Today I am going to focus on the need for small businesses to take extra steps to market themselves to their specific target audience, which of course is their local community. Getting listed is great, but people in Texas seeing a blog post you wrote about your law office in Newburgh really isn’t going to help you make money. Hopefully, the following things will:
Any web developer or designer can put a website together and say that I am creating websites. It is imperative that the content and creation of the website is focused around a certain theme or niche so that Google and other search engines will see that website as an expert in a particular field and will hopefully list it above its competitors. Having just a website, however, is not enough.
One of the often overlooked aspects of small business website optimization is not focusing on a specific location. When you create your website, putting your location in your title tag is very important. For example, title your website “Jimmy’s Pizza in Poughkeepsie New York” and also make sure you ask your designer to add your location to your meta tags (they should know how to do this).
This might seem like a no-brainer, but make sure your business is listed in Google maps and other local search listings. You want a little pin to be pointing to your business on Google Maps when people search for you. In order to do this, you’ll need to register your business and then verify it when Google sends you a postcard in the mail. Other search methods like Yellow Pages even do a sponsored listing, so depending on your clientele, do some research and see what is available that suits our needs best.
Besides the big names, make sure you look at listings for your area. Your local newspaper probably has a business listing, and there are usually online resources for people looking for a specific type of business. For example, there’s a national gallery listing for art galleries, and a database for web design companies in the Poughkeepsie area. If you already are listed, contact the website owners to make sure your website is linked correctly. Links are one of the best ways to get your website better rankings.
Join your local Chamber of Commerce or business organization. Get to know other local businesses in your area. Attend business expos and network. Try and form relationships with other small business owners and build meaningful partnerships. Ask your local friends to link to your website from their website.
Think about offering local specials and deals using social media. I recently heard some advice about Groupon deals. You have probably heard of these special deals that are offered to people who subscribe to the deals of a local area. If you feel wary about offering up to 50% off of your products or services, thats understandable. But consider this: Groupon syndicates its deals to thousands of sites and sends them to thousands of people. This means a huge number of reliable links pointing to your site, and this could cause a serious rise in your listings on search engines.
We like to write and analyze a lot about SEO, but we also need to remember to think locally when we are marketing ourselves. One of the best ways to get higher listings is to get other people to link to you – so get involved locally to get more business!
Customer Success Manager
