Why Local Search Can Be an Underrated Marketing Channel for Growth-Focused Businesses
There’s a lot of discussion these days about search engine optimization (SEO) and its importance for small businesses. And while SEO is definitely important, it’s not the only way to increase your web traffic and revenue. In fact, you may be overlooking an important source of traffic and revenue generation if you’re not taking advantage of local search. Keep reading to find out why local search can be a valuable tool for growth-focused businesses.
What is Local Search and why is it a growth marketing channel worth considering?
Google local ads are a type of ad that you can put on… Well… Google. You choose the keywords people might use to find your business, and then your ad will show up when they search for those things.
What exactly is a local search ranking?
Local search ranking refers to a website’s spot on the local search engine results page (SERPs). If you have done some local searches, you’ve probably noticed that local SERPs look slightly different from non-local SERPs.
Here’s an example of local search in action:
When someone searches for ‘Italian restaurants near me’ (or any other keyword you choose), Google local results will pop up with local restaurants that meet the searcher’s criteria. This means more eyes on your business without doing any extra work! So how can local search ads be better than SEO?
Local search is a quick and easy way to get more local web traffic without working on local SEO. Since local search is location-based, your business will show up in local searches even if you don’t have a website or an online presence at all!
SEO takes some time and money to really have an impact on local search results. It usually involves writing local-specific content, creating local citations, and getting links from local websites.
If the people you know are probably searching for local products and services the same way everyone else does: “Japanese knives near me”, “LED garden lights near me”, “hardware store near me”, etc. So why not use local search ads to get your local products/services in front of those looking for products at an e-commerce store but who are located in your area?
Local search has a huge benefit when it comes to local mobile searches. In fact, local search accounts for more than one out of every five local mobile searches in the US! (and this number is growing — rapidly—and globally!). Local mobile searches are only going to increase as people use their smartphones and tablets to find local products and services.
So… in a nutshell, optimizing local search can boost your local web traffic and revenue because it’s location-based and easier to manage than full-fledged SEO. Local search ads are mobile optimized which is perfect for local ecommerce businesses who want to target local mobile searchers.
If you’re in the local business game, local search should absolutely be part of your marketing strategy!
Why should businesses use Local search to promote their products or services?
Local search is perfect for small businesses that want to promote their products and services to local customers. These ads appear when people search for businesses in their local area, so they’re a great way to reach potential customers who are already looking for what you have to offer.
For example, let’s say you’re traveling to Barcelona and you want to try the best paella in the city. In this restaurant marketing example, Google’s local SERPs show you a local pack or a 3-pack at the top of the results. These businesses are also shown on the map on the right.
The local 3-pack is placed above the local search results and right below the ads, if there are any.
These results were only generated because you searched for local paella places in Barcelona. This local 3-pack serves as a way to help searchers find relevant places fast, so they can visit them.
What determines local search rankings?
Here are the three prominent factors it considers:
Relevance
For your business to rank in local searches, your brand should be relevant to the keyword term someone was searching for. How does Google determine if you’re relevant to a particular keyword? It matches information from your local Google Business Profile to what a person searches.
Also, by indicating the nature of your business through Google business categories, you are helping Google identify which searches are relevant to your company, so it shows your business in these SERPs. You can add one primary category and up to nine other categories to describe your business.
Distance
Another local search ranking factor is distance, which examines how far a business and potential local result is from the location term used by a searcher. Google estimates the distance based on a searcher’s location if no location was specified by the searcher.
Prominence
Google also considers how well-known your business is as a local ranking factor. Information about your business’s prominence is gathered from the web through links, articles, and directories.
Your business’s Google review count and review score also affect your local search ranking.
Why is local search ranking important?
If you have an ongoing SEO campaign, you’re probably wondering if you should also invest time and resources in improving your local search ranking. Well, 46% of Google searches are for local businesses, so it makes sense to kickstart your local SEO efforts now and get ahead of your competitors.
