soon as someone arrived on the site, and annoying popups, not to mention a terrible color scheme. Websites are no longer novelties, and this won’t cut it. However, there still seem to be quite a few people out there who have sites that have those types of problems.
It is time that you examined your site with a critical eye, or had someone else do it for you. It is important to have an impressive landing page that is easy on the eyes and that contains all the pertinent information about your business, including the location, without being overwhelming to any of the senses. In fact, you should make sure you have your name, address, and phone number on the footer of all your pages on the site. Identify your city and neighborhood. This is going to help get you a better rank in the search engines when people use local terms to find businesses such as yours.
The colors of the website, and the font that you use, are more important than you might realize, as well. You want to make sure that everything is nice and easy on the eyes. This means stay away from green text on a red background and similar sins of graphic design. If you are not sure of how to create an aesthetically pleasing site, you might want to hire someone to help.
When it comes to being more modern, this also means you need to make sure that your site is usable in mobile browsers, such as those used by smartphones and tablets. Since so many people are using these devices today and using them to access the web when they are out, you want your site to work well no matter what device someone is using.
Never Forget the Importance of Content Marketing
You should also remember the phrase “content is king”. This is still true, even with the advent of social media. People need to have content to consume and share, and that is what you should have on your site’s blog. The content should also be localized, remember. Some of the posts will certainly want to mention your location. Consider the types of things your ideal customer might want to know about your business or your field and create content based around that. You will find that it is possible to create content about nearly anything.
Always make sure the content is as engaging as possible. Whether it is a well-written blog post that asks questions of the readers at the end, or it is a video, you want the viewer to be educated and perhaps entertained by the content they consumer. You also want to elicit a reaction from them – namely, you want them to come into the store. With quality, friendly content that has calls to action, this is possible.
Can You Make Sales Online?
One of the mistakes that some people make is believing that their website is simply a shingle that they hang out to get attention rather than a place where they can make actual sales. This is certainly true of those who have brick and mortar stores. However, the site can do quite a bit more for you, and depending on the type of business you have, you might even be able to sell through your site, even if you are primarily a local store.
Of course, this is not a viable solution for all businesses, at least not on the surface. You might not be able to sell a cup of coffee or breakfast on the web to someone who is several thousand miles away. However, you can sell gift cards and gift certificates online. These might not be big business for you, but it is another avenue for sales – and an easy one at that. You might find other things that you can sell online, as well as in your store, too.
Show Them What You Offer on Your Site for When They Visit the Store
The web is a great place for you to showcase the types of services and products you offer. Even if you are not selling online, you can use this space as an enticement to get them into the store so they can buy. Let them do the research they need on the web, and show them what your shop can offer. Provide photos and videos of your store and the products or services, as well. If you offer a service, such as manicures, you might want to allow people to reserve an appointment on the web, for example. There are plenty of ways you can use your site to get people more excited about what you offer.
Your website is every important when it comes to the success of your brick and mortar store. They have a symbiotic relationship. When you have a better quality website, there tends to be greater potential for sales at your brick and mortar store simply because more people will know about your site and feel that you are running a professional business.
For a local search marketing campaign to be successful, you need to make sure you have created quality local business listings in a range of directories. There are many different sites for local business owners to create free business listings, and it is a good idea to add your own information to those sites.
Some of the most popular include Google+ Local, Yahoo Local, Bing Places, and Yelp.
However, these are certainly not the only choices out there. You could – and should – also find sites that are specifically for your area. For example, those who are in the Outer Banks may want to look for business directories that cater to businesses on the Outer Banks.
The Internet is crowded, and you have a lot of competition. The goal of creating business listings is to help improve your visibility on the Internet, just as with all your other online activities. When your business is more visible, it gives you the opportunity to be seen by more people who are looking for businesses like yours, and that are in your area.
It is important that you claim your listings on business directories so you can take advantage of them. Verification of the listing can usually be done over the phone or through email. If you find that the directory does not have your business, you can start filling out the information needed.
When you are filling out the business directory, you need to make sure that you include all the necessary information.
You will need to have your business name, as well as a local phone number that matches the city where you are located. You do not want to use a toll-free number, for example. In addition, you will want to have a dedicated street address, not a PO box or a virtual office.
Make sure you fill out all the areas of the business directory. You will find that they are the same, at least for the most part. Some may allow you to provide more information than others will.
