Thursday, May 9, 2013

Marketing Advice for Local Search

By Therese Goodwint


Business have been taking advantage of online local search marketing recently in their pursuit of increasing business. In this article, we will show you 10 specific ways to get your business to outperform competition and stay successful.

Investigate Local Directories

Local search optimization, like any solid search engine optimization strategy plan, requires a bit of research. Search your own business online. Knowing where your business appears on directories is crucial, so this is the first step. When searching, don't limit your queries to just your business name though; try different combinations of your phone number, and address also. 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. This external data on your business is compiled, processed, and compared to the index kept by the big search engines. Local directory data must be constantly updated to be sure that everything is always right and easily accessible. Citations are also utilized by search engines as well as 3rd party data, this is taken into account in rankings. The NAP (name, address, and phone number) of businesses are what citations refer to, and how often these are mentioned online.

Google Places

Use Google Places to list your business. Be thorough, this is imperative! 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. Be sure to select both "restaurant" and "Mexican restaurant" if your business is a Mexican restaurant. Then make your listing catchy by adding the most gorgeous cover photo that you can, along with 5 or more other photographs to showcase your product or service.

Create Geo-specific Pages

Create location pages on site for multiple locations. Your company could benefit from having a page dedicated to each of the locations that your business has on your website Keywords are crucial when you would like to increase business in a certain area, so choose these wisely and make sure they reflect the area of operation. It makes sense to use landing pages that correlate to the areas your business is operating in.

Boost your rankings in your local area by targeting the consumers in your region on your website pages, instead of wasting time advertising to those on the other side of the world. Keywords and phrases should be carefully selected in order to gain the most benefit from the area your business is in rather than globally, and this will help you get higher in the rankings when customers seek out your products or services.

Request Reviews of your Business

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:



0 comments: