Staying competitive on the internet can be a fairly difficult endeavor. There is a lot of forces at work all vying for the same pairs of eyes. It might seem logical to think that leaving the information available will be enough. If you want those local sales conversions, its time to take a good look at the Research Online Purchase Offline demographic. A recent study has shown that close to 80% of people buy their product offline after doing online research. Obviously, that is just one study. If we expand the scope and look at more; you can find statements of anywhere from 50-90% of customers are doing the same depending on what study you look at. The point is, no matter what study you look at; that is a lot of people.
Simply put, you want your products and business found when consumers are doing their research. Local online marketing specifically caters to the locale around you. That way, the person a half mile away searching for a product finds yours before a nationwide outlet. Local SEO is a very important niche when one considers the primary goal of search engines. They want to provide the most relevant information to their browsers. What is more relevant than a business that has the product they are seeking only a half mile away? Seems more relevant than a business with the product three states over.
That puts local business owners in a great position. If your local SEO strategy puts you at the forefront of search results on your product for your area; how many of those researchers are you going to be able to convert?
If you are using an online marketing strategy, is it appropriate for local online marketing? National exposure is all well and good. What good is it if the people finding your product live across the country? With as many people that Research Online Purchase Offline, it’s a fairly safe bet they are not going to buy from your business. They are going to go to their own local business and buy what they were researching. The way to remedy that is to increase exposure to local searchers.
Many of the ideas and thoughts presented here can seem intangible. It may seem hard to think that there is so many people simply doing their research and looking elsewhere. If you want a concrete way to consider the ramifications; think of the last month. How many times did you look up information for something online and then bought it elsewhere or offline? At least once, right? Probably several more times than that.
Local online marketing and local SEO strategies are the key to turning those browsers into buyers. If consumers doing research are finding your website and your information, it is a lot more likely they are going to come to your store to make that purchase. The best way to make that happen is to make your information friendly with the search engines. Your consumers are educated when they come in the door. Whose door do you want them entering to make that purchase?
One of the newest vocabulary terms coined by the ever growing internet marketing structure is the “nicheverse.” It brings to light how audiences on the web are becoming more and more stratified as people are more able to easily find very precisely the product or service for which they are looking. Common marketing knowledge has always been to market specifically to a target market, with the Pareto principle (the 80 / 20 rule) in full effect.
However, businesses could get away with a bad or unfocused marketing campaign in the age of brick and mortar. Today, there are simply too many choices. A business can have the greatest product, and because of the pure volume of product out there, without a focused marketing structure, the business will drown in a sea of obscurity.
It is especially important in an online campaign to have your search engine optimization campaign directed at your local community. For St. Louis business, there should be St. Louis SEO. Proper St. Louis SEO will be seen by local consumers as content specifically for St. Louis, which they are more likely to support. Other advantages of St. Louis SEO include:
St. Louis SEO gives a business a nicheverse
St. Louis SEO can be easily found by local media for free publicity
St. Louis SEO will create partnerships with other SEO St Louis businesses
St. Louis SEO keeps competition away by only marketing in areas likely to sell
St. Louis SEO increases marketing efficiency by utilizing the 80 / 20 rule
The SEO St. Louis needs can also help make your business more cost effective. As SEO St. Louis for your business grows, your keywords will naturally become more long tail and tailored to the local market. The SEO St. Louis will be looking for is not the SEO that other communities will be looking for, so SEO in St Louis will also increase the effectiveness of the online marketing campaign.
Online Marketing in St. Louis will bring a niche oriented market looking to buy, and will increase conversion rates on your web site. Search marketing in St. Louis will definitely help your business achieve the results you are looking for, and local online marketing in St. Louis will help bolster the local community so that you will be seen as a local expert in your field.
The internet is an incredible place for small business. Far from being the realm of massive corporations, the internet allows small, specialized companies to prosper quite well. This does not happen on its own, however. A company must take advantage of St. Louis search engine optimization in order to get in touch with customers in its area. St. Louis online marketing is necessary in order to put a website in a place where people will see it.
The days in which a site could be found just by existing are over. St. Louis search engine optimization requires work from a great deal of experts in the field who know what they are doing and have a keen understanding of St. Louis online marketing. This technical understanding allows St. Louis search engine optimization to push a site toward the top of the search engine results so that customers will see it. This is important because 96 percent of visitors do not look for items beyond the front page in a Google search, meaning that St. Louis online marketing can not be ignored.
