In order to succeed, local businesses must know how to stand out on local Google searches. By implementing effective digital marketing strategies, local businesses can increase online visibility, outrank local competitors, and capture the attention of local consumers.
Let’s start with the basics of Google Listings. For those of you who don’t know, there are several primary listing areas on the Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP) that Google offers as part of its GYBO program.
- Paid Listings: The paid search listings are the results at the very top of the search results page as well as the very bottom. The paid search engine listings on Google are listed with a green flag that says “Ad.”
- Local Business Listings: Local business listings are the listings that have a map preview. The local business listings are partly controlled by the information you fill out on your Google My Business Profile and are part of Google’s Local Pack
- Organic Listings: When you search for something on Google, you’ll notice at the top of the SERP, “About 422,000 results”. This means that Google crawls the web and notices that there is a number of pages that match something in the search text you entered. These listings are primarily based on SEO content, local search engine optimization, and external linking factors.
If your local business doesn’t have a Google Business listing, we can show you how to set up your Google Business profile.
Whether you own a small business or are a local service provider, these GYBO tips will help boost your online visibility and attract the local attention that your business deserves.
Website Optimization and Tracking for Local Businesses
Website optimization and tracking work with Google’s GYBO program to play a critical role in helping local businesses by maximizing online authority and reaching target audiences.
By optimizing the website’s structure, design, and content, local businesses enhance the user experience and ensure that the site is user-friendly. This helps to increase organic visibility, attract more local consumers, and generate more high-quality leads.
When optimizing your company’s website, addressing the following will ensure the best results.
- Does your website give your target audience the information that they need when searching for local products or services?
- Remember, who, what, and where: the user should be able to see the name of your local business, the company’s location and phone number, as well as what the local business offers without having to scroll down the page. The faster you can give the searcher the information they’re looking for, the more likely they are to take some type of action and get in touch with you.
- Does your website content accurately describe the services that your local business offers?
- Is your website mobile-friendly?
- Does the website showcase the credibility of your local business?
- Do you have Google Analytics set up? It’s free and will allow you to see exactly what’s happening with your site traffic.
At Digital Logic, we’re pros at local online business marketing. Here are some of our local SEO pricing models.
Competitive Research for Local Business Marketing
Competitive research can help local businesses as it provides valuable insights into the strategies of other local competitors. This research can help your local business identify market trends in your local community, understand consumer preferences, and discover untapped local opportunities.
Seeing what the local competition is doing is important, but don’t get stuck down a rabbit hole – stay focused on your business.
- What are the local competitors doing online?
- Do other local businesses have more targeted and quality content on their websites?
- How is the user experience on their site compared to yours?
- What websites link to local business websites that do not link to yours? To find out, do a search on Google for “site:domainname.com.”
- Use competitive research to help build an action plan for adding website content with locally-optimized keywords.
Take Advantage of Local Business Profiles Online
GYBO
Set up a free listing on Google for your business.
You can set up a free listing on Google using a Gmail address. To set up a Google Local listing, visit www.gybo.com and go through the setup process. Make sure and add as much local information as possible on the site.
If Google will not allow you to verify your listing right away via a phone call, they will send you a postcard with a verification code within a week or two.
Local Online Reviews
Next, get reviews from local consumers.
To improve how your profile ranks and showcase the quality work that you’ve done for other clients, encourage former customers and clients to leave you a review on Google.
Customer reviews are very important, would you ever buy a product on Amazon if the product had a one or two-star review?
It’s easy to ask clients for reviews on Google – to generate a link to send for someone to review your business, use this free tool and send the link to your happy customers.
Optimize Google Business Profile
Add Content To Your Profile.
It’s free to add content to your Google profile to help get your business out at the local level. Local business owners can add as many images as they can to their Google Business profile.
We recommend getting good photographs of the outside of your local business property, inside of your office, a headshot of the business owner, a team photograph, as well as company logos and favicons.
Local Directory Listing Service
Use A Directory Listing Service.
Companies like Moz Local offer a directory listing service that will push your business listing out to 50+ major directories and listing aggregators. Using Moz Local can help you control and update your business information across a large network of sites through one central portal.
Run Local Ads on Google
If you need your local business to start showing up on Google’s search engine at the local level quickly, then you’ll need to invest in a Google Ads campaign.
The cost of PPC advertising will vary depending on the geographic area that you serve, and the level of industry competition.
To get a rough estimate of how much search volume is taking place for keywords that are relevant to your local business, you can use the Google Keyword Planner. The Google Keyword Planner allows you to enter some basic information about your local business to determine estimated search volume and cost estimates for keywords related to your business.
Just as a side note, a Google Adwords Search Engine Marketing campaign should only be part of your digital marketing strategy.
Google Ads Local Paid Search Engine Advertising Setup Tips
AdWords Express
Don’t use Adwords Express. Why?
The ad campaign configuration and advanced setting options are not very good. At Digital Logic, our PPC managers have taken over countless client Google Ads campaigns, where the vast majority of traffic was low quality. Start out with full Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) and not Adwords Express to take advantage of all the campaign configuration features.
Geofencing
Make sure your geofencing targeting is set up the correct way.
If you own a local business, then you may only want to show ads to consumers who are in your targeted location, not those who show interest in your target area.
Don’t stretch your ads outside of your geographic area until you know what you’re doing and get comfortable.
Keyword Match Types
Make sure you don’t launch a Google Ads campaign with poor keyword match settings.
Depending on the different match types you use, the Google ads you run will be triggered for things you’d don’t want to show up for. Be careful with broad-match keywords, and make sure you are using a good negative keyword list in order to get the most out of your local Google Ads campaign.
Text Ads
Local businesses can use text ads to stand out from what the competition is doing.
Put yourself in the local consumer’s position. If the consumer was searching for a local business, what would the searcher find unique about your business? Has your local business won any awards? Does your company have any sales going?
Leverage the expanded Google text ad character limitations.
Ad Extensions
Use as many ad extensions as you can to give you more real estate on the paid search listing to stand out from your local competition.
Call Tracking for Local Search Ads
Set up phone tracking for your business’s local search ads.
Use a service like CallRail to set up tracking numbers that are specific to just the online ads that you’re running. CallRail allows you to have specific phone numbers for each online ad campaign that you’re running and provides full integration with Google Analytics.
Work With a Local Marketing Agency
We’ve seen many local businesses get screwed over by local media companies. At our digital marketing agency, we provide honest marketing services that work.
Digital Logic is recognized as a top E-commerce SEO & Marketing Company on DesignRush. We offer an array of local marketing services, including local SEO services, local PPC management services, and local website design services.
