Are You Getting Local Search Marketing Wrong?

Want more local business? Who doesn’t. But what’s your strategy for getting “top of mind” name recognition within your own community?

There are two primary strategies to make your business stand out locally, the first of which I’m going to cover in this post: Local Search Marketing.

What is Local Search Marketing? It’s making sure that when someone in your area is searching for a product or service you offer, your business lands highly in the search results ranking. I’m not talking about your website or SEO, I’m talking about local search. Most search engines have been weighting their results for local. Google Places, Yahoo Local, Yelp, and Bing Local are the major players in getting your local business found. If you aren't cultivating your listings with these 4 then you might be missing out on finding new customers.

Of the big 4 players, I’m going to mostly focus on the top 2; Google Places and Yelp. These are two different demographics and not every business will benefit from Yelp since its user base tends to skew age 35 and younger. If your core clientele is age 40 and up you likely won’t see as much benefit from Yelp, but you should still make sure you are listed there. You always want to be where a potential customer might be searching for you.

Google Places

This is the 800lb gorilla of local search marketing. You need to be there and you need to stay on top of Google Places as a marketing channel. If you've been in business for a while, it’s likely that you are already listed. Your next step is to claim your listing with Google and start managing it. Make sure your location data is correct - address, phone, business hours, etc.  Upload at least 3 pictures, one showing your building front and two or more interior shots. Pictures showing your friendly and helpful staff are always good as well. Make sure your offerings are keyworded so that your business shows up in searches for those products/services.

Google Places allows reviews and you might even have a few already. If you don’t, ask your customers to review you on Google and Yelp. Reviews help you climb to the top of search placement rankings. Always respond to your reviews if possible and especially if they are negative. A negative review is not the end of the world and every business will acquire at least one at some point. Respond to the review by apologizing to the customer for their bad experience and make every attempt to right things (even if the customer was at fault.) Your obvious attention to your customers will score you big points with searchers looking for good companies to do business with.

When you claim your business in Google Places you’ll be prompted to set up a Google+ account for the business at the same time. Do it and use it. While Facebook gets all the press and attention, it isn't going to help you rank higher on Google, but Google+ will. Use Google+ as a content marketing channel. Post your specials, post news about your business, post relevant content that keywords back to your offerings. For example, if you are a hair salon, you want to post tips on hair care (always make sure you keyword “hair” and “salon” into your post.) If you have skin care offerings, post content on those as well. All those pieces of content using keywords to services you offer help push you to the top of Google’s search rankings. Google likes two things: relevancy and freshness. Make your posts on Google+ relevant to your business and post at least twice a week.

Yelp

If Google Places is the 800lb gorilla, Yelp is his 600lb cousin. Yelp is very popular with people who've grown up in a digital world. Just like with Google Places, you might already be listed. Claim your business listing, get the correct info up there, post pictures, respond to reviews. Offer deals through Yelp if applicable to your business model. Businesses that master Yelp are thriving. It’s the only place I shop for restaurants and home improvement contractors today. I actually had an electrician turn down a job recently because he has so much business coming in due to his glowing reviews on Yelp that he can’t keep up. Yelp is a very, very powerful tool for certain types of businesses.

Once you've gotten your listings on Google Places and Yelp shining like marketing stars, do the same for Yahoo Local and Bing Local. You should also create a weekly marketing strategy and carve out 30 minutes twice a week to post fresh content, respond to reviews, and generally keep your marketing tight and tidy.

Get out there and use the tools to engage with your potential customers. Marketing isn't just running a few ads anymore, it’s a constant effort that pays big rewards when done well.