What is Hyperlocal?

The internet has been a highly valued vehicle to connect the world. Our globe is much smaller now thanks to the speed with which we can connect with others. Friends, family, and businesses can all connect far easier because of the web and it technologies. Email, voice-over-internet-protocol (VOIP), instate messaging, Twitter… All of these tools and so much more allows us to collaborate with someone on the other side of the world as if they are right next to us.

From global to local
But people are realizing that they’ve looked so far afield for business and relationships at a great distance that they have nearly forgotten about those right next door. To right this wrong, people reset their sites to try and cover both global and local markets in an initiative called “glocal”.

So the web – which has long been touted as a global medium – has now also become a local medium, focused on a specific and defined community (like a city, town, or smaller geographic unit).

Hyperlocal definition
That’s the trend you need to know about first, so here’s how the term “hyperlocal” fits in: According to Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperlocal “hyperlocal” serves a very specific geographic region with content created for residents of that region by a resident of that region. In other words, hyperlocal isn’t just a distant view of a narrowly defined area. Rather, it is an extremely specific way to serve an extremely specific market.

If you run a business serving a specific geographic area and your marketing is targeting that area, you are a hyperlocal marketer. That might not change what you do or how you do it, but it’s important to know the rising trend in the concept.

Local Google AdWords Recommended

Read a great article in the New York Times. In their Small Business section, they offer a really basic guide on Google AdWords. Most of the article is fairly basic stuff that many people already know. But I was particularly intrigued (and pleased) with the eighth paragraph, which reads:

Focus on Local Markets
“When Apple first introduced the iPhone, Matt McCormick, who runs a phone-repair business called Jet City Devices, saw an opportunity. Knowing that the iPhone’s screen was prone to damage, Mr. McCormick began bidding on keywords like “iphone repairs” and waited for business to flood in. A problem soon became apparent: while his site was swamped with traffic, very few people were actually mailing in their phones to get them repaired. But, after changing his campaign to run only on searches initiated within 50 miles of Chicago and Seattle — cities where he had physical shops where customers could drop their phones off in person — Mr. McCormick says his conversion rate jumped to 10 percent: ‘If you’re in business in only one or two cities, then Google’s localization feature can save you a ton of money, reduce AdWords competition, and bring great traffic.’“

(From the New York Times article “Real Life Lessons in Using Google AdWords“).

This is a great example of local Google AdWords in action. A broad category like “iphone repairs” would get all kinds of clicks from everywhere. But a narrower target — through the use of a local keyword ”bethesda iphone repairs” – would lower the number of clicks but dramatically increase the conversion rate. In short, adding a local modifier to your Google AdWords can reduce your costs but increase your revenue.

Check out out our pay per click search ad services and local organic search domination services.