Local Search has been “in development” for a long time. Since the invention of the internet people have been going after the big picture instead of the specifics, many have tried to have a local portal that encompasses all types of local businesses and services but not many have been successful. At this point I can only think of a few including City Search and Urbanspoon. Others have tried but they look and feel so automated (restaurants.com for instance, you can tell all the info is just scraped information) and don’t offer much to the user in the way of reviews, recommendations or even if the location in question is still in existence.
These sites aren’t perfect and they have a long way to go before they are but it raises the question, as a small business, how exactly are you supposed to effectively advertise in your community?
Know Your Area
Keep track of your customers and where they come from, you should have an idea at this point where your business is coming from. Is it coming from right next door or are you clients driving an hour to do business with you? This information is very valuable to you because it will help you target your online advertising, once you find your niche online you should try to expand to other places where you have previously had success or wanted to advertise. There is always a way to make a new customer and sometimes reaching out locally is the way.
Know Your Customers
Your customers have come to expect something from you whether it is your service, your product or just your personality. You should let people who come across your ads online in your local area know that this is you. Put a little twist on it that lets your local customers or potential customers know that it is you who is advertising online.
Leverage The Power of Google
Google Local Business Directory
Being in new to Los Angeles I am continually using Google Maps more and more to find things that I need, since L.A. is so big it helps me find things in relation to my location. One great (and free) way to get your business in front of other in your area is to add yourself to the Google Local Business Directory. Esentially it adds your business to Google maps and it shows up when people are searching within or around the location that they specify.
Google Local Search
Adwords is an incredibly powerful tool. One of my favorite features of the program is that you can select specifically where you want to advertise. I am pretty sure that if you wanted to advertise just on your block you could. Anyway, there are a few ways you can go about doing this. The first is to select a radius around your business, there are many preset ones but you can also make your own. The second is to select the specific areas, you can select certain states, certain towns and so on. Going back to what I said above about knowing your area can be very useful here.
Keyword Selection
You don’t know exactly how people are going to search but you can get a good idea, just because your campaign is targeted to a certain area doesn’t mean people will find you. Often times it is a good test to try variations with the areas you are advertising in. For example say you are a hardware store in Los Angeles, a good keyword would be “Hardware Store” a good variation would be “Local Hardware Store” or “Los Angeles Hardware Store” this way it ensures that you will capture the most searches for your products, business and services.
Going back to what I said before about local search portals not being successful may not have to do with the portals themselves. We have been trained since the beginning of the internet to just search for things in a broad fashion. I think slowly people are coming around more and more and realizing that local search is growing and is becoming a more effective search for them. Honestly, I like when I can search for something in my neighborhood and then go visit that place whether it is a store or a national park it is still nice to go out and meet the faces behind the company.
If you are looking to get started with local Search Marketing or looking for someone to explain it to you better contact us at 1.866.282.1903 or leads @7evenleafclover.com or come to our website www.7evenleafclover.com and sign up for our free analysis and proposal.
