Part I of II.

In these tough economic times, effective marketing is more important than ever to stay competitive and remain profitable.  Local Online Marketing is one of the most affordable, high traffic arenas to “mine for business”. How would you like to get quality leads from your website that can easily be turned into sales?

Sure the Economy is in the toilet but that is no reason not to position your company to take advantage of Local Online Marketing. In order to generate leads from your website, everyday, follow these steps;

1. Define Geographic Key Phrases or Search Terms and Use Them on Your Website

Suppose you are a “criminal lawyer” and want to get more cases, and your website is up. And ready to go.  Determine what keywords phrases or search terms describe your products or services. This step is critical in order for the search engines to recognize EXACTLY WHAT YOU DO OR SELL. Google offers a free tool that will show you how often certain terms are searched. Here it is;

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal or search Google External Keyword Tool.

This tool will give you an idea of how many times certain keywords are searched.  For example: “criminal dallas lawyer” is searched 6600 times per month (must be a lot of trouble down there!).

Next, “marry” your keywords with city or regional locations. For example:
If you offer Lasik surgery and you are based in Rochester NY your keywords might be Lasik Surgery Rochester, Lasik Surgery Rochester NY, Lasik Doctor Rochester, etc. Figure out exactly what terms people are searching when looking for your products or services.

Once you determine 5, 10, 20 or more keywords you can begin to incorporate them into your website. You should use them to optimize page titles, meta tags, site content, internal links, and external links with the key phrases that describe your product or service. (we will define these terms and explain in detail in a future post) These will help attract targeted search results and bring your business new customers. In other words – USE THESE KEYWORDS ON YOUR WEBSITE.


2. Write Content that Communicates Your Location and Your Keywords

We see sites constantly where Google has no idea that the business is based in Miami. No wonder they have not gotten a single lead from the Internet! Why? Because the site might only use the word Miami on a single page and in some cases it can be a page that the search engines are not able to find or read. Local businesses can maximize their search visibility by crafting content written with geo-specific key phrases. In other words – your articles or site content MUST use your keywords.

3. Build Links with Local Sites

Increasing links back to your website boosts search engine visibility. This will insure you are found on the first page of Google when someone is searching for your product or service. This is a critical step in generating leads on a local basis.  You can hire a company like ours to add these links or you may be able to do it on your own.

Use your community connections to initiate:

* Links pointing to your website in a local directory or classifieds site like craigslist.org or backpage.com
* A link in the local Chamber of Commerce directory
* Links to your site in the blog roll of local bloggers
* Partnering with non-competing local websites to exchange links

Whenever possible, request the link back have one of the key phrases you are targeting.  This is called anchor text. So a link for a Fort Lauderdale Lawyer would look like this;
Fort Lauderdale Criminal lawyer

4. Get listed with the local directories for Google, Yahoo! and Bing.  I recommend that a professional do this for you, but, if you are not willing to spend the money I suggest you do it yourself.  Adding 10 new links pointing back to your website will have a significant effect on generating local leads and sales.

Since Google, Yahoo, and Bing often include local businesses above other listings in their search results, local businesses can often leverage their geographic edge to get top listings.

Online phone book sites offer paid options that are worth exploring, as well. Another approach is to ask your clients or customers to post comments about your business on local Internet listings to boost credibility and awareness.