Local Lead generation or local SEO is the ultimate local lead generation strategy for small local businesses. As a Marketing consultant in the Albany NY area, a lot of my work involves helping small businesses develop a local lead generation platform. Look, if you’re a local business, meaning most or all of your business comes from customers living in your community, you must get very serious about local lead generation or otherwise known as SEO. Don’t worry, ranking locally for the kinds of things your prospects are looking for isn’t rocket science, but it does take a serious commitment to a handful of things.
In case you’re wondering if it’s worth the investment in such a commitment, let me share a few survey tidbits.
- 98% of searchers choose a business that is on page 1 of the results they get
- 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
- 77% of smartphone users contact a business after looking for local Information
And, I could go on, but I’m guessing you see the point – if you don’t rank well locally for the things people are searching for marketing will be a lot harder and a lot more expensive.
Here’s the good news – focus on these five elements and you can expect great results from local search. (The competitiveness of your industry may dictate your ultimate results.)
Local SEO related articles http://Click here to learn more about local lead generation
OPTIMIZE GOOGLE MY BUSINESS
Google has a bit of a naming crisis when it comes to their local directory listings, but for now, you must pay attention to, claim, and optimize your Google My Business Listing. If this is news to you go immediately to Google’s Free Business Listing page and find out if you can claim your current listing. It’s easy to set up a new Google Business page. Just click on “start now” and it will direct you to a map. Enter your business information here and it will either give you an option to create a new listing or pull up a current one.
Many people created or had created Google+ listings and Google made a mess of how this became Google My Business so you may have some cleanup to do to make sure that you only have one listing for your business and it’s the one Google thinks is your business. Once you claim the right listing you need to make sure you take full advantage of all of the real estate and linking options available to you. This, by the way, is essential if your business is to ever show up in the coveted Google 3-pack for local searches shown above. Make sure you have the right business category and subcategories chosen for your business.
Make note of the exact way your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) appear. The exact meaning is Street or St., is it Heating & Cooling or Heating and Cooling. Whatever you show listed as the NAP on your Google My Business Page, you’ll want to use consistently on your own website and across all directories. (More on this in the next post)
Another great resource is Dare to be different https://carlswayworks.com/its-a-me-too-world-dare-to-be-different/
