The truth is, I don’t care that much if you haven’t been following your “watch what you eat” resolution or your “quit smoking” resolution, but what about your business marketing? If you own a small business and you’ve been trying to market it with local search engine optimization, how have you been doing?

I hope you’ve been busy with it, but there’s a good chance that it has lagged a bit. Sure, you had great dreams of a robust local SEM marketing plan as you approached 2010 but now that you’re here and your nose is to the proverbial grindstone, it might not be so easy.

So what can you do? Here are a few tips I’d suggest:

1. Try focusing on just one keyword at a time. Perhaps you’ve bitten off more than you can chew at once. There are a lot of facets to marketing and getting them all perfect the first time around is rare.

2. Get into a habit. That’s it. Find some local SEO thing that you like to do and get into a habit of doing it. Over and over. Once it’s a habit, add something else. But start with one small thing and make it a must-do thing every day.

3. Consider outsourcing. There are lots of marketing people out there who specialize in different facets of marketing and many business owners often outsource to them. Ironically local SEO is not something that is outsourced as often for some bizarre reason.

Local search engine marketing myth #1: Locals don’t search online. Wow, this is a big one. Locals do search online for things that they will later go and buy at the store. Therefore, you need to make sure that you are meeting their online search needs. This trend is going to rise alongside the mobile web because people will search on the go.

Local search engine marketing myth #2: Your competitors can work to achieve the same keywords, too, so what’s the point. This makes some sense. If you want to aggressively target some other kind of brand in the hopes that people will search for that instead, it’s perfectly understandable. However, there is a lot of opportunity in local search right now because consumers are searching locally more often but local businesses haven’t caught up to the demand yet.

Local search engine marketing myth #3: It can be done by the business owner. This is a pervasive myth because small businesses may not have the budget to create big local SEM campaigns. However, SEM isn’t done well simply by buying a book or asking your web-savvy cousin. SEM is best done by a marketing professional with proven experience in it.

I was recently interviewed by Aaron Hoos, a business writer and strategist who also runs a regular Twitter-based networking group called BusinessLunchClub. We spoke about Twitter as a useful tool for local business marketing.

Here is a copy of the transcript of the Twitter-based interview. The tweets are color coded for your convenience.

@AaronHoos: It’s social media week at #BusinessLunchClub. Each day this week, we’ll talk about a social media and your business.

@AaronHoos: We have Jonathan Harr talking to us about using social media to market local business. #blc

@AaronHoos: Jonathan is the founder of http://localsemexperts.com, a company that helps businesses with local internet marketing. #blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos Hello there, good to be here #blc

@AaronHoos: @jonathanharr Why should businesses use social marketing to reach a local audience? #blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos This so called web 2.0 wave provides so many vehicles to make your local presence stand out from the crowd.#blc

@AaronHoos: @jonathanharr How does LOCAL social marketing/networking differ from more conventional social marketing we’re familiar with? #blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos With social networking you could be all over the world not really benefiting you locally so you really want to…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos start targeting locally with your social networking time if you have a local small business. #blc

@AaronHoos: @jonathanharr Which social networks do you recommend businesses use for local SEM marketing (and why)? #blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos Facebook is a huge player to build out a fan page all about your business and link it with your…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos We all know YouTube. YouTube has a huge growing audience of 80M+ monthly people…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos Get your video channel out in front of them… #blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos Use blogspot.com and wordpress.com to build out business blogs by posting relevant content linking…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos Twitter of course to build out your local audience and get locals to RT your business affairs and recommendations… #blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos …another social media network coming into play really big is Google Wave. Use It. #blc

@AaronHoos: @jonathanharr Great! YouTube is on my “must do” list for 2010. And I’m looking forward to using GoogleWave, too. #blc

@AaronHoos: @jonathanharr Can you talk about how to make specific sites effective locally? #blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos Yes, I can talk about them…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos Twitter: Establish local followers, practice reciprocity, in return establish local network of tweeters in city…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos …use wefollow.com,chirpcity.com to find locals …#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos Facebook: Establish facebook business fan page for product or services, make local friends and invite to fan page…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos …promote fan page thru bookmarking…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos …Linked In: Establish profile at linkedin.com and invite your friends, clients, etc… to help build your…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos …with social proof – testimonial, reviews, feedback, your experience, etc…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos …YouTube: Setup your business channel with videos of product/service demonstrations…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos …connect videos to facebook fanpage, and your websites as well as web 2.0 properties. #blc

@AaronHoos: @jonathanharr That was a great list. Very practical… and all within 140 characters. Nice! #blc

@AaronHoos: @jonathanharr How do you build an audience of LOCAL followers/friends/etc.? #blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos Just like in real life you want to get to know your followers by simple conversation and providing news,…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos info, and fun entertaining chat without a sales pitch all the time, mix it up. They will like you for this.#blc

@AaronHoos: @jonathanharr How do you increase foot traffic to your business with local social marketing/networking? #blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos You want to promote your business thru content, audio, and video targeted locally…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos …using the different web 2.0 properties you see all over the place online.#blc

