One of my favorite sessions at PubCon Vegas 2009 was the Local Search and Mobile Optimization session. I have been following local search for the past five years from a marketing angle. Quite awhile ago I realized that the SEM field would have to address the needs of consumers. Consumers want to research and have a need to find local vendors online.
The local online space is fascinating because it's a space where the national players can be beat. Here's a few tips to getting it done in the local search space courtesy of Pubcon Vegas 2009,
- Local business professionals can use national platforms to promote their brands, products, businesses, services and interact with consumers by leveraging their online business profiles,optimizing them, and getting links. Do you have profiles on MerchantCircle, CitySearch,Local.com,TrueLocal,Yellowbot,Yelp,hotfrog.com,, Trulia,your city directory or BBB?
A good time to do that is now.
- Local business professionals can create websites with local content and gain enviable SERP (Searc
h Engine Results Page) rank. Do you have a website with content preferably fed from a blog built into your website?
A good time to do that is now.
- Local business professionals can build relationships offline with consumers and local businesses. They can reach out and advertise to them locally in traditional offline venues like local newspapers and local radio spots. They can extend to them an opportunity to guest blog or interview them. They can work on a local link campaign to get their website links on local business websites.
A good time to do that is now.
- Local business professionals can analyzeand track their referral sources from their website statistics, call ins, and walk-ins. In person or on the phone front office staff should be asking name, number, and source of referral. If online ask where and what keyword they searched to find you. This keyword research, whether online or offline is critical to local search success.
A good time to do that is now.
- Local business professionals can register all of their street addresses on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. On their business profiles local business professionals should be as robust as possible by including coupons, pictures, hours of operation and video which Google ranks well on Google local. It's important to offer as much content as possible on these business profiles because consumers may not want to go to the link out to the business professional's website.
A good time to do that is now.
- Local business professionals can search their keywords on theirand to their mobile phones locally and see who is coming up, take notes, and then take measures to make sure their businesses show up for those keywords.
A good time to do that is now.
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Local business professionals can seek reviews from customers who they believe would complete reviews. Local businesses can also get Citations-a mention of their business name and address- on a website even if it isn't a link. Citations help boost local rankings.
A good time to do that is now.
Local search is exciting. It's a way for local businesses to win if they do the work. I just listed 7 items as your checklist. I must mention that two of the speakers on the local search panel were business professionals in service based industries- one was a chiropractor- they are getting business locally and have local marketing plans in place.
As Google increasingly adopts to user behavior and SERP is based on user behavior AND location isn't it time to consider your local search strategy?
It's Time to Think About Local Search and How You Can Make An Impact Online.
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