Are you taking advantage of Local Digital Marketing During COVID-19?
People are spending more time than ever before online during the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, social media platforms are where the majority of that time is spent.
Furthermore, if you are a business owner guess what that means for you. That means that your customers are among the historical number of consumers spending all that time online every day!
This meaning that Local SEO has truly never been more important. Being able to connect with all those potential consumers that are online every day is every business owner’s brand-building dream!
As a result, there has never been a better time to become best friends with a local digital marketing agency.
To help you better understand the true urgency as well as benefits of hiring a local SEO company. In today’s article will break down not only why local SEO is so important. But we will also talk about what type of services local SEO companies can provide you to help you reap the benefits of local search engines.
Local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is extremely important as well as a highly effective way to market your business. Local search engine marketing has many benefits. Allowing businesses to market to customers near them that are currently online searching might just be the biggest.
With studies showing that adults are spending an average of 5 hours a day online during COVID. A company’s online presence is more important than ever before.
If that is not enough, here are some more pretty amazing stats showing the importance of local SEO.
Local Search Engine Stats:
- 50% of people who did a local search on their phone visited a physical store within a day. 34% of people doing their searches on a desktop or tablet did exactly the same.
- 18% of mobile searches have been reported to lead up to a sale within a day.
- 60% of adults conduct searches looking for local services and products.
- 78% of mobile searches performed on mobile devices end is purchases being made offline.
- 46% of searches on Google have local intent.
- Google’s local 3-pack appears in 93% of the searches with local intent.
- 86% of people have looked up the location of a local business on Google Maps.
- 72% of consumers that perform a local search visit a store within 5 miles of them.
While there are more impressive stats showing why your local rankings are so important, I think you get the hint. Furthermore, I believe you now see why you must start performing local SEO strategies right away!
For many small business owners, the marketing budget has shrunk significantly over the past few months. Those extra funds have had to be redirected to other areas to simply keep the business afloat.
The good news is there are several things local and small business owners can do on their own to improve local SEO. Those steps to take are exactly what I am about to tell you!
1. Verify & Update Your Google My Business Listing
For a small or local business owner, one of the most important and first steps you should take is to verify your Free Google My Business listing. This can be completed by simply searching “how to verify my free Google My Business listing” and following the directions provided to you. This is a huge step because this is where Google search engines pull their information from for local searches.
Now, if you have already verified your free Google My Listing. The next best thing you can do is to update it. Start by adding any new pictures or videos you may have.
Make sure that all information is updated and correct. Most importantly, make sure you have all your services provided or products listed. Be sure to leave an informative description of each service or product. This will help the consumers understand why your company is the best one to choose
2. Ensure That Your NAP (Name, Address & Phone Number) Is Accurate On All Platforms
Local businesses having their NAP listed accurately across all platforms is truly important. Search engines pull their information from these online platforms in search of the best answer to the searches question.
Not having your company’s information accurately listed across all platforms can have a negative impact. Unfortunately, this will confuse the bots and will most likely result in your company not being listed as one of the local companies suggested.
Now, when I say have your NAP listed accurately across all platforms…I mean every single platform you are on. For instance Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, Yelp, Bing as well as anywhere else your information is visible on the internet.
I cannot express enough on how important this is to the results of your local SEO rankings.
3. Perform Some On-Page SEO
For a local company, On-Page SEO practices very important for rankings. On-Page SEO requires spreading the proper keywords throughout your webpages. You want to focus on the keywords that are being searched the most that are relevant to your services or products.
Focusing on keywords that include phrases like “near me” as in “used cars near me” are extremely important. These types of phrases are being used more every day in local searches.
The right keywords cannot just simply be thrown onto your website. They must be sprinkled throughout your entire site properly. Also, implementing the most powerful keywords into the H1 and H2 headers is crucial to the success of any On-Page SEO practices.
This is an area that if you do not have the knowledge or prior experience in SEO work. I highly suggest contacting and hiring a local SEO company for help.
4. Start Creating Informative Content
While content marketing takes some time to see results from, it is truly one of the best brand-building practices of today. The fact that content marketing does take time to see results from is what makes the current COVID crisis the perfect time to start.
The problem many business owners find with creating consistent and informative content to share is the time it takes to create that content. While business is still slower than normal due to the pandemic. What better time to start writing about your business and sharing it with both your repeat as well as potential customers.
From my personal experience, blog posts are one of the best ways to connect with our consumers. Creating weekly or even bi-weekly informative articles to share with your social media followers as well as email subscribers is a great way to keep you on their minds.
You want to try and send something every week to your followers. So it is a good idea to send them any updates or specials you may have at the time as well.
Consistently posting pictures or videos of your finished work or products on your social media platforms is also another great way to gain exposure. Like I mentioned earlier in this article. The number of people on their social media platforms every day is higher than it has ever been before.
Get Started Today!
No matter what type of business you own. If you are not taking this time to prepare for the future of your local presence. You stand a great chance of being left behind by your competitors. Technology is not going anywhere and neither is the number of local searches being performed on a daily basis.
Those business owners who decide to use the stats and digital technology available to them today will be the ones holding their heads up high chanting victory. While those owners who kept saying I will just wait a little bit longer or we do not need that. Those owners will be the ones who will sit back and watch their competitors take away their customers and profits on a monthly basis until finally there is nothing left to take.
Which business owner will you be? Start ranking your company in the local search engines…Right Away!
Not sure where to start? Contact Adept Motions Today at (276) 207-9880.