Why Most Local Marketers And Search Engine Optimization Consultants Get Local Search Wrong
Most internet marketers, web designers and SEO companies get it wrong when it comes to local search marketing. It is not about the technical approach to SEO, it is about what online marketing can do for your clients. Local clients do not think in terms of keywords, social bookmarking or back-links. All they care about is what their website can contribute to their business and what it does for their customers.
So you need to get inside the mind of the client and change the way you approach local search marketing.
- Learn to think like a local consumer and not an SEO provider or web designer
- Give local consumers what they want and not what you think they want
- It is not just about keywords
- It is not just about getting to page 1 on Google
- It is not just about having a Facebook page
Focus on what and how consumers are searching for in a product or service. Remember why they are searching for those terms in the first place. It is either to get pleasure out of owning and using the product, or alleviate their pain.
How You Can Dominate Local Search Marketing
It is about people. You can call them prospects, customers or consumers, but they are people. And people have needs and wants. This applies to the business owners and the consumers who uses their products or services.
What I do is I talk to the business owners to find out what their issues are and the terminology they use in their industry. Then I talk to the people who are the consumers and find out what terminology they are using for the same service or products.
Match those two together and you have a pretty good idea how the industry works. It doesn’t take a lot of time and you can almost always find what you need. It is just going out and talking to people.
Local Businesses Need To Have A Presence Online
Facebook. In my country, there are more than 9 million people on Facebook – not counting those who list their location abroad. That is close to half the population of my country. Locally, there are more than 300,000 users on Facebook alone. This makes for a substantial figure. One rule of business is to go where the market is. So what does this say about online marketing? Your business needs to have an online presence today.
Local search is changing the way people look for businesses within their location. When you type in a search for a product or service in the search engines, local business listings and websites are coming first on the search engine results page. Getting your business website on the first page of the search engine for your geographical location is entirely within your reach.
Think Like Your Local Consumer
Thinking like your local consumer should not be too difficult. After all, you are one of them and you probably know a couple of hundred more. Asking these basic local marketing questions will shape your keyword strategy and allow you to differentiate yourself from other local internet marketers, SEO experts or web designers.
- What are local consumers searching for?
- How are they searching online?
- What are the terms and phrases they will likely use?
- Are they ready to buy or just researching?
- How you can put your client in front of them?
For businesses in Kota Kinabalu and Sabah, you are welcomed to connect with me on Facebook or LinkedIn.
Looking for a web designer in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah? Start marketing online your business today.