For example, on some sites, you might also be able to add video and images, or perhaps a menu for those who offer food and beverages. Utilize all of the tools available through the various directories, as they can help you to boost your SEO and make your business easier to find for the right people.
One of the other things you must think about when you are listing your business is the categories you choose. Make sure you are in the proper category or categories for the type of business you have.
With many of the directories, you can add your website. It is a good idea to do this, and you should make sure the landing page has information that will wow the potential customers and makes them want to visit your shop.
You might want to have the page link to your blog, a page that offers a discount, or something else that will entice the visitors to want to go to your shop.
It is possible that you could have duplicate listings in a business directory. This will often happen if you have changed your business location, but you are still in the same general area. Those who have duplicate listings will find that it can cause issues with their customers because it can appear as if there are several locations for your company. Some customers could leave bad reviews because of this, or they could be confused when they arrive at a location where you used to have your business.
You want to make sure you have those duplicate listings removed on the business directories as soon as possible. It will alleviate a lot of confusion.
With some of the business directories, such as Yelp, customers have the option of leaving feedback for businesses. These reviews have the potential to really help set your business apart… so long as they are good reviews, of course. If you have a business that treats customers well and that provides them with good customer service and/or products, they may leave you a nice review on one of the business directory sites that accepts reviews. Also, you might want to ask your customers, particularly your best customers, if they would mind leaving a review.
When people are looking for a company, regardless of the type of company it might be, they tend to want to find one that they can trust and that can provide them with good overall service.
Naturally, they check reviews to determine your ability as a company. It might not be the “make or break” of whether they will visit or not, but it will play a factor with many. Having no reviews will not do you any favors, and having negative reviews will harm you. Work toward getting good reviews, and make sure you deal with any negative reviews professionally, and as quickly as you can.
If you make any changes, for example, to your phone number, make sure that it is updated across all the business directories you are a part of. If you don’t, it means your potential customers are not going to be able to get a hold of you when needed.
You should also make sure that you updated any changes to the business.
For example, if you own a café or restaurant, and you have a seasonal menu, make sure you change it to reflect what you have available currently. People who view your business listing need to have it be an accurate representation of your company as it stands right now.
As you can see, having a business directory listing is important. By using the name of your business, and the right categories and keywords, it boosts your SEO and puts your company in front of people who are potential buyers.
Do not overlook the importance of these directories.
SEO and social media marketing have the potential to work hand in hand with one another, and when you use these methods wisely, it can mean great success for your company. They are inbound strategies for the most part, although it is possible to utilize adds to boost their visibility. However, ads are not always necessary. You can use these as organic methods of finding new potential customers without spending on additional advertising. Proper use of social media can help to increase your search rankings, and putting in the time and effort to improve your SEO all around can help to improve your reach on the web through your site, as well as your rankings and your social media reach.
Get Quality Followers and More of Them
Having a lot of followers might make you feel good on social media, but unless those followers are considered “high quality” it will not do you as much good. Google has the ability to check the quality of your followers, and they do. They want to make sure they are sending their visitors to the best possible sites, so buying up a large number of followers who are using proxy or fake accounts, or that have no actual interest in your business and what you do is just a waste of money.
Instead, you need to improve the quality of your followers. You do this by building your followers organically. This does take substantially longer, but you will find that it can be effective in the long run. By practicing some simple social media tenets of good behavior – posting quality links, posting regularly, engaging with the audience, etc. – you will find that growing your number of followers in an organic way is certainly possible.
Ideally, you will want to have followers that are engaging and interacting with your page often. This could be sharing links, commenting, and the like. In the beginning, it can be difficult to get people to do much of anything. However, being consistent, and being engaged with the people who are following you can help.
Links from Social Media can Help With Your Rankings
Having high quality links can help you with your rankings in the search engines, and Google tends to put quite a bit of emphasis on links from social media. The social sites have a high web authority. Therefore, having a link from the social posts online that go to your website, as well as links to your site from your social profiles, can do a lot to help boost your rankings. In addition to boosting the rankings, it also helps to bring more traffic to your website.
When people choose to share your links that you have posted on social media, or they share them on their own, it helps to get the word out about your content and continues to give you a nice boost.
Make Things Easy to Share
You should always strive to make the content you create as shareable as possible. After all, social media is about being social and sharing information. Whether you are creating a post for the social media sites, putting up images on Pinterest, or linking to a blog, always make it easy to share.