A prominent local search ranking offers these additional benefits:
Highly targeted local audience
You can reach this local audience on Google Search as well as Google Maps
Links to your website’s local landing pages
In ad extensions, you can help people find your opening hours, online booking details, and more
What type of businesses are local search ads perfectly suited as part of a growth marketing framework?
Local search ads are great for any local business, like local retail stores and restaurants. But they’re also useful for local professionals and self employed tradespeople, such as doctors, painters, realtors, electricians, mechanics, etc.
How much do local search ads cost?
There’s a set daily budget to go with your local campaign — depending on how much you spend, you could find local customers for just $5 per day or less. You can also set your own daily budget, which is what you should start with while testing the local search ads feature (besides, if you spend more than your set budget, local search ads will pick up on this and show your ad even more frequently).
How can businesses make the most of their Google Local search ad campaign as part of a growth-marketing playbook?
There are a few key methods and tips businesses can use to make their local search campaigns more profitable:
Make sure your business is accurately listed in Google Maps. This will ensure that your business appears in local search results.
Use ad extensions to provide more information about your business, such as opening hours, contact information, and website links. This will help potential customers learn more about your business and what you have to offer.
Set a realistic budget for your local search campaign, and make sure you’re tracking your spending so you don’t go over budget.
Use local landing pages to drive website traffic specifically from local search ads. This will help you track the effectiveness of your local search ads campaign.
Track local search ad performance with AdWords conversion tracking, call tracking, and local phone number ads. This will help you measure the success of your local search campaign based on how many phone calls or website conversions it’s generating.
Make local search ads work for you by adding more keywords to your display URLs for better results. For example, if you’re a construction contractor in Toronto, start local search ad campaigns with something like Toronto General Contractor.”
What are some effective Local Search-focused growth marketing tactics?
If you want to make local search ads work (as in “properly targeting” your audience), you should use keywords related to your specific niche offering. You should also think about showing people the specific things they are looking for in local search ads. You could use more general tools like Google Trends (input your keywords and see what is trending, along with related topics), so you can help better target your local search ads.
If you want to generate more local search revenue through local search ads, you can do this by using the keywords that people use when they use local search for what your business offers (in their area).
You can modify local search ads at any time to get more local search revenue. To do this, you would be redirected to local ads in the local search engine results page (SERP). You will also see a list of keywords that local search ads are using. You can then see how local search ads are related to local searches. Then you will be able to improve local search ad campaigns by changing keywords, locations, and more.
What are some other benefits of using local search as a growth marketing channel?
There are many hidden benefits of using local search ads for businesses. One of the most important benefits is that local search ads & optimization help businesses to stand out from their competitors. Local search ads also help businesses to connect with local customers, which can result in increased revenue. Additionally, local search ads help businesses to target potential customers who are looking for local businesses.
In the local business world, it is crucial for local business owners to show up first on Google Search (or as close as possible to the top of SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). If a local business owner does not show up first and is instead buried at the bottom of this local listing (it happens), then the traffic will go to a local business that does show up first. The local search ads allow local businesses to be at the top of the local listings, which means that they have a much better chance of generating local traffic.
Local search helps local businesses to attract new customers from their local area. When local business owners use local search ads & optimization, they target local customers who may be looking for local businesses and prospects who are searching for local keywords (such as “restaurants in my area”). This means that local businesses can drive traffic to their website and connect with local customers even if these local customers aren’t looking specifically for local businesses.
Google My Business is a free tool for local business owners that helps local businesses manage local listings, create local ads and more. The Google My Business (GMB) allows local business owners to stay up-to-date with local information across Google services such as Maps, Search, and Place Pages. Additionally, GMB provides local businesses with valuable insights about their local performance that can help them improve their presence online.
Why is it important for local business owners to monitor local search rankings?
Local business owners should monitor local search rankings because this will allow them to see how they compare with competitors and identify opportunities that can help improve their local presence online. Monitoring local search rankings can also give local businesses an idea of what it takes to rank higher in local search results.
