Tuesday, 25 June 2013

Marketing Advice For Local Search

By Therese Goodwint


In recent years, local business have been making use of the internet to find additional customers using local search marketing. We have some great advice here that will help a local business to keep one step ahead of their market counterparts.

Local Directories Provide Valuable Info

It's important to do proper research in order to optimize your local search results, just like other types of SEO. Search your own business online. Knowing where your business appears on directories is crucial, so this is the first step. Your business name is not the only thing you should look up during this search; plug in different variations of your address and phone number as well. Keep this information in your records by using a spreadsheet to document links and listings.

These search engines are kept up to date by local directories and 3rd party information gatherers. Your business information is compared to the index kept by the bigger search engines using external data. Local directory data must be constantly updated to be sure that everything is always right and easily accessible. In addition to third party data, search engines use the citations in their index as a ranking factor. Name, address and phone number (NAP) references of a company on the internet are what citations cover.

Google Places

Create your Google Places listing. And remember, completeness matters! Be certain that the data on your company is accurate, including selecting the proper categories, your contact info, hours of operation and of course add a company description. One of the more important aspects of this is categories; as many categories as possible must be carefully chosen that match perfectly the business that you are promoting. For example, if you're an Italian restaurant, make sure to select both the "Italian restaurant" category as well as the "restaurant" category. This should then be accentuated by promoting the best of your business with exquisite photography of the products, (5 minimum) and of course an amazing cover photo.

Carefully Create some Geo-specific Pages of Content

When there is more than one location, be sure to create location pages showing them all. It may be a good idea to create individual pages on your site for businesses that have numerous locations, specific to each branch. If you want to draw traffic in front a specific region then you need to ensure that you're using keywords that are specific to your targeting market as well as the regions you operate. It's a good idea to create landing pages that relate specifically to the regions around your business.

When you target local audiences on your pages instead of globally you increase the chance of boosting your listing for local SERPs. Narrowing down your keywords and phrases to only local results will be beneficial because your site will end up ranking higher for your area, and the pages that are not relevant will be much lower, enabling you to be more easily found by customers.

Ask Customers to Complete Reviews

A crucial part of business strategy is to get customer reviews, these make a huge difference. Customers who have had a pleasant experience with your products or services can help you immensely by leaving a review on your website, and that helps you rank higher in search engines. Let customers know that their satisfaction and feedback are very important to you, and ask them to share their opinions on your website.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment