Yellow pages books are getting smaller and smaller. People are increasingly using mobile phones and tablets to find local stores and restaurants instead. How does a small business owner turn these local searches into leads? By being found near the top of the list! Here are five ways to turn those local searches into leads for your local business.
1. Add local flavor to your content.
- Put your physical address in the footer of every page on your website.
- Add city or neighborhood names into your content when it makes sense. This isn’t about stuffing keywords or throwing lists of your 50 mile radius onto your site.
- If it makes sense to your business, try posting a list or calendar of local events.
- Have local bloggers do a guest post from related businesses or strategic partners.
- Tag images on your site with the local city or neighborhood names.
2. Super-size your local search profiles.
- Ever heard of Google? The #1 Search Engine in the world. They have this platform called Google Plus and now you can build out a profile for your business. They also have something called Google Places where you can post information about your business, including coupons, business hours and reviews. Potential customers can even get driving directions. The best part? It’s free!
- YouTube? The #2 Search Engine. Okay, so you have a face for radio. That’s alright. Videos can be made in the form of customer testimonials, simple PowerPoint presentations or just build a channel where you build playlists of videos related to your industry. Somewhere out there is a channel for your type of business. Curate those juice bits of information for your customers and help them get educated on the value you bring.
- Don’t forget about Yahoo, Bing and other business directories like Manta, Merchant Circle and A Classified Marketplace. These sites are valuable online real estate that extend your reach.
