Local Marketing Strategies for Your Business

February 22, 2022

Local Marketing Strategies for Your Business

The vast majority of local business owner we speak to are looking to generate more people to get in touch with them with an interest in their services or products. They are not necessarily looking for conversion to customers online as they do this – they just need the leads.

The great thing is the internet means your business can be in front of leads, who you do not already know, just when they are looking for your services or products as the vast majority of people now us Google to research supplies. With this in mind it is important that your business dominates the local search results (SERPS) when people are looking.

Before you start it is important to understand the typical SERPS page. As the image shows below there are four main sections:

Google Ads
Social Media Links
Google My Business/Google Maps
Organic Results

Each of these sections are influenced differently and you need to have targeted approach to get listed in them. The only one that you would need to pay for is Google Ads, the rest just take time and focused effort.

It is also important to remember you are only looking to dominate local results in and around your local town.

Over 50% of all searches are now carried out on mobile devices, principally phones, which means Google knows where you are located when you search for plumber, dog walker etc. and will show local results. This is also true for people when searching on a computer (via your IP address) or people will enter plumber, dog walker in town name so again Google will deliver local results.

Local marketing strategies you can start today

Everything starts with keywords – what actual wording are people actually entering on searching Google. This maybe a single word like plumber or it could be a phrase like I need an emergency plumber (this is known as a long-tail keyword). It is very important to understand what keywords/phrases people are using as you need to optimise your online presence with as many of these keywords as possible,

Google does help you with this by providing you access to the monthly results by going to https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/. There is also another free tool for long-tail keyword research https://keywordtool.io/.

Once you have found the top 20+ keywords/phrases for your business you are now in a position to start to implement different local marketing strategies.

Optimise your website
Make sure that your website designer is doing on-page optimisation for each page – remember each page can be optimised for a different keyword. Google needs to understand what each page on your website is about.

To also help Google it is important that your website designer should install the local schema and link your website with Google Search console – in essence do everything that will help Google and they in return will list you higher in the SERPs.

So, if you are a plumber you should have a dedicated page for each of your keywords such as:

Plumber
Emergency plumber
Local plumbers near me
Plumber
Plumbing and heating
Emergency plumber near me
Local plumbers
Local plumbing services
Plumbing services
24 hour plumber

Now it may seem that you have a lot of pages but it is vital that you do this. However, not all these pages need to be visible from the top navigation console they can just be created in the background and so long as they are added to your site map Google will index them.

Localise your website by creating Local Service Pages

In essence Local Service Pages are dedicated pages added to your website that are optimised for all of your top keywords/phrases (normally the top 4 or 5 will suffice) in each town you service. For example, if you are a painter and decorator in Guildford and you work within a twenty-mile radius you would determine the most popular keywords which are:

Painter
Painting
Painting and decorating
Decorating
Decorator

You then create a page for each of these for each town, for example:

Painter in Guildford	Painter in Woking
Painting in Guildford	Painting in Woking
Painting and decorating in Guildford	Painting and decorating in Woking
Decorating in Guildford	Decorating in Woking
Decorator in Guildford	Decorator in Woking

This could result in hundreds of pages on your website but remember Google likes volume of optimised pages.

Below is an example of a Local Service Page for a reptile centre based in Surrey.

They have over 100 local service pages on their website (5 for each of the top 25 towns and large villages in Surrey and on the borders. These pages do not have to be visible on the website so long as they are in the site map and are “pinged” to the search engines to be indexed.

Claim and fully optimise your Google My Business listing

One of the easiest and most effective local marketing strategies you can employ immediately is claiming your Google My Business listing. Google My Business provides search engine users with information like your location, store hours, directions, contact information, and more directly on the SERP.

For more information, please read our blog: The Benefits of Google My Business for your Local Business

Optimise your social media pages

Social media marketing is critically important when it comes to local online marketing. Much like your website, your social media pages should be optimised and localised.

Again, it is important that you include your keywords/phrases in your social media posts (in essence each post is a “page” on the internet and Google will rank these pages.

Encourage positive user reviews from customers

Encourage your satisfied customers to leave you positive reviews online, whether on Google, Facebook, Yelp, or elsewhere. Online reviews are important for two reasons:

It is social proof to Google that they should be paying attention to your business as you are getting a flow of excellent high quality reviews
Other potential customers read the reviews and are more likely to contact you if you have recent good reviews

You should also respond to all reviews your customers leave online.

Run localised paid ads on Google and Facebook

Ads can be targeted around your keywords and your local area on both Google and Facebook. Because the adverts are very focused the cost per click tends to be low and you can have a very good return on investment.

About Techy business services

Web Design Manager is a service owned and run by Techy Business Services Ltd.

If you need any advice on Keyword Research or have any questions relating to any aspect of marketing your business online to local customers please feel free to contact us.

Phone: 01306 480440
Email: support@techybusinessservices.co.uk