subject: Why Businesses Should Implement Local Search Marketing [print this page] Why Businesses Should Implement Local Search Marketing
Every business knows that marketing is important for brand awareness as well as sales. Most businesses have a website and it is undeniable that the Internet is a huge platform for potential customers and merchants to interact. However, why should a business implement local search marketing instead of simply having a website? Below are some reasons.
a) People are always looking for stores that offer the best prices. Instead of driving to the nearest auto body shop, a consumer will first compare prices of different auto shops in the neighborhood. Businesses with websites that are at the top of search engines are likely to be noticed than those that cannot be found.
b) Many people do not live where they work. A lot of consumers are commuters and while at work, they may not know the best place to get something in the area. The instant thing they will do is to search for it online. Local businesses that can be found at the top search engine rankings will have gotten a new customer.
c) The Internet has become the most popular way for consumers to purchase goods. This is because shopping can be done 24/7 and there is no need to physically walk to the store. People can shop from their homes, coffee shops and local libraries, among other places, to look for goods or services in the local area.
d) Local search marketing is more effective and can be targeted to people based on demographics like age, sex, neighborhoods, interests among others. This ensures that businesses get the best return on investment (ROI) for their internet marketing efforts. Moreover, this targeted advertising can be done at a significantly lower cost than that of traditional mass media advertising channels.
Many internet marketing companies offer affordable SEO packages for local search engine marketing services. The companies will usually implement on-page and off-page optimization techniques. On-page optimization techniques include using the right keywords, meta tags, title tags and alt tags in the websites. Off-page techniques mainly refer to link building methods such as commenting on forums and blogs and leaving a link back to the customer's websites, exchanging links with other webmasters, getting links from article directories by submitting articles, submitting press releases to press release sites, among others.
Small and medium businesses should look for affordable SEO packages from internet marketing companies in order not to destabilize their usually limited marketing budgets. An investment in SEO can have a tremendous effect of increasing traffic to the company's website and consequently bring in more sales.
