Small Business and Local Search
There is a natural order to all things, especially in regards to the buying cycle of us consumers.
You break your shaver. You loved this shaver. After deep grief and remorse, knowing you’ll never have that trusty wingman to save the day again, you decide to buy a new shaver. Sure - you’ll get flooded with content on every social platform known to mankind by the great & insightful advertising gods, but you’ll also turn to one important source for information: Google. After popping in “best shavers” in your search bar, you will quickly be flooded with ads, blogs, video reviews, and a wonderland of shaving content you never knew existed. You embrace the deep dive and find yourself in the twilight zone of hair removal.
As a small business looking to compete in today’s market, it can be a challenge to populate in a search among the thousands of other options available to your future customers. How can you overcome the battle of the local search? I’m glad you asked.
This week’s Sip & Strategy is all about getting found in your geographic area of business.
Grab a cup of locally sourced coffee, relax in your armchair, and welcome to the Small Business and Local Search episode!
Define Local Search Marketing
First, what is local search marketing? For our purposes, let’s be somewhat linear. Local search marketing is anything your business does to promote visibility in a specified area. This is important to define if your company predominantly serves the local community. You know the target audience is nearby, which is an extremely different marketing strategy compared to that of national brands who have a much wider net; but we’ll get more into the pros and cons of that later.
If your business sells products or services to consumers or businesses in a defined geographic area, then we’re talking local search marketing. It’s more than just important that people can find you. If you’re not found or heard, you’re gonna have a bad time. While there are multiple search engines available, the bulk of search is conducted on Google. For this reason, we’re going to focus predominantly on how to win in local search on Google.
Google Business Profile
Google has made a lot of changes over the years. Some simple and helpful, some not so much. One thing that is incredibly straightforward but often overlooked is Google My Business accounts, or how it is now referred to as Google Business Profile. It is imperative that you not only make a Google Business Profile, but consistently utilize and update it. Not sure what a Google Business Profile (GBP) is? Here’s the breakdown.
When you search for a brand, product, or service, a big portion that populates in the search is Google Business Profile. It is the special boxed area to the right of your search results that shows you some specific details of the search and quick information you might need (as a viewer) like contact, address, hours of operation, reviews, etc. Here’s a preview below. The GBP is on the right.
Updating your Google My Business is impactful, from a customer perspective and also a backend engineer one. If you don’t have a Google Business Profile, I suggest you make one immediately.
It’s not just enough to upload imagery, enter your company’s information, and stuff keywords & business types to have relative searchers find your business. You also need content. I know, I said the “C” word. Posting content on your Google Business Profile helps searchers find your business in numerous ways and also alerts Google that you're open for business, you have the right stuff people are looking for, you're trustworthy, and you're a reliable business. Don’t just take my word for it, GMB Crush has the whole download.
I’d recommend posting on a weekly basis at the bare minimum. Again, it’s not about your content being served to a wide audience, as you’ll likely discover less-than-average engagement and viewership - but you’ll communicate with Google that you have the right content to be served. And that’s the end goal here.
Local Google Search Result Factors
Google has stated that local search is determined by three main factors: Proximity, Relevance, and Prominence. These three factors should always be on your mind when marketing your local business. All content you create should nod to these three categories with keywords and relative fields.
Proximity is important for local searches. If someone is looking for an Italian restaurant nearby, they don’t want to see one 4 hours away. That would annoy the average Google-user and it’s in Google’s best interest to give the people what they want. Include the town or city your company resides in within your content and relatively nearby cities or counties that you yourself would drive to for a business like yours. Fill out details in your Google Business Profile with location details and make sure they are accurate and consistent with all other online listings you might have.
Relevance is a clear one, since relevancy is consistent across all of Google’s metrics. Is your business a relevant result for what the viewer is searching for? Make sure your business categories are correct, your keywords are relevant to what your content is speaking to, you are extremely specific about your services and added value your business might have (like free Wi-Fi or curbside pickup), and finally - you have quality reviews.
Prominence, oh prominence. Google strongly admires businesses who are clearly a staple and reputable business in their community. To be fair, I’m not just talking about 5 star reviews. These reviews need to be real people commenting with relevant and trustworthy information about your business. The amount of reviews is a large factor as well (especially in relation to your competitors), whether they’re local, national, or global. It’s all important. Ask your customers to leave reviews and create an incentive for them to do so. The more quality reviews - the better, particularly as these reviews start referencing keywords across the board that new searches are also looking for. It’s just too tasty, a masterpiece of search flavor.
Google Ads
Lastly, let’s discuss some paid media. Whether you have a lot of spare budget or very little, it may be helpful to run search ads with Google. Here’s a few things to keep in mind. You can hyper-focus your ads on a specific geographic area on the map, be it the whole state, several states, or one DMA (Designated Market Area). This makes it more likely that your ad is shown to the right people that could actually interact with your product or service, and reduces money spent needlessly. In addition, when your ads have consistent keywords (within Google Ad’s headlines and descriptions and also your website’s content) you’re likely to get better results and lower cost per click.
When everything works together, you’ll make any marketing department squeal with joy. Depending on your market size and competitors, ads may or may not be a profitable option. It never hurts to try, however. Before you do, though, be thoughtful about your ads and how they relate to the searches viewers are conducting. Spend time thinking about the keywords involved and what you really want them to do. Finally, create a specific page on your website that has the right information the viewer is looking for. Make it clear, concise, and with a specific goal.
I hope this has been helpful for local search results.
From all of us at Iliad Media Group, we wish you a happy search.
