3 Myths of Local Search Engine Marketing

Local Search Engine Marketing (or “local SEM”) is a huge and growing opportunity. And even though it is in its infancy, there are still some things that are misunderstood about it. Here are some of those myths… and what the real deal is:

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.

Using Twitter for local marketing

Local businesses need to use every tool available to them to effectively target their local market. If you’re a local business owner, you might be surprised to discover that the massively popular microblogging site Twitter can be used for local marketing even though it attracts a global audience.

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

What’s up for 2010? Local Search Engine Marketing trends for this year.

Eminent local SEM blogger Andrew Shotland of LocalSEOGuide.com created a set of predictions for 2010. I consider them to be “must-reads” for all local SEO and SEM people out there, as well as businesses who are thinking about marketing locally online.

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

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.

This Simple SEO Step Can Dramatically Improve Search Engine Placement for Your Local Business

Let’s say that you run a small business and you want your website to appear in searches for your local keyword. For example…

• Chicago Pizza
• Cincinnati Wine store
• St. Louis Dairy
• Bethesda Chiropractor
• Bethesda Maryland Lawyer
• etc…

One of the ways to do this is to create  search engine optimized anchor text. Here’s the difference between the most frequent form of links and the superior SEO anchor text:

Let’s say you’re me. And let’s say that I’m marketing on other sites (i.e., forums, blogs, or article distribution sites). When I have the chance to include a link back to my site, I could simply link like this:

Visit LocalSEMExperts.com

When search engines see this, they think: “oh, that LocalSEMExperts.com word points to http://localsemexperts.com”… and so my site gets a “vote” which contributes to my search engine ranking. That’s what most businesses do when linking back to their site.

BUT if I instead linked my website address to the phrase:

Visit the Maryland Internet Marketing Agency

… then I get the “vote” for the link back to my site PLUS the search engines associate my website with “Maryland Internet Marketing Agency” and I can begin to appear for that phrase, too. So next time someone types “maryland internet marketing” or “maryland marketing agency” into the search engines, I’m more likely to appear.

These custom anchor texts give your local business a very powerful way to target your business to your local clients. So, identify a few keyword phrases you want to be searchable for (usually your locale and a main keyword) and create anchor links with those as I’ve shown above.

If you don’t want to do this work yourself, please see our Local Domination Service Packages

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