Local Internet Marketing
Consider The Following Statistics
- Americans conducted nearly 17 billion Internet searches in February 2011. (comScore)
- 20% of all Internet searches are location specific. (Google)
- That means that in the US alone, 3.4 BILLION Internet searches were performed by people looking for something related to a local area... in just one month!!!
are they finding your business online? If not... WE CAN HELP!
- Get on page 1
Be Where Your Potential Customers Are Looking... On Page #1 Of The Search Engines
This chart shows the average page number that Google, Yahoo! and Bing users stop at when searching for information. As you can see, very few people bother going past page 1. They either find what they are looking for there, or they can tell by the page one results that they need to try a different search phrase.If you want to be found on the Internet, your business must be on the first page of the search engines.
If not, very few people will find you online and your competitors will be very grateful for the extra business.There are 3 main ways to get on page one. The next three slides explain how. >>>
- Local Business Listings
Today's Yellow Pages: Google Places, Yahoo! Local & Bing Business
When an Internet search phrase contains a location (city, state, zip, etc.) and/or a brick-and-mortar business type (restaurant, plumber, dentist, etc.), search engines display a matching list of local businesses near the top of the search results. To get your business listed in this section, you must:
- Claim your search engine business listing.
- Have many identical citations (business name, address & phone number) around the Internet.
- Have lots of customer reviews around the Internet.
- Have a website that ranks well in the "natural" search results (see the section, SEO).
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Online Marketing's Version Of Flossing
The "natural" or "organic" search listings as they are sometimes called, are displayed below the local business listings. The process of getting your sight listed in this section is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In order for your business to rank well here, you must:
- Have lots of relevant content on your website.
- Have lots of incoming links to your website from other sites (back-links).
- Other factors such as domain age and website speed can also come into play.
Similar to how flossing can help your general overall health, doing well with SEO can also help improve your ranking in the local business listings (see previous section)
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
PPC ads are displayed along the right side and at the top of the search results pages. It's a great way to get instant website traffic, and is also the most accurate way to find out which search phrases are most profitable. Those findings can be used to improve your SEO efforts, which in turn will help your local business listing ranking.BUT... running a profitable PPC campaign requires constant monitoring and can be fairly time consuming to do correctly. Without great attention to detail, you could easily be throwing your money into a black hole and getting a negative return on your investment.
It's best to hire a professional for this one.
