Local Search Engine Optimization: A Benefit at Christmas

Did you do your Christmas shopping on Amazon? Or Ebay? Maybe for some of it, but not for all of it. It’s likely that, at some point, you went to your LOCAL store to do some of that shopping. While the web provides us with super convenient access to a global marketplace, we still need LOCAL shops as a place to pick up products. The internet has not led to the death of the local business.

As a business serving local customers, that is great news for you over Christmas! If you’ve been marketing your business effectively to the local online marketplace throughout the year, you’ll benefit over Christmas when your customers need to find the perfect gift in your city.

So, think about what customers are buy over Christmas and start marketing that right now. It’s not too late! Don’t forget to put in your city modifier. And if you don’t get the Christmas rush this year, there’s always next year:

Step one: Identify the top selling products that your face-to-face customers (not your online customers) buy from you.

Step two: Implement search engine optimization techniques around those products and be sure to include your local modifier. So, if you are in Gettysburg and you sell pet supplies, you might normally target the words “Gettysburg pet supplies” but (in preparation for Christmas) you should also target the words “Gettysburg dog biscuits”, “Gettysburg dog houses”, “Gettysburg fish bowls”, etc.

There is a huge opportunity for you here to not only dominate your local market for your [city keyword] plus [industry or service keyword] but also [city keyword] plus [specific product keyword].

Google Street View: Should You Promote Yours?

You’ve probably heard about Google Street View: It’s a 360 degree street level view of streets in your neighborhood. It’s interactive in that you can “walk” up and down the streets to see businesses and houses in the area.

I never paid much attention to Google Street View until recently when I went out for lunch with a friend to a part of town I rarely go. I wanted to find the building I was supposed to go to – I wanted to know what it looked like (without having to search for the street number while I was driving). I found it online and that helped me find it in person.

Google Street View gives local guidance

Here’s an example below of Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Maryland.

You see the map.

But do you also see the little orange human-shaped figure in the navigation section of the map? If you go to Google Maps and drag-and-drop him onto the map, you get Google Street View.

I viewed Johns Hopkins University Hospital through Google Street View and here is what I got:

Cool!

Now imagine the possibilities for your business. Link to or embed the map on your website. Encourage people to view the street view of your business. Create an online video using Google Street View to show people where to park, where to enter, etc.

And, if Google hasn’t been by your neighborhood to film your street, why not give your business a quick facelift so that you’re ready when they are.

Who is searching for you?

In search engine marketing plans, one of the most effective techniques toward become proficient and successful in online marketing is the use of fictional biographies to describe your target market. For a local search engine marketing effort, this is just as important.

A fictional biography is a synthesized description of a typical or ideal target audience who sees and responds to your marketing. For example, a company targeting a term like “Orlando car repair” might describe their typical or ideal target audience like this:

“Our ideal audience is a vehicle owner located in Orlando proper or within fifty miles of the city. They own a popular domestic or import vehicle that is no more than 10 years old and consider it to be a valuable asset and their second biggest investment (next to their home). Although they may or may not have a lot of discretionary income, they see their vehicle as a critical part of their lives and are willing to spend money to maintain it. They seek our services for repairs and for regular preventive maintenance. Most importantly, they live in or near Orlando and search for ‘Orland car repair’ when they need our services.”

A fictional bio, then, helps you to identify important elements in your marketing so you can adjust it and target it more effectively. In the example above, the marketer might note that the age of the car could become a modifier in a search. So they might research to see how often someone searches for “Orlando car repair” versus “Orland new car repair”, for example.

Push and pull of local internet marketing

As a business owner targeting your local market, you need to use two different techniques when creating local search engine marketing content.

First, you need to apply “pull” techniques inside your website to attract local searchers to your site. These “pull” techniques might include:

• Keyword optimization
• Alt tags
• Compelling local content

Second, you need to apply “push” techniques outside of your website – at other marketing locations, for example – to drive people to your site. These “push” techniques might include:

• Article distribution
• Press releases
• Google AdWords
• Videos posted on YouTube
• Appearance on Google Maps

When it comes to online marketing, there isn’t one strategy that is more important than another. They are both equally critical to ensure that you will search when someone types in your service plus your local target market.

When creating a search engine marketing plan, be sure to include both onsite “pull” techniques and offsite “push” techniques to appear in the search engine listings you’d like to target.

And as you do this, be sure that it doesn’t replace the offline marketing you are currently doing. If you use print or display marketing, billboards, or networking, those things should continue. Rather, your online push and pull local internet marketing should enhance – not replace – your current marketing practices.

The Ready-to-Buy Psychology of Local Online Marketing

The internet is not just a global medium. It’s a powerful local medium. No matter where you live, people are searching for the service you provide with a local modifier: “[your city] [your service]” (like “Chicago dog walker” or “Kansas plumber”).

Marketing with this “[your city] [your service]” technique has some advantages: It’s faster to achiever higher search engine ranking placement and it costs less because you’re not competing against larger multinational conglomerations with huge search engine optimization budgets.

But there’s something else that is important to consider about the psychology of searchers who are searching locally. Let’s say you are thinking of buying a car. You type in “car” into a search engine and see what comes up. Maybe you narrow it down by manufacturer.

So, let’s say that as you do your research you go from searching for “car” to searching for “midsize car” to searching amongst “general motors”, “ford”, “dodge”.

This is all at the conceptual level; the research level. What happens when you’re ready to buy? You don’t just type in “Ford dealership”.

No. If you live in Atlanta, you type in “Atlanta Ford dealership”… Notice that’s the [your city] [service] search.

So, the psychology of people search locally is this: They are ready to buy.

The web is a powerful research tool, but the terms used to research are general and broad. Searchers hit credible, authoritative sites to get more information. And when they’re ready to buy? They add a local modifier and look to a solution provider in their neighborhood.

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