Make sure that everything you want to share is public. With many of the social sites, including Pinterest and YouTube, there are private settings. Many people set up their accounts and make certain elements private. Then, they start posting for their business and wondering why no one is seeing or sharing anything. Check the privacy settings to your posts to make sure everything is visible and searchable.
Remember Keywords in Your Posts
When you are writing your posts on social media, do not forget the keywords that you have been using in the content on your website. By using the same keywords and phrases, it can help you to boost your rankings via social media for those terms, and to identify those terms with your business. Think local when it comes to the terms, as well. When you add your location to the posts, this can help with search engine results. This is true for any of the main social media outlets you likely use for your business including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Remember Local Listings
While social media is quite important, as is the content that you are posting on your website and blog, you need to consider the power of local listings on business directories, as well. Through places such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing, you can claim your company, which will help to bring you to the top of the list on the search engine rankings. Make sure you consider all the local listing options, not just the largest sites. Check for some of the smaller directories in your area. If you have a company in the Outer Banks, for example, you should always add your business to those listings that cater specifically to that area.
Keep an Eye Out for New Options
Technology advances quickly, and it seems as if there is always some new website or tech out there that has the potential to make your marketing easier. Maybe it is a new social media site that gets popular, or a new tool or app for those social media sites. You want to stay on top of things if possible. This way, you can stay a couple of steps ahead of the competition.
You need to put in the same amount of care and attention as you are building your business and developing your marketing plan. Search engine optimization, local and otherwise, is marketing for the long haul. Make sure you learn how to do it properly, or work with those who can help you. It takes some time and work, but the results are well worth it.
Search engine optimization remains an important part of marketing for your business. It is extremely useful when it comes to getting more visibility for your website, and therefore your company. When used properly, like social media, it can provide your business with more potential for success. Better rankings in the search engines means more eyes on your content, and your business. This increases the change of sales of your products or services.
Some who have brick and mortar stores still do not realize that they need to invest just as much time and effort into SEO content as those companies that are selling exclusively on the web. A good site and good content gets more eyes on the website, and it increases your rankings in Google and other search engines. Having a higher rank means your site and business show up on the first page or so when people are looking for businesses such as yours.
The Content Should Not Be Just for Ranking Purposes
One of the first and most important things to remember is that people are going to be reading this content, and that means it needs to be readable. You are not merely putting up posts to you can boost your rankings. The days of throwing haphazard posts together with keywords and key phrases jumbled up in them are thankfully over.
Today, people expect there to be good and interesting content on your page. It doesn’t have to be content that is going to change the world. It merely need to be content that is going to be something that will interest the people who visit your site – your potential customers. Perhaps you have a shop that sells touristy items in the Outer Banks. Why not have some blogs about all the things there are to see and do in the area. Some of the posts can be about items you offer in the shop and why they would be beneficial.
You can do this with just about any type of business you have. Whether it is a cleaning company, a restaurant, a fishing charter or anything else. Create good content, and you will find that people are far more likely to stay on your page. In addition, that content can help to build more of a rapport with your readers.
Smart Keywords and Phrases
In addition to writing good content, you need to make sure it has good keywords and phrases in it that not only focus on the topic of the content and your business, but also your location. It is very important to take steps to localize the content as much as possible. This gets you rankings in front of the right people who are on the search engines – people who are looking for a business just like yours in your area.
You will find that this is easier to do than you might imagine. Let’s say you have a massage facility and spa in the Outer Banks, and you want to attract people to your business. You can write content based on the different types of services you offer, the benefits of massage and other services, and some basic health-related articles. You could focus your keywords on your services, but make sure to add your location. You can do this a couple of times in the post very simply. For example, you could say, “if you are looking for a great way to relax, a massage in the Outer Banks is ideal” as a line in the content. A couple of other lines that utilize the keywords and location, without going overboard, can be quite helpful in getting you higher in the rankings.
What Do the People Want?
If you have a good blog, and you are engaging with people on social media, they can often give you a better idea of the type of content you should be creating by the things that they comment. Interact with the people who are on your site and on your social media outlets. After all, they are your customers, or your potential customers. If they say they wish you had some information on aromatherapy, perhaps put up a post about it, and then let them know.
Do Not Give Up
SEO improvements do not happen overnight. They take time, and that means you need to be willing to put in the work needed. You have to nurture your content creation just as you would any other area of your business, since it is such an important part of marketing, as well as your company’s brand and identity.