How to Make Local Search a Part of Your Growth Marketing Fundamentals
Local brand owners should focus on their local market and ensure that they always have a strong local presence. It’s important for local brands to create content about the region, and become active on social media sites that are relevant to local customers. Following this, you need to optimize for local SEO.
These insights can help local brands stay ahead of competitors who are not showing up on local listings by engaging local consumers online.
Simply put, local ads allow you to display themselves on top of the search engine results pages (SERPs) when someone searches for keywords related to your company or service offerings.
After setting up an account with Google AdWords and determining which keyword phrases will be relevant to your campaign, you’ll need to set a budget that fits into your marketing plan.
The good news is that there are many tools available that can help you determine how much money should go towards each different type of ad so it doesn’t take long before you’re able to see if this strategy works out for you! If not, of course, you can always adjust your campaign accordingly.
Once everything is set up correctly — local search ads are a great way to help local brand owners connect with local customers and generate new business revenue and complement what you ought to be doing in terms of optimizing your SEO efforts.
How to use local search as part of an overall growth marketing playbook
Now that you know why ranking on local search results is important, here’s a list of action items to help your business dominate local search rankings:
1)Optimize your Google Business Profile listing
. One of the easiest ways to improve your local search ranking and make it to the local 3-pack of search results is to optimize your Google My Business Profile.
Claim your Google My Business Profile listing, and fill it out. Add in your address, contact information, and operating hours. Having your operating hours in your listing is important, so people know when they can visit your physical store
Choose a primary category for your business, and add photos. Photos add credibility and interest to your business.
2) Build Local Citations
Claim your business’s local citation in directories like Yellow Pages, Trip Advisor, and Apple Maps. Having your business listed on these directories helps your local search rankings because these citations tell search engines that your business is legitimate.
Make sure your business name, address, and phone number are consistent across the directories and your Google My Business Profile.
3. Get listed on review sites
80% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Get an extra credibility boost by having your business listed on review sites like Yelp and Glassdoor.
4. Monitor your business’s ratings and reviews
Be the brand that engages with your customers. Doing so allows your customers and prospects to know that you care about them. Google has revealed that business owners’ replies to reviews are important because they build customer trust.
Respond to positive reviews by thanking your customers. There will be negative reviews, and you can show them that you care by acknowledging their comment and addressing their concerns.
5. Make your website mobile-friendly
Google does mobile-first indexing, which means Google’s crawlers index your mobile site first.
Making your website mobile-friendly is also important for your human audience, because people spend 70% of their Internet time on mobile.
6. Get local inbound links
Earning backlinks from reputable local businesses gives your brand’s reputation a vote of confidence. In addition, your website will enjoy referral traffic from your target audience in your geographic area.
Local Search Is a Highly Overlooked Growth Marketing Tactic that Attentive Businesses Should Never Ignore
While local search isn’t as widely used as Google, it still caters to a large audience. In fact, if you’re not taking advantage of local search ads you may be overlooking an important source of traffic and revenue generation.
Instead, it is important to add local search to your existing marketing strategies. Using this article as a prospective resource, explore what it can do for you. If you do it right, you’ll get a nice return on your investment.
You probably are inclined to think that local search is not widely used. The same holds true for your competition. Taking advantage of the fact that no one is doing something is known as first-mover’s advantage. The sooner you make a tactical marketing move such as focusing on local search, the better chance you have of outmaneuvering and out-marketing your competition. Therefore, if you’re looking for every possible competitive edge to master, your business really should not be ignoring local search as part of its growth-focused playbook.
Overall, developing a long-term local search strategy that aligns with your growth marketing goals is an ongoing process that requires careful planning, analysis, and execution. Using many of the above points contained in this article, there is no doubt that you can build the foundation for a comprehensive and successful
However, if you are looking for outside growth marketing expertise to help you get started and create a local search marketing plan that is aligned with your business’ revenue growth goals, why not schedule a free, no-obligation, growth marketing consultation with us today? Our expert growth marketing consultants look forward to learning more about your business and seeing where and if local search can serve as one of your business’ growth levers.