Local SEO

If you’re a small business owner that depends on a steady stream of new customers, your attention probably perked right up at the prospect of getting more people into your business.

But when you heard someone mention SEO, you probably made ‘that’ face. You know, the same face people make when someone offers them kale ice cream, turkey bacon, or a root canal.

You’re not living under a rock. You’ve heard of search engine optimization, or SEO. In fact, it would be a safe bet to assume your business gets contacted multiple times each week by some firm somewhere promising to propel your small business website straight to the top of Google.

Now you can learn how to get your local business ranked for, well, local customers. Even when people plan on shopping locally, they still look to Google to find out who is most convenient, who’s got the best prices, and whose business is popular with all the other local customers. The problem for a lot of small business owners is that the whole local SEO process seems to be veiled in complication and confusion, putting it perpetually on the back burner if it’s on the stove at all. Not you, though! You just grabbed this little eBook and that proves you know you’ve got to do something different. Local SEO IS different… so you’ll want to pay attention for a few minutes It’s how you put your small business on the map (literally) – and it’s the best way to make sure your ideal prospects, the ones who are near enough to become your loyal customers, discover you.

It’s also one of the most cost-effective ways small businesses can compete with bigger competitors. Yes, that competitor – the one gobbling up your market share. The one with a presence in every town and city. The one with the seemingly bottomless pockets who’s marketing circles around you.

By now, chances are good that you’ve got a website (even if it’s not one you love). Unfortunately, just having a website is not enough to grow your business. You’ve got to make sure that it’s showing up where your next customers are looking.

It’s time to learn about search engines and your online presence, even if your business is in a rock-solid, brick and mortar building, with no online sales. There are still plenty of ways you can use the Internet to grow your business. For instance, did you know that simply by telling Google some BASIC information (we’re talking name, address, and phone number here) you can improve your placement in a Google search?

Your ideal customer may be searching right now for the products and services you sell. This new customer has at least two options – you, and your competitor. There’s a lot you can do to distinguish your business from your competitors. That differentiation begins with developing a sound marketing strategy, and part of that strategy involves a plan for optimizing your website to attract local customers. After all, it does you no good to attract potential customers who are hundreds or thousands of miles away. You want the customer who’s right around the corner, who’s ready to buy, and who’s trying to figure out which local company is the best choice for the products and services they need right now.

One of those optimization strategies uses a free tool that Google GIVES you to come up with the words and phrases your customers are using to look for your business online. Once you are armed with this kind knowledge, you’ll find out exactly where to use those words on your website to drive your ranking straight to the top of Google.

Prepare to be surprised at just how easy (and yet how oddly tricky) it can be. Some of the ideas may ring a bell in the back of your mind (think local Chamber of Commerce). Others are bound to surprise you. For instance, NAPs for your business are not only legitimate, they’re crucial! And you’ll see that a citation is now a great thing to get. With just this one little eBook, you’ll learn more than you imagine about how you can take the kind of action that causes Google to take notice of your local business. Keep reading, and you’ll learn how to use Local SEO to significantly increase the likelihood that new customers find and choose your business. We’ll begin with a basic explanation of Local SEO, then go into a few proven tactics you can use to get started putting your local business in front of the customers you want most.

Here’s just a quick preview of what you’re about to discover:

• Got a smartphone? So does everyone else you know, so make sure your website looks great on a mobile device without your potential customers needing to pinch and zoom, because they won’t! They simply won’t take the time. They’ll just go to your competitor instead. What you’re about to learn will make sure that never happens again.
• Do your customers love you and your business? Learn how you can use that goodwill and great reputation to work for your rankings. Local SEO uses your great reviews to spread the word about your business – but you’ve got to know how to get those reviews in the first place. Keep reading, and you’ll know exactly how to do that.
• How social is your business? Are you sending and receiving all the right social signals? Do you post, pin, tweet, update, snap and all things social media? If you aren’t socially active yet, should you be?

We know that the learning curve to market your business online is steep, but we’ve taken the basics and put them together here so you can skip a few steps, kind of like using the elevator instead of walking up the stairs. In fact, you might just find out that once you see that there are clear steps you can take, that learning curve will straighten right out.

Many people think that marketing is a necessary evil in business. You might even be one of them. By the time you finish reading this book, you’ll understand more about why marketing is necessary, and you might be ready to let go of the thought that it’s evil. There are a lot of things about local SEO marketing that really aren’t that difficult and once you see your business climbing the search engine rankings, you might even start to enjoy this part of your business. So, go ahead and read on. Your business will never be the same!