Why Should You Be Promoting Your Local Business On The Web?
No matter what size your business is, you can directly benefit from taking a strong online presence. Often times people will think, why do I need a website? I am not trying to reach a global audience. The truth is, while you are not focusing on the global market, there is a significant local audience that will find you on the web.
Some of your potential customers just prefer to meet you the old fashion way. They could order online from any e-store, instead they will search for a locally based professional or services they can see face to face before they make a purchase.
What business can benefit from local internet marketing?
All businesses can benefit from local internet marketing, whether you are offering a service or a product however, those who benefit the most will be those with a standard "Yellow Page" appeal. What I mean by "Yellow Page" appeal are services such as:
- Construction
- Attorneys
- Photographers
- Restaurants
-
All kind of
Services like: maid, home improvement, locksmith, landscaping,
painters, real estate, babysitter, veterinarian, dentist, tattoos
and many, many more.
By utilizing effective local online marketing strategy's you will benefit from more customers, for a fraction of the cost of traditional local marketing.
Where to start?
First off, you need an online presence, mainly, a website. On this
website you should have information about your services and potentially
rates as well as an online store for product based companies. Depending
on the nature of your business, your website can be extremely simple and
maintained very little. Here is a list of things that your website
should stress about your company:
Explain your service - Quickly inform your visitor of the services your
business conducts. If they notice you offer what they are looking for,
they will continue to look through your website.
Inform of your location - When you are targeting a local audience it is
crucial to inform where you conduct your business. By listing your
location various times, it can drastically assist in your search engine
rankings.
Competitive advantage - Odds are, your visitors have also looked at 3
other websites offering the same service. Now is your opportunity to
stress your competitive advantage. Explain why you are better than your
competitors.
Make your users act - When you have your visitor's attention, it is time
to call the to action. Make them call or fill out a quote. The sooner
you can get them to inquire about your services, the more likely they
will be to use your services.
Professional appeal - Show your visitors that you are a quality and
credible company. Make sure your website is professional and appealing.
Often times people will reflect the appeal to the quality of your
services.
Consider your population
If you are based in a larger city, obviously your local market will
be much less than if you are based in a small town. If you are located
within a small distance from a major hub, consider targeting to that
area instead of the particular area that you are based.
If you are a service company in Town-A which has a population of 2,000
targeting your specific town online won't be very effective, traditional
advertising methods will suit you better. If Town-A is located less than
30 miles from a larger city, you can target towards that city.
Search Engine Optimization
If an individual is going to search for something locally on the web,
they will typically search in the following format.
[Service] in [town/city]
i.e. Custom stone
installation in Destin
With that being said, it is crucial that you focus your keywords on your
particular services in a particular city or town. Consult a SEO firm to
assist you in focusing your keywords.
Driving traffic to your website
Not always can you solely use the search engine process to generate
visitors. The reason being is that the search engine indexing process is
very time sensitive. A new website may not be indexed within major
search engines for several months or even a year.
Fortunately, there are several ways to boost your local traffic without
spending much time or money.
PPC Services - PPC (Pay Per Click or Search Engine Marketing) services
allow you to "bid" on specific keywords. When these keywords are entered
into the search engine, your website will be listed in the most
predominately noticed areas (top and top right column). When a person
clicks on your ad, it will cost you the amount you bid for that keyword.
The prices change daily and some keywords are more competitive than
others, thus will cost more. Remember that your PPC bid will not convert
to multiple search engines, i.e. Google Adwords PPC won't effect Yahoo.
SEO - SEO (Search Engine Optimization) allows you to speed up that rate
that your website is indexed in major search engines and your ranking on
the search engines. There are many DIY SEO tactics that you can use to
help your rankings but to benefit the most, quickest, we recommend
hiring a qualified SEO firm.
How do you get the real internet users who are online right now, actively looking for a specific product or service like yours?
Over the past eight years, our SEO programs have put more companies on the real track to success by placing their rankings on all major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and all the others.
Resources
- Google Search Optimization Guidelines
- MSN Search Optimization Guidelines
- Yahoo Search Optimization Guidelines
- Wikipedia: Search Engine Optimization
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