Local Search Marketing
Local search business listings rank above organic listings when people search nearby for a business. Local SEO services get your business found online for customers searching for a nearby business.
What Is Local Search Marketing
Local Internet Marketing is a broad term that includes the many methods to make a business highly visible to potential customers that are searching for a business in a particular area. Local search engine marketing is absolutely essential for any type of business that depends upon customers near their store or business location. We offer local internet marketing services to create your local business pages and help with Google My Business, Bing Places and Maps Listings. We also offer local search services to create local search citations to improve your ranking and online visibility.
Why local search marketing matters
Nearly 90% of people conducting local searches call or visit a local business! Your business needs to be highly visible on page one of local search results in order to reach potential buyers when they are ready to make a purchase. If you’re not easily found online you are definitely losing a lot of sales.
Who are local search users?
Think about the average person on the go. They often find themselves in unfamiliar parts of town and use their smart phones to find local places to shop or eat. They make a quick search on their smart phone and make a decision on where to spend their money.
Connecting with these local search users is your opportunity to seize a sales opportunity. To make local search engine marketing work you need to do more than simply creating a few local search listings. Your local search engine listing needs to be completed with rich detail, technically optimized, and strengthened by leveraging citation sites with search engine trust and authority status. Without precise local search marketing methods your business may never be highly ranked. You should also strongly consider getting a mobile friendly website design.
What are local search citations?
Local search citations are third party websites that are generally comprised of business listings. Citation sites include maps sites, directory sites, industry specific sites like AVVO, and localized sites like Yelp, Nextdoor, or Merchant Circle.
There are differences in citation sites. From old school online directories to niche directories and local search engine sites, where you are listed makes a difference. It is important to work with only local search experts that understand which citations work best for your type of business. Most any business can benefit from citation listings and business profiles on trusted citation sites. The art to maximizing local SEO is finding niche sites that are highly relevant to your business.
Citation building tips in 2017
Simply creating listings on various sites does not make much of an impact. Every listing needs to have complete and detailed information that provides value to users. You should build out rich content with photos, videos and other creative content. Above all, make certain that there is consistency in the information published to boost the value of your listings. What makes the entire process easier is utilizing an information template. A template allows you to copy/paste, keep information consistent, and save time.
Local SEO Agencies vs. Corporate Online Advertising
The big online advertising companies have great sales pitches but online reviews for these companies typically tells a different story. With a smaller local SEO agency you get personal service, customized work, reasonable prices and we are easy to reach when you have questions. The truth is that a smaller agency is far more invested in your success – they truly want to have a long term relationship. A corporate advertising company sees your business as simply a “chunk of monthly revenue”. The corporate drones doing your work don’t really care, they get paid the same amount whether or not you are successful.
We believe that clients of smaller agencies receive better value than they could even hope for from Yelp, Yodle, Reach Local, YP Marketing Solutions and similar one-size-fits all advertising programs. Making adjustments with an independent local SEO agency is a breeze – no layers of bureaucracy and run-around when you need something. A smaller agency knows that their success is tied to your success.
What service or software do you recommend for building and managing local search listings?
Great post. Please keep it updated as I’ve bookmarked this article.
I tried Yext for local search listing management. At first, it was great to be able to set up 50 or so listings fairly quickly. Then I realized I was paying a lot every month with no real need to update listings. I canceled Yext and devoted the time to manually build listings from lists along the lines of what you provided. I’m now saving a lot of money, and I still have control over my listings.
Please write more articles on local search marketing!!
Easy to read and actionable info. Thanks!