Local search marketing (LSM) allows businesses to advertise their services and products directly to potential customers within their community. LSM involves optimizing a business website and content for local searches as well as building their online reputation via offsite SEO tactics.
Everything a local business publishes online matters – reviews, articles, interviews and features of staff or locations as well as images and video are key elements.
Local SEO
Local SEO (search engine optimization) is used by brands that target consumers in specific geographical areas. By optimizing Google searches using relevant keywords, this type of marketing helps your brand be found quickly and easily by consumers searching Google. Local SEO also ranks higher in local packs, Google Maps results and organic search results – further improving consumer access to you quickly and easily.
Google considers someone’s location when conducting local searches and delivers different SERP pages than it would for non-local queries. Therefore, having an effective local SEO strategy in place for your brand is vitally important to its success.
Content marketing is an integral element of local SEO, including textual offsite content such as reviews and features about your business on third-party sites, image and video content such as photos taken of your premises, staff and products as well as podcasts or videos showcasing them, plus using locally relevant keyword research to inform your strategy and design pages that search engines can crawl with ease.
Local Content Marketing
Local content marketing entails producing helpful, relevant, and localized information that attracts customers and increases search engine visibility. One effective approach is to focus on what your target market needs when searching for products or services like yours.
One of the most critical steps you can take for your business is ensuring that its NAP+W (name, address, phone number + website) information across all online directories and platforms is consistent and correct. Otherwise, Google algorithms could easily dismiss your company and show results instead for competitors instead.
Enhance your local search rankings by building new backlinks from local websites based on keywords related to your location, such as “restaurants in CITY” or “clothing stores in REGION.” It is also beneficial to participate in local events and make yourself known to the community.
Local Link Building
Local link building is an essential element of search marketing for local businesses. It helps establish trust with their target audiences while increasing visibility online by creating backlinks from local websites.
As a first step, it is vital to have an impressive Google Business profile for any business. This must contain all pertinent information pertaining to it – including photos and videos – while being regularly updated. Adding customer reviews may also prove valuable.
Another effective strategy for building local links is through regional or industry-specific directories that can be easily located through Google searches. Engaging with local vendors as an additional strategy for linking is also advised, since they have existing clientele who will more likely consider your request as customer service and may provide you with links from their own website.
Local Reputation Management
Local reputation management involves cultivating and upholding an excellent local image for your business in its immediate community. This can be accomplished by cultivating customer trust and using social media to generate reviews that help potential customers discover your services or decide whether or not to purchase from you.
Optimized local listings, an increased volume of positive reviews, and other marketing efforts can all increase your online visibility in search results and help your business outwit competitors and gain more business.
Reputation is an intangible element of marketing, yet technology has transformed it from subjective perceptions into objective calculations. Thus, local reputation management has become more of a science than an art. If you want to learn how to effectively manage local search marketing, take a course or seek formal training from an experienced professional – for instance Moz offers six-part Local SEO Certification or utilize free resources provided by experts in the field.