Need to find an accident attorney, a plastic surgeon, a restaurant, a mechanic? Chances are without thinking if you had to find one the very first place you’d go to is Google. You’d probably type in something like “accident attorney near me” or “Mexican food near me”. And at this point, you’ll immediately see the benefit of local search marketing. You’ll typically see Google break out results into three sections:
- Ads – 10% of search traffic
- Google/Apple Maps – 68% of search traffic
- Organic Traffic – 22% of search traffic
What is Local Search Marketing?
Local search engine marketing is a strategy targeting customers within a specific area of the store or business. Essentially, it’s about targeting an audience that’s based in the same area as your business and providing a form of search engine optimization which puts local businesses in the search results (and yes, local businesses can and do outrank national businesses).
Local search engine marketing applies to corporate brands, large chains, small chains, and single-location businesses. The goal of local search marketing is to ensure customers searching for the products or services you offer find your business at the top of the google search results.
A common mistake for companies is to view online and offline as two separate marketing areas. Both are equally important in the customer journey. So to truly understand and get the most out of your local search marketing strategy, you need to keep offline and online marketing together.
Local Search Marketing “Near Me”.
The use of adding “near me” to a google search has increased by over 90% in the last two years and 88% of searches result in a call or a visit to a business. Let that sink in for a bit. If you were able to double, triple, or go from zero to 100 calls per month how would that impact your business? My experience has shown it can be 2X, 3X, or even 5X your business. In other words, doing local search marketing can dramatically impact your business. In fact, for most companies, it is the lifeblood of their success.
Here is a real-world example. We had a client who was spending $70k per month on Adwords (we managed their Adwords spend), they were spending $30k per month on Social Media, and with us, they were spending $4.5k per month to manage local search marketing (in this case Google My Business/Google Business Profile). Their service generates about $20k per customer. The results were mind-blowing:
- $30k – Social Media – 1 client per month
- $70k – Adwords – 25 clients per month
- $4.5k – Local Search Marketing – 27 clients per month
You can clearly see Local Search Marketing absolutely dominated the other digital platforms.
Nearly 50% of Searches on Google Have Local Intent
Yes, 50% of the time someone Googles something they are looking for a local company to do business with. With local search, a person searches for a business, product, or service near them or in a different location. The search results are displayed as a list of three companies integrated with Google Maps. Google believes matches are the best choices for the searcher based on an algorithm of ranking factors. These entries form the local pack on Google Business Profile.
The Google Business Profile is the most valuable platform for boosting your online presence and connecting with a local audience. A well-optimized business listing that appears in the Google Map section is a solid competitive advantage as it puts your business ahead of your competitors.
How Google Ranks Companies Using Local Search Marketing
The algorithm Google uses more than 27 factors and each has a different weight (not to mention some work in conjunction with each other). The algorithm then produces a best guess of what you are looking for based on the information you submitted. In general, the three main factors are relevance, prominence, and distance. Again, there are a lot of factors here, so just because someone is closer to a search it does not mean they will rank first.
If you optimize your local business locations and make sure all of the relevant information is included it will significantly improve your chances of ranking. Ranking higher means more leads and eventually more customers.
Benefits of Local Search Marketing
Outside of generating a ton of new clients for you (which should be obvious) some of the other benefits of Local Search Marketing and SEO include:
- Improve Online Visibility
- Building a Local Community
- More Relevant Traffic
- Return Visits from Local Customers
- Build Authority and Trust
- Reduce or Eliminate Ad Costs
- Increased Sales
Click here to find out about the benefits of local search marketing.
Want to find out how Local Search Marketing can work for you? Give us a call. We’d love to help!