In today’s digital age, local visibility is not only convenient for small businesses, but a catalyst to growth. Your small-medium sized business or start-up likely generates most of its business through a one-way channel – cold outreach.
But how do you get leads to come to you? And even better, local leads?
Digital marketing helps you build an online presence that allows you to be discovered faster and easier by a larger group of people. But the issue with marketing, whether digital or traditional, is that unless you keep stoking the fire, it’ll go out.
It’s a long-term game. But there are two things you can do right now to start getting results without any long-term investment of your time and money. Let’s get into it.
Create a ‘Google My Business’ listing
What is Google My Business? Google My Business is a tool that allows you to create a business profile on Google that enables your business to appear more prominently on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs) for specific types of search terms.
One key step to setting up a Google My Business profile is setting up your location. By giving Google your business location, you allow your business to be discovered by location-based search terms and through location-orientated mediums; your business will appear on Google Maps indicated by its own ‘pin’ and search phrases such as ‘[your service] in [your town or city]’ will show your business as a search result – yes, that includes the ever so common ‘near me’ search term.
Google My Business is an essential tool in helping your business’ local visibility, but it also helps you build an online reputation by allowing customers to post public reviews. You can also post a library of photos and videos to promote your business, post business hours and more. If you haven’t yet set up a profile, do so now.
Dedicate an entire page on your website that shows your commitment to local business
The term ‘SEO’ might intimidate you. There are some complex aspects to SEO which will soak up your time, but there are also some very simple SEO tricks to help you improve your online local visibility.
The first thing you should do right now, if you haven’t already, is create a new page on your website containing copy that communicates your dedication to helping local businesses. This is a great opportunity to use a variety of location-orientated keywords, such as the name of your town or city and a description of your services.
Be sure to include the name of your town or city in your H1 heading (which is often the title of your page) to immediately indicate to both users and search engines that your web page is relevant to the local area. This can attract the attention of local custom in an extremely effective manner.
If you’re looking to move away from relying on word of mouth and one-way channels when it comes to generating business, a comprehensive digital marketing strategy makes all the difference. UX Media is a digital marketing agency that specialises in working with smaller businesses. If that’s something that sparks your interest, let’s talk.