Local Search Marketing

Whether a person engages in an

explicit local search - where they type in the georgraphical area they are looking for

e.g. "Camden personal trainer" or "West London Osteopath"

or they perform an implicit local search which is where the search engines will assume they are looking for a local business and based on their location will bring up results relevant to their local area.

e.g. I live in Scotland but am visiting Crouch End (North London) and need an emergency appointment with a private dentist. I type in "private dentist" and based on my location the search engines will bring up dentists available in Crouch End.

A local search can be performed by a person searching because they live in the local area or because they are about to visit/are in the local area (e.g. for a festival or a business conference) - local search marketing has provided all health and wellness business owners with an opportunity to bring in new business and can not be ignored.

Your business appears in the search results based on your location and a number of other factors including trust (whether the search engines trust you) and relevancy.

Local maps optimisation as it is also known has become one of the easiest ways for any local business - regardless of size to take advantage of local internet advertising without any financial cost.

What makes this area of online marketing so powerful is this:

• Research has found that people searching for local businesses online will then go offline and buy something - in fact over 60% of people who search will take the next step and purchase.
• When done correctly your local presence will continue to bring in new leads and interest from people searching. One blog post, review or video could be everything you need to continually bring in new customers.
• It is far cheaper and more effective than offline print media can ever be

Now that the search engines are paying attention to it your local business is being provided with more free tools and resources to help you get started.

The search engines need to provide relevant results to keep people happy and as long as you optimise your local search presence correctly they will happily bring up your local business when someone is searching.

The key to local search marketing is knowing how to get started, what to do first and what to avoid. Your business shouldn't just rush online and start taking part in different things like social media without knowing exactly why you are doing it and what you want the outcome to be.

This is an area that is going to continue to grow - like the shift from typewriters to computers you can ignore it until changed is forced upon you or you can move with it now and embrace it before your competitors do.

Click the link to stay ahead in the area of local search marketing and register to receive our free report.