More than ever, your business can greatly benefit from localized search engines, directories and sites like Twitter. Sites like the Internet Yellow Pages have increased in use by an amazing 58% through people searching for local businesses and services. That’s over 15 billion searches in 2008 alone! Other sites used for local business search are business directories and the hundreds of sites that feed through information from Yellow pages like Google Maps.
The first step to attracting a localized audience is to make sure that your website is optimized to naturally obtain localized search. Using your Index page, About Us page and Contact Us page, you can promote your local city or neighbourhood, instilling a sense of trust to your local website visitors.
Make sure to submit your website to local search engines, where people tend to search when wanting to deal with someone in their vicinity. Below is a list of search sites that you should be listed on to ensure your audience can find you.
Ca.Local.Yahoo.com: With millions of searches every month, Yahoo Local is a great way to get found. Most websites are accepted to the index quickly, usually within 2 to 4 business days, and it’s free!
Maps.Google.Com: Perhaps your first stop for submission as Google Maps draws over 40 million searches every month. Getting accepted requires returning a Google postcard sent to your address on file in order to verify your location – but well worth the time and effort.
Here are some other great resources:
Getting yourself listed through your local Chamber of Commerce and local BBB sites can be extremely beneficial as well. Making donations to local charities will get you even more publicity. Many sites are not free to submit to, but you may just get lucky in your search and find some gems that charge no fees while giving you thousands of dollars worth of free exposure.
Real Estate agent Dru Bloomfield out of Arizona uses Twitter for her listings and has actually obtained clients through her ‘Tweets’. Blog posts are also not only a good way to draw local traffic, but can bring in unexpected windfalls like it did for Nick Bastian who posted on his blog an article about a recent light rail expansion, which prompted a wealthy real estate investor to purchase $2.5 million in property through Mr. Bastian. Nick also says that about 70% of his business comes in through his online marketing efforts on Twitter and his website’s blog.
Using a tool like Twilert to get notified when people in your area are looking for your services or products is a great way to build up and interact with a network of interested parties.
So don’t downplay the power of local search marketing to build up your business, especially if your business is dependent on a local audience. Using directories, search engines and tools like Twitter and Blogging can drastically improve your bottom line.
