Go Loco for Local – The Power of Local Search Marketing

Looking for a pizza shop in your city? Where would you go to search? Just a few short years ago, thumbing through the yellow pages would have probably been your first choice. Nowadays, as the ease and functionality of search engines, web directories and city guides have continued to grow and develop, finding the perfect pizza place in your area is just a mere click away.

What if you are the owner of the pizza shop? You have been advertising in the yellow pages for years, but are interested in advertising online. Not sure how to utilize this medium to attract your local target market? We have gathered together some helpful tips and techniques to make it easier for you to get found online for local search queries.

Online Advertising

One of the quickest, easiest and cost effective methods of advertising online is adding your link on a business and travel guide for your city or region. You can utilize the power that these authority sites have in the search engines to your advantage.

Let’s take a look at LakeGeorge.com as an example. This travel guide has everything from lodging and restaurant listings to locations for children’s birthday parties in and around the Lake George area. Now go to Google and type in “Lake George motels ”. Look here! At the top of the search results is LakeGeorge.com – That is the power of local search guides. These websites get millions of visitors every year looking for area businesses. You want to make sure your business is right there for all to see. Other popular websites to add your link to are chamber of commerce and Better Business Bureau websites.

Look for other online web directories and search engines that allow visitors to search by city or state. A good examples is Discoverourtown.com. The site gets tons of traffic and are structured to make it easy for people to find local businesses.

If your business offers coupons and discounts, consider promoting your company on a website that allows visitors to search for local online coupons. Two examples of these kinds of websites are Zixxo.com and Valpak.com. Visitors can type in their zip code and get favorite local coupons for anything from house cleaning services to restaurant discount.

Do you have something new to promote? Open a new store in the area? Spread the word with an online Press Release! Submit your “newsworthy” release to an online distribution service like PRWebDirect.com. This is a great way to gain local, regional or national media pick-up. Make sure to include a link to your website to build additional traffic to your site!

Website Marketing Tips

Do you have a website but it’s not coming up in the search engines for local queries? Below are some easy things you can do on your website to get found for local search queries:

  • Add your address and zip code into the bottom navigation of your website.
  • Use keyword research tools to find what keywords people are typing in. Look for city, county and regional keywords like “Italian restaurants in Topeka”. If you are in a large city, look for neighborhood keywords as well. Don’t forget about using local slang phrases and even local streets that are quite popular!
  • Infuse these keywords into the title tags and headings on your website pages to help get your site found for these keywords.
  • Add pages into your website about the area you are in and near. This will help associate your business with the area, and it will allow you to add keywords into your website.

Don’t limit yourself to traditional methods of advertising. Expand your exposure on the Internet and increase your return on investment by letting the power of local search marketing work for you.

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