Local Search Marketing
Online Visibility in local search marketing helps professionals to widen their market reach and attract more clients and customers.
In this article I am going to give you 3 actionable ways you can get yours for no money and just a little time on your part.. First before let me show you some statistics that will give you why these local search marketing ideas are things you should implement after reading this article.
73% of all online activity is related to local content (Google)
66% of Americans use the Internet to find local businesses (Comscore)
54% of Americans have replaced their phone books (yellow pages) with Internet searches (Comscore)
82% of local searchers follow up with their search by phone call and/or walk-in (TMP / Comscore)
43% of search engine users are seeking a local merchant with the intent of buying in their local area
Facebook is growing at a rate faster than Google and its users are stickier with more time on the site
Interesting statistics indeed and the big tip for you is to be where your clients,prospects and customers are playing and have some visibility in their playground.
Local Search Marketing- Google Places
Google Places is a revolutionary and totally free service that can literally catapult a small, local business from obscurity to insane profitability almost overnight. By taking advantage of a Google Places listing, you can highlight your business’ products and services and place your information in front of thousands of local customers who are searching for your particular type of business in your particular local area via Google.com.
Not only will a listing on Google Places make your business stand out among dozens (sometimes hundreds) of local competitors, you will also get to tell potential customers a little bit about your business, where your competition cannot.
Because Google Places is relatively new, many businesses do not know about it and because of that, your competition probably doesn’t know about it either! Right now, you have in your hands the ultimate “secret weapon” to gaining a stronghold in your local market-a weapon to not only getting a free, Google Places listing for your business, but inside tips, tricks and secrets to securing a front page listing for your business so that your potential customers are finding you-not your competition-when they conduct a Google search for your particular products and services in your area.
Service Areas: If you travel to serve businesses, you can now include your service areas on your Google Places page. Additionally, if you operate without a storefront, you can now privatize your business address, which was not allowed in the past
Customized QR Codes: Google will now create a custom that is unique to your business. This code can be placed on business cards and other marketing material. These can be scanned by a smartphone which can take the customer directly to your Google Places page.
Real Time Updates: You can now update your Google Places page and have those updates appear instantly on Google.
Personalized Dashboard: Google provides your Google Places page with customized information collected through search. This includes providing data to you that tells you how many visitors visited your listing and what search terms they used to get there.
Local Search Marketing:Review Sites
Google.Bing,Yahoo,Yelp,Yahoo,GigPark, Insider Pages
An easy way to get reviews for your business or practice quickly is to send an email. Google Places makes this easy.
To do this, go to your Google Places page and click on the link that reads, “see your listing on Google Maps.” This will take you to your Google Maps listing.
Now, up in the right hand corner of your screen, you will see a picture of the map that depicts your business’ physical location. Above that is links to print, email or get a link. If you click “email” a link containing your Google Maps listing will automatically show up in an email.
From here, you can send an email to your current clients, friends, family members or anyone that can give your business a review. They will need a Google Account (Gmail, etc) to do this, but it only takes a few minutes to make a Gmail account and to give you a review. If they already have a Gmail account, it will let them write a review right away.
This should get you some reviews. And with these reviews, your relevance and trust with Google will begin to grow. Remember, the more reviews you can get-the better so be sure not to skip this. As John Jantsch the best- selling author of the Referral Engine puts it the best referrals come from your customer network; people who have got to know, like and trust you. And who better to write you a positive review on Google, Yelp or Insider Pages.
Local Search Marketing- Photo Sharing Sites
Panoramio, Flickr,Yfrog, Photobucket,
Facebook started out as a photo sharing site of sorts but now there are many social sites where you can share your photos. A picture can tell a story and create an emotional connection with your prospect. Let people get to know you as an individual and deepen their connection. You can also post photos to your social media profiles on Facebook and Twitter and a host of other platforms.
These three tips will get you underway quickly and painlessly. There are many more but get these three ideas implemented in a short time. I spent the most space on this post on Google Places as a local search marketing must. Do this first and follow it with reviews and photos. Remember once you have claimed your Google Places listing you will also have the opportunity to put photos and videos on that listing.
To learn more about these tips, step by step instructions and much more you can get my new book on Amazon.
It is titled Finding Your Business Today: Help Customers Find You and Get Ranked at the Top of Google
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