Often we hear business-people say, “What do I need the Web for? I’m just a small, local business.” Truth is, though, the Web is local. In just the past four years, Google search queries about products and services that include “near me” have increased over 34X. In fact, according to Google, the number of searches including “near me” almost DOUBLED in the past twelve months alone. What does this mean? That, right now, there are consumers searching locally for what you have to sell. Proximity is now key for buyers – they want to make purchases as close to where they are as possible.
Location, location, location
Because the desire to buy locally has grown exponentially in just a few short years, it’s critical that your website prominently feature location and contact information – over 80 percent of consumers are accessing the web and store information from their mobile devices, which means they might be just down the street, actively looking for a place of business like yours. Four out of five consumers use search engines to find store locations, hours, product availability, and directions. Does your website have this information positioned for easy access? Even better, your titles and meta descriptions should be location-based to take advantage of search engine results page (SERP) views because many searchers never go beyond SERPs, using Google, Bing, and the rest to simply develop a list of businesses to choose from and then finding the ones nearest them.
If your business has multiple locations, optimizing your site and search results to drive proximal business to the right location can be a little tricky. Generating a set of industry, business and location keywords can help optimize a focused marketing campaign for each location, as well as using a localized paid search campaign, all of which can effectively scale your marketing efforts. The goal of course is not to generate the largest set of search engine returns possible, only the most appropriate and targeted ones for each location.
To ensure the best results for multiple-location businesses, it’s important to create location-specific landing pages. But don’t stop at just producing pages with a local map, contact information, and hours – add a page or two of hyper-localized content, such as our KDS pages. These can have a significant impact on search engine results and conversion, as consumers quickly locate your business and information.
Make your website mobile-friendly
As we mentioned earlier, the number of search terms ending in the phrase “near me” has increased exponentially in the past couple of years. And guess what? Over 80 percent of those searches are being done on mobile devices. If your website has not been optimized for mobile, you should be doing it RIGHT NOW. Mobile and the local Web are closely integrated – in fact, last year, more Americans used smartphones and tablets instead of PCs to access the Internet. This has a direct effect on how your local website should be designed, displayed, and optimized for mobile. Why? Because, according to Google, over 70 percent of consumers who searched for local information and accessed websites through their mobile devices ended up visiting a store within five miles of their location. It’s critical for your website to be optimized for mobile if you want to capture as much of the local market as possible.
Are you interested in growing the reach of your website or making your website mobile-friendly? Contact us today!