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5 Data-Driven Tips for Local Search Marketing That You Don’t Know

For many local businesses getting on the first page of Google is a battle in itself.  They often find themselves competing against the bigger well-known brands that have an endless supply of resources.

What is the most effective way to get noticed without spending an absolute fortune? The answer is local search marketing.

It doesn’t have to be expensive or overwhelming either.

Start using local search marketing now by following these tips:

Firstly what is local search marketing?  Simply put it’s building a strategy to attract nearby customers to your business.  This type of marketing would be used by small to medium-sized businesses but can be successful for enterprise businesses as well.

Local search marketing is important, especially in this digital age.  Every business needs some form of an online presence. If you have a very small marketing budget then organic search might be the only chance for your business to be found.

It’s All About Content

You must deliver good quality content and it’s not always the more the better.  If you want to focus on delivering on brand high-quality content then you need to consider videos, blogs and even podcasts that will actually engage users.

Keyword Targeting

Always try to put yourself in your customer’s shoes.  Think, what would they want? What would they type into Google as their keyword for finding the product they desire?  You can have phrases like “near me” or “in (enter city) at the end of your service and this can be an effective way to come up in the local search results.  You need to choose the right keywords though and target them effectively.  Done right you should be able to rank high.

To implement the keyword naturally you need to go into meta titles, meta descriptions, headings, image alt text, and in content.  What this does is allows Google to recognize that your page is relevant to what keyword you are trying to rank for.  There is a lot more to ranking than this but if you don’t even attempt to target correctly then you will almost certainly never rank for that keyword.

There are keyword research tools that can help with this and help you to figure out what keywords to target and what keywords to avoid.

Increase Your Page Speed

Everyone is in a hurry so if you’ve ever Googled something then clicked on the result, if it doesn’t load quick enough then chances are you will leave the page before it has loaded completely.

This is very common and more importantly, Google does not like a slow website.  Page speed is a really influential factor when it comes to ranking pages.

People want quick results and if there are page speed issues then they will move from your site on a competitor, therefore, you lose a customer and they gain one.

You can use various tools to optimize your websites such as GTmetrix and PageSpeed Insights.  These will help to determine all the ways in which you can increase your page speed.  If you implement these fixes then it can have a positive impact load time but also on your user experience.  Minor issues shouldn’t cost your business.

Maximize User Experience

This is so important if someone doesn’t enjoy using your website or it’s difficult to navigate then they will leave.  You can have a very fancy website with lots of lovely graphics but it doesn’t equate to good user experience.

In order to measure user experience engagement metrics can help to show the following: Average session duration, percentage of returning users, click-through rate and linking patterns.  Google will actually use these metrics to determine if your user experience is high.  It will then measure your metrics to other similar websites to influence rankings.

When you have a positive user experience then this will influence people to return which will then build their confidence in your brand.  This can have a direct effect in organic traffic too.

Directory Submissions

This is an undervalued tactic when it comes to SEO but directory submissions are essential especially when implemented correctly.

It’s well worth the time to tackle the must-dos of SEO and if you are diligent then you will find an increase in your organic traffic.  It doesn’t have to be expensive or overwhelming either.

Making up 90% of searches directories such as Google, Yahoo and Bing are vital and buy submitting to these directories you are in turn making sure that the correct information is being shown to your customers.

Yelp is another local directory which can have up to 70 million users each month.  There are also Yellowpages and Superpages which have over a million monthly users who are all looking for local information about businesses in their area. You will be missing out greatly if you do not submit your business information to these directories.  Why miss out?

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