Local internet marketing is important for many businesses – restaurants, hairdressers, yoga studios, realtors, accountants – you name it! If your business is focused on getting customers in your city, local internet marketing will be an important part of your online campaign.
Local marketing helps you increase your ranking for results where your business is located. As you can see on the right, local results in search engines look different than regular results.
How To Use Local Internet Marketing
It’s a natural step to go from a generalized online marketing approach to one focused on local internet marketing – take what you’re already doing and adjust it. If you are unfamiliar with the basics of online marketing, check out our 12 Step Guide To Getting Customers Online.
3 Steps To Local Internet Marketing
1) Target Keywords With Your Location
If you’re unfamiliar with Keyword Research or want a refresher before we get started, check out Spokal’s Guide To Keyword Research. When you’re doing research using the Google AdWord Tool and using keywords in your blog posts, make sure to add your location to the keywords.
You can also narrow your location with advanced options and filters to prevent confusion – there may be more than one city with the name you live in! For example, Vancouver, BC and Vancouver, Washington.
Once you’ve figured out which keyword is going to work, make sure to add locations to your posts. For example, if your keyword phrase is “cinnamon bun bakeries” instead of a post titled “The 5 Most Delicious Cinnamon Bun Bakeries,” call it “The 5 Most Delicious Cinnamon Bun Bakeries In Vancouver.”
2) Analyze Google For The Competition
Let’s take a look at a local internet marketing result. Do you notice the number of search results at the top of the page? You can look at this to determine how many websites Google shows when you search for that word.
You can also look at the businesses that are listed – if there are lots of results and they have multiple Google reviews and updated information, your business will have a harder time ranking for that keyword. Just like with keyword research for regular inbound marketing, try a different word that’s easier to compete for and work your way up.
3) Fill Out Forms Properly + Keep Them Up To Date
This might seem obvious, but keeping your business up to date with online services like Yelp, UrbanSpoon and Google Places is vital. Make sure your contact information is easy to read and current for all sites that apply to your business. There’s nothing worse than losing business because you forgot to update an old phone number!