Today’s smartphones are affordable for almost anyone these days, as competing handset makers strive to make devices that offer better-than-ever Web-browsing experiences on cell phones.

What if you suddenly need to look up a local business? With a smartphone, no matter where you are you can get online and start searching for it. Many technologies already offer to search locally; they can even show where you are “right now” on an interactive map, and then show the businesses around you that fit into the category you are researching.

How great would it be if a customer enters your office or store, and says he just found you on the web via his mobile phone while driving around? This possibility ought to encourage you to market your site locally on the web.

Start going this road before everyone else, because soon it’s going to be really busy. People are going to search the Internet with their mobile devices more frequently, especially for something local. Before long, it might be too late for you to get in on the action.

In order to start marketing locally for cell phones, here is a list of major resources to help you work with the top three mobile search engines:

http://mobile.yahoo.com/go: This includes local listings arranged by distance and ratings, pulled out from the Yahoo Local database.

http://www.google.com/mobile/: Google’s local solution for mobile devices, which offers local search results for particular device models.

http://www.livesearchmobile.com/: Live Search Mobile by Microsoft provides click-to-call listings of local businesses.

Shavkat Karimov, Internet Marketing Manager, mobileStorm
“Every problem comes with a solution”

Thanks to universal search, local business listings tend to rank higher than general websites in search engines, particularly in Google, the world’s largest search engine. This is why it is so important that your local business is listed everywhere.

Previously I suggested that you include your phone number on your website, but many companies make one mistake: They place the number as an image, not as text. I suggest adding phone numbers, (and local addresses) as text, because it makes you much more easily found on the web. For example, imagine if a former client only has your number, or only remembers part of your address. Your business can still be found on the web by using this information in a search query.

Another tip I want to expand on is testimonials. Positive reviews of your services or products should be in the most visible area of your site. In addition, it would be more effective if you link to an external authority resource, such as a review site, where there is positive feedback placed for your company. This will indicate credibility and openness to potential clients. There are plenty of local review sites out there, and you can ask your current customers to leave feedback on them. (I’ll be giving a list of these kinds of sites at the end of these series, as promised.)

Are you blogging? Did you know that a blog is probably one of the most effective SEO tools available today? Search engines love blogs because they update content frequently; they are specific to their areas of expertise; they are well-categorized and sorted; and they know the subject matter. If you have the time and resources, start blogging. This will help your business website get more traffic, show your local audience your great expertise in what you do, and will eventually result in more sales.

There is another thing to consider: The more local you are, the more successful you are. When it comes to choosing the right keywords for local optimization, remember that “California plumbers” is not as good as “Los Angeles plumbers,” which in its turn is not as good as “South LA plumbers.” The point is that the more targeted your marketing is, the more sales you’ll be making. Think how you would search for anything local, and optimize your campaigns accordingly. Cities are better than states, large neighborhoods are better than cities, etc. And some people search locally with zip codes, so why not add an optimized page to target these people as well?

Think carefully when you choose the local keywords for which you will optimize your pages. The keyword suggestion tools I referenced earlier will tell you that “things to do in Denver” would have about 10 times more searches than “Denver tourist attractions.” Many sites miss much traffic by targeting the wrong keywords.

And to make sure that each locally-oriented page that you have created is indexed by search engines, add those links to your sitemap with different link anchor texts.

Social media sites can be very useful in online local marketing. People always try to find someone local through these sites. So if you are represented in many social networking sites, you get local traffic to your website from these pages. The same rule applies to local discussion groups and communities. They all contain highly-targeted traffic that you can effectively use in your favor, with almost no competition and with no budget.

Next time we’ll talk about mobile local search marketing. Until then,

Shavkat Karimov, Internet Marketing Manager, mobileStorm
http://www.seomanager.com/

Local traffic is always more targeted, and thus more likely to result in conversions. That is, consumers will more likely purchase what’s being offered to them. Always remember that you have this great advantage over national (and thus non-locally-friendly) businesses.

If you missed my previous posts about local search marketing strategies, you can find them here and here. After you get caught up, check out the following additional suggestions.

Create a directory—or better yet, a portal—devoted to your location. You can base it on your own site or have it as a separate resource. If your marketing budget allows it, you might want to consider buying such an existing portal. This solution is great even though it takes time and can be costly. It will allow you to drive targeted traffic to yourself easily. And then you can sell to this audience all day long.

Create a newsletter about local news related to your niche, as well as news about your own business. This will definitely increase conversions or revenue. Even a monthly newsletter can bring great results—there’s no need to bother the people on your list too often.

A great idea is to always include your local data in your signatures. And I don’t just mean email signatures, but also in blog post signatures, forum signatures, signatures used when you write articles for external resources, etc.

The web is increasingly moving towards video. People like watching information rather than reading it. So it’s time for you to get involved. Start making videos about your local business, place them on your own site, and also promote them through a good number of video resources available on the web. (A comprehensive list of video-sharing websites can be found here.) By the way, a little-known fact is that video results in the general search results page (SERP) are clicked much more than the text results, no matter what position they take on the page. Little video windows do stand out from boring texts, and that alone attracts people to click on them. (Read more about this fact here.) Because of this, it may be worthwhile to use a solution that posts a video to all major sharing sites at once.

One more interesting trick you can use in local marketing: Offer a locals-only discount. This is especially good if most leads you get are locals anyway. They’ll feel special and that will increase their signup chances for you. When I planned to go to Sea World in Orlando, I was pleasantly surprised that there is a permanent discount to Florida residents. Of course, I purchased the tickets right away.

More strategies are coming soon! Until then,

Shavkat Karimov, Internet Marketing Manager, mobileStorm
“Every problem comes with a solution”
SEO Consulting

This post continues my series on local search marketing strategies.

First, let’s revisit the importance of one’s business name. Here’s a hint: Your location might have some alternative names, like an abbreviation or nickname. You might want to use that alternative name for your location in your content, title, and meta tags. Not many website owners would think of this, so you would pick up additional, highly targeted traffic from the search engines.

There are many good offline strategies for your local presence online. Since local businesses are getting more offline leads rather than online (for now; this tendency is slowly changing in favor of the Web), you might use the following methods to drive online traffic.

Local events: Monitor significant events in your location. Then act fast with SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay-per-click advertising) campaigns in order to benefit from the buzz they create, which makes people search for information about these events online. This will move traffic towards your business’ site.

Business cards, posters, and other printed materials: Add your website address along with your physical address. Be creative enough to intrigue people and make them want to visit your website for more information.

Most-visited place in your area: You should advertise/promote your website at busy places like the local mall. Offer to sponsor some events put on at the mall. Keep in mind that the mall has a site as well, and try to work with mall management to get your URL posted on its site.

Current customers: Do you promote your website to your current customers, and encourage them to share your site’s URL with their friends and families? One way to do this is to run an online referral program, or by offering online-only redeemable coupons.

Talk about your website to your suppliers or partners: Think how can they help in your online marketing. Some could add a link to your site on their “partners” or “clients” pages, for example.

Local newspapers and magazines: Send them press releases with news about your business, including your website’s URL. These papers also have websites that publish news, which could result in backlinks that drive traffic to your site.

Until next time,

Shavkat Karimov, Internet Marketing Manager, mobileStorm
“Every problem comes with a solution”
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