Local search marketing is one of the most important and yet woefully underutilized forms of advertising these days. Many advertising agencies use the terminology “Top of Mind Awareness” whenever they’re trying to convince business owners to sign off on extensive and expensive media campaigns. The only problem is that “Top of Mind Awareness” is a myth that simply doesn’t exist anymore. We’re all too busy and our head is already full with way too much information. So most of us go online and search for a business using Google as our memory trigger.
Back before they invented the calculator, we could all still do math in our heads. But these days, no one even tries. Same with remembering things. Google has become the modern day version of the phone book, so now we don’t have to remember anything. We just Google it.
When was the last time you actually opened the Yellow Pages? The first thing most of us do whenever we’re trying to find a local business is search on the Internet.
The best way to see how your business stacks up on the web against your competition is to pretend you’re a customer searching online for your type of business. Think about which keywords someone would type into Google or one of the other top search engines if they were searching online. Go onto Google and type in a generic search for someone in your industry in your city. How long is it before your company shows up in the local search results?
For a specific example, let’s say you need to hire a plumber, but aren’t sure who to call. In the old days, you’d thumb through the Yellow Pages. These days, you’d simply go online using your computer or smart phone and type in “Plumber Springfield MO”.
At this point, it doesn’t really matter how big your Yellow Pages ad is or how many radio or TV ads you run. If your website isn’t one of the top search engine results, then out of sight is out of mind.
But if you do show up in these local search results, now all your other forms of advertising start to kick in. If they’ve heard your jingle, seen your ad, or even heard good word of mouth, those memory triggers only come back to them if they see your business listed among that list of local plumbers in their search results.
Most small business owners think SEO marketing is only for the major corporations. That’s good news for you, because since they aren’t focused on local search engine optimization, you’ll have less competition and can make a bigger splash with a smaller investment. Some owners are leery of being the guinea pig who tries out the latest advertising gimmick. They’d prefer to wait and see if this website optimization craze catches on before they try it.
But this is one area where you snooze, you lose. We can do more to improve your search engine placement for hundreds of dollars than what other companies do who charge thousands of dollars. Any money you spend wisely that improves your local search marketing results will have the greatest return on your investment. Period.