Connecting online traffic to your bricks and mortar business.
Local search marketing helps businesses selling products and services to a local marketplace. Search engines are actively attempting to improve the quality of their local search offerings. It is estimated that by 2015 30% of all searches will be local. 80% of all local searches are done via smartphones.
Therefore if you target market is local it is wise to invest your marketing efforts in this area.
- Claim your profiles on search engines and directories e.g, Google Places, Yelp. Yellow Pages etc.
- Include visual content such as photos and video in your profiles – these may appear in the search engine results.
- Target long-tail geo-specific keywords which are essential for local search. These should be used throughout your website.
- Encourage customer ratings and reviews. Consumer opinions build trust and help your search engine rankings.
- Manage you local profiles. These should be updated on a monthly basis.
Businesses with a local target market should be involved with local search marketing as search behavior is moving in this direction. This will help local businesses to increase sales and say ahead of their competitors.
Image via Creative Commons
