As a local business, you know you need to invest in digital marketing to attract potential new customers.
So what is “local search marketing” and how should it fit into those plans?
Digital marketing is aimed at increasing visibility online in general, so it can have a national or even international focus.
Local search marketing (or local SEO marketing, as it’s sometimes called) is aimed at increasing your online visibility in a very specific place, such as your city.
Why should you care?
Local businesses come in all different sizes and areas of expertise.
If you’re a dog groomer in Portland, a pizza place in Chicago or a plumber in Queens – if your customers Google your city or town name or add the word “near me” to their search query, you’re a local business.
This means that local search marketing can directly benefit your business.
In fact, a Google study confirms that four out of five consumers use search engines to find local information, and half of consumers then go to a local store during the day!
Stephanie Newton of BrightLocal: “For many conventional businesses and service businesses, local customers are the best customers … they’re easier to find, more loyal and will come back if they like what they’re getting.”
If you’re not doing local SEO marketing, you’re not visible to potential new local customers and may miss out on sales to competitors.
The seven steps below will show you how to get started with local search marketing and help you grow your business by directly targeting your local customers.
Google as a local
If you want to get local customers on your side, you need to put yourself in their shoes, and that means focusing on Google.
StatCounter shows that Google currently holds 92.5% of all local searches, while the monster’s closest competitor is Bing at just 2.3%.
Google My Business (GMB) is a free listing that any business can create on Google – even without a website. Google can then use the information you provide (your business type, hours of operation, location and services, etc.) to display your information in a relevant local search.
Applying for a free listing and filling out your profile with as much information as possible is essential to helping Google better understand your business, so this is an absolutely essential first step.
If you need help setting up, our detailed guide to setting up Google My Business will walk you through the process with lots of helpful pictures, step-by-step instructions and tips.
Stay tuned
In the past 12 months, more than seven in 10 consumers have had a negative experience because they found the wrong information about a local business online.
One of the best local search engine optimization tips we can give you to avoid this potentially devastating blow to your reputation is to invest time and resources in keeping your information current.
Cover other search terms
This may seem counterintuitive if we’ve already heard that Google has more than 92% of the market. But while other search engines can’t claim to handle the same volume of traffic as Google, they have the eyes (and ears) of millions of local consumers.
For Apple Maps, that figure is about 23.3 million users, while Microsoft supporters will get all their information from Bing. Voice search in the U.S. is used by about 83.1 million smart speaker owners, of whom 68.2 percent use Amazon Echo.
Apple Maps’ visibility depends largely on your Yelp ranking profile, but other factors, such as Apple reviews and image usage, also matter. Read our blog to learn how Apple calculates its rankings in Maps, and master this part of your local SEO marketing strategy.
For Bing, you need to create a list of Bing Places for Business. This is similar to Google My Business, and you can even import GMB settings. Learn how to do this in our guide: Explaining Local Bing Lists.