Any Type of Company Can Improve SEO Content
Perhaps you are thinking that it would be impossible to add content to your site that would be of interest to customers. That’s just not true! Whether you are selling physical products or a service from your brick and mortar store, you can create content that will appeal to the type of customers you are hoping to attract no matter who they might be. Take the time to think about the types of problems or questions those individuals might have, and the types of answers they would need. You could also think about the sorts of things that would entertain your customers. Then, you can create content in that vein. It really is that simple, as long as you remember to use your keywords wisely and focus on localization.
Outsource Content Creation If Needed
Of course, you might worry that you simply do not have enough time to handle all of this on your own. You may be spending all your time trying to run the other aspects of your business. If that’s the case, you can still reap the benefits of quality SEO content to help your business. Simply outsource to writers who know, or who can learn, the type of content you need for your customers. It is cost effective, and it has the potential to really boost your business’s visibility.
Are you having trouble getting as many people through your business’ doors as you would like? Have you stopped to think about what the problem might be? Even if you are running a fantastic business, it might just mean that there are a lot of people out there that have no idea you even exist. This is likely due to your marketing. We know it can be difficult when you are a small company that does not have a large marketing budget. However, we have some tips that you can start using right now that have the potential to bring more people into your brick and mortar stores, and you can take care of these marketing tweaks on your own.
Local SEO Is Essential for Brick and Mortar Shops
Many people do not focus much on local SEO. You know that you need to use keywords, and that’s what you do. However, if you localize these terms by using the name of your city or neighborhood, it helps to focus your content. The content can then reach higher rankings in the search engines because people who are performing web searches will often use their city, or a city they are planning to visit, in the search bar. This way, they only see businesses in the area. When you do this for your business, you will be among the companies they see. If you hope to compete, this is vital.
Optimize Your Business Page With Google and Remember Other Business Directories
You can set up a Google My Business Page for your company, which can help you to climb in the rankings. Make sure that you fill out your page completely, including NAP (name, address, phone) information. You also need to add your business hours, location, website, and other pertinent information. Make sure the profile is 100% complete. Ensure your business is verified – you can generally do this with a phone call or an email.
While Google is the big dog when it comes to business directories, do not forget to utilize other directories, as well, including Bing and Yahoo. Also, make sure that you take the time to go to some of the local business directories and add your business to those, as well. The greater your presence online, the easier it will be for people to find you. Just remember that if you make changes to your business, such as moving the location or changing the phone number, you will need to make those changes to the directories to keep everything up to date.
Getting Your Website Ready
Just because you have a website, it does not mean that the site is working as hard for you as it could be. You need to think local, but you also need to make sure the website is working well in other areas, too.
The landing page needs to provide customers with information about your products or services, as well as your location or locations. The website needs to be easy to navigate, and it should always be easy for the customers to find everything they need in a matter of seconds. Having a large and convoluted website is going to cause more problems than it is worth. In addition, your landing page, at the very least, should have all of your business information readily available. This includes the name, phone number, location, and hours.
To get the most out of local SEO, it is often a good idea to start a blog if you haven’t already. The blog will contain posts and content relating to things your potential customers want and need to know, and you will add local “tags” to the content. Simply mentioning the area in the post can help you rise in the search engines, and you can do it in a natural manner so it never appears as if you are stuffing keywords into your content.
For example, if you have a café in the Outer Banks, you could write a post that talks about an event that you attended recently in the Outer Banks, and you can even mention your café briefly. This way, you are not directly advertising through the content, but it is still doing marketing work for you.
You can also use tools such as Yoast SEO, which can change the title tags and meta descriptions to add local keywords. Keep an eye out for various tools that can help make posting to your social media accounts, and even your blog easier.
We know that it can sometimes be difficult to take care of all these things on your own when it comes to marketing. You might find that it could be easier if you outsource some of it instead. It can provide you with some more free time, which you can use to handle other parts of the job, or even other parts of marketing.
If you have had your website for a while now, you might find that it is outdated and could use an upgrade. This is an upgrade that will be well worth the cost. For example, you might have a website that does not look good or work well when someone is viewing it on a tablet or a mobile phone. Keep in mind that this is how most people visit the web today. You will want to make sure your site is responsive, or you will want to make sure you get another site that will work with mobile. You do not want to miss out on those customers.
You Can Succeed
Think local in everything you do with your advertisements online if you have a brick and mortar store and you do not serve customers around the country. You want people in your area, and who are going to be visiting your area to find you as easily as possible. Add local SEO to all of your online locations from the blog to social media and business directories, and you will see a difference in the number of customers you get.