@AaronHoos: @jonathanharr When you coach people on local social media, what questions do you answer/challenges do you encounter? #blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos I always a get the question “how do you do that?” It’s a lot of work especially maintaining it, and you have to…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos …do it right otherwise it could backfire. You don’t want to be or look spammy with…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos …these sites or Google will knock you down for it. I find a lot of business…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos …owners don’t have a grasp on marketing and its just too overwhelming to maintain.#blc

@AaronHoos: @jonathanharr What best practices do you recommend business owners apply to local social marketing/networking? #blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos Learn it and take it one step at a time. Don’t rush into it. Just apply and do it and don’t spam!…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos Be genuine, true, and transparent with your followers. If you will reciprocate they will too.#blc

@AaronHoos: @jonathanharr Thank you for spending time with us today. Your local social marketing insights were extremely valuable. #blc

@AaronHoos: Thanks to those who tuned in for today’s #BusinessLunchClub interview. Be sure to visit @jonathanharr at http://localsemexperts.com

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos Thank you Aaron, Glad to help out. #blc

Squidoo.com is a site that provides a platform for user-generated content. It was created by the hugely popular marketing guru Seth Godin and it is one of the top 500 most visited sites in the world.

Here’s how it works: Users sign up for free and then create a “lens”, which is basically a website that users can then add different kinds of content to. A lens is something in between a website (which might be thought of as static and impersonal) and a blog (which might be thought of as dynamic and personal).

The site has a higher PageRank and its URLs are customizable. So, if you are a Cincinnati-based dry cleaner, you can (and should) get some Squidoo lenses with domain names like /CincinnatiDryClear and /CincinnatiDryCleaning and /DryCleaingCincinnati and so on. Of course, good local SEO success is not just in the domain name and backlink. You should be putting keywords throughout your site – in titles and in the content – so that it points back to you with the right tags. Don’t forget to add high quality, compelling content as well as images and videos to make your lens visually appealing.

You can create as many Squidoo lenses as you’d like so the sky is the limit in terms of what you can do. They are fun, too, with basic drag-and-drop functionality and really easy, intuitive interfaces. All of that helps to take some of the “work” out of marketing.

You can read the article here but I will summarize it for you:

Open Source Yellow Pages. In his article, he talks about how Twitter has the potential to become the clearinghouse for local Yellow Pages information, replacing current options.

Google will continue to grow. Google is going local and Andrew believes that they will increase their emphasis on local businesses this year.

Demand Media Strategy. This is where content no longer becomes arbitrarily created but strategically created and written. A colleague of mine who is a business writer does exactly this kind of work — content strategy — and is noticing a trend toward it as well.

Local guides. Shotland derides this method but I think it has legs for a while and will be the advantage for first movers.

Small Business SEO budgets will increase. This is good to hear. Businesses need to market themselves and invest in doing that successfully.

Want to read more about local search engine marketing trends? You can read all eleven plus additional insights here.

Want to read more about online marketing trends and how local fits in?
SEO Trends to Watch for In 2010
Predictions for the Changing Local Search Landscape in 2010

So, what should your local search engine marketing plan look like?

Local search engine marketing plan – step one
Start by outlining the vision you have for your marketing. Do you want to attain top search engine results? Do you want to increase more foot traffic to your store or call-ins to your telephone number? Outline the metrics that you will use to determine success.

Local search engine marketing plan – step two
Next, outline your target market. Obviously they will include people in your local area but you probably also narrow them by other demographic features, such as income bracket, gender, etc.

Local search engine marketing plan – step three
Based on what you know so far, figure out what terms you want to target. Your products and services and industry are often key terms to use – “plumber”, “contractor”, “Laundromat”, etc. – and these will be combined with your local modifiers. In some cities, that’s easy, it’s just a single word. But in other places, that might not be as easy. New York City is abbreviated as NYC, so people might search with the abbreviation instead. Or perhaps there is a smaller neighborhood name that you want to target instead of your city name. You need to figure that out.

Local search engine marketing plan – step four
Fourth, outline the onsite tasks you need to do. These include revising the keywords on your site to more accurately reflect the local terms you’ve identified.

Local search engine marketing plan – step five
Lastly, outline the offsite tasks you need to do. For example, you might create press releases or distribute online articles or employ Google AdWords to generate traffic.

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].

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.

Squidoo is a site that offers a great opportunity for local marketers. Squidoo is a place where you can create a website – called a “lens” – easily with drag-and-drop modules offering a variety of content. It’s one of the top 300 most visited sites in the United States and it has a PageRank of 8 (out of 10), which is very impressive. It’s free to sign up and you can make as many lenses as you want.

Although you probably wouldn’t create a lens INSTEAD of a website, you just might create a lens, or two, or ten, or fifty that are related to your local keyword and point to your website.

For example, if you are a Laundromat in Houston Texas, and you’re facing fierce competition against other Laundromats for the term “Laundromat”, you can target the word “Houston Laundromat” (or narrow it down to your neighborhood level) and create a bunch of Squidoo lenses for keyword combinations like:

Houston Laundromat
Laundromat Houston
Dry cleaner and Laundromat in Houston
Trusted Houston Laundromat
(etc., etc.)

So, be sure to include a number of Squidoo lenses in your local internet marketing plan to help you lock in your top ten Google keywords.

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.