You do not need to own an online business in order to benefit from St. Louis search engine optimization. Some studies have shown that more people find out about a place from an online search than the phone book or other traditional media. St. Louis online marketing takes advantage of this fact and uses St. Louis search engine optimization to put your business on the front page where it will be seen.
Surprisingly, most of the people who find out about a local business online still visit it in person. The success of St. Louis online marketing can not be gauged by the number of online sales. Some studies have shown that eighty percent of people who find out about a site as a result of St. Louis search engine optimization still end up visiting the business in person rather than making a purchase online. This makes St. Louis online marketing effective for any type of business, regardless of whether it is possible to sell goods online.
Successful St. Louis search engine optimization requires assistance from a company that understands how local online promotion works. St. Louis online marketing must be targeted specifically for St. Louis customers in such a way that allows them to find out about the site. It places the business in apps run on smartphones that direct people to locations nearby, and understands how best to work with this new paradigm.
When educating customers about online marketing, one of the points we make with them is there is never a guarantee on showing up on the first page of search engines for the keywords they want to rank for.
We caution strongly against any company with a promise for these top spots. This being said LocalTek has approximately a 99% success ratio when it comes to local search engine optimization. This means our customers get found when people search their mobile phone or computer for local businesses.
For successful companies in search engine optimization it is not just a one time effort to optimize a website to be found online. A page can be ranked in the top spots as little as hours or as long as months to years depending on the competition for the keywords desired.
The science behind why this happens is based on Google. The Google search engine has approximately 200 different factors in their algorithm on which a page earns its rank, the algorithm can change daily which means NO web or SEO company can guarantee how a website can rank months out or even day to day depending on the topic. But they can work to do things in a way that has shown consistent results for their customers, with over 350 customers Localtek has that data to show what works for our customers over the long term.
Once a page is ranked for the desired terms it is critical the customer understands that SEO is not a one- time fix but an ongoing process. An important note to customers is that the possibility of losing top rankings after time is not usually a blunder made by the SEO company.
Updating the website regularly with new and relevant content and tweaking keywords are all an ongoing process to maintain rankings. If these things are going to be either a time, interest, or knowledge challenge to the customer LocalTek has a package which includes a regular SEO maintenance review of the customers’ website varying from monthly to yearly depending on the customer’s goals.
There is one for sure fact to keep in mind if you are considering building your online presence for your business. If you don’t have a web presence it is certain your competitors will be showing up in the top rankings without you. So your first step is to either start your plan to be found online or plan to update your web presence that may be out of date if it was built several years back.
Do you want the people looking for your business online to find you WITH your competition..or not at all? If they have their online marketing already in progress now is the time step up your campaign or you will be missing out on hundreds or thousands of people they are currently reaching in your same target market.
Having a local search engine optimized website is not something to wait on, chances are if you had a website built by a typical web development or marketing company they did not focus on what really matters, getting business to your door. If it seems overwhelming let us help with the maintenance and the development to make sure your customers find your business online.
Recently we had a customer, 214 Liquor in Farmington, MO, after 10 years of waiting, decide to get their business found online. As in many cases this was a customer who had planned on having a website for the past 10 years and also understood why Facebook and other social media tools could be valuable but was concerned about how much time it would take to get started.
Here is a quick testimonial about local search and social media from the customer:
After a Localtek Account Manager met with the customer they decided it was time to move based on the continued growth of people searching locally for businesses in Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
Also, with over 500 million users on Facebook it was clear there would be a way to tap into the social networking world to promote their products and specials directly to those who were interested.
The preliminary results have been very exciting for the customer and proves that people are looking for your business and the longer you wait to do local search engine optimization on your web presence the more customers that will be missed.
The customer has received calls from customers who have searched and now found their website searching for the town and products the customer offers. Along with this daily there are several visitors who specifically searched for the business name. The question is before the website was there where did they go? Likely to a directory that provided little to no information on the businesses services and products.
Also, after less than 3 days they have 70+ Facebook fans with that growing everyday. With continued marketing of their website and Facebook page they will continue to grow this very targeted base of customers and interested readers.
People are searching on mobile phones, laptops, and social media sites for your business. Are you being found for all the search keywords your business needs?
This letter is being written to help you understand the changes that are occurring that will have an effect on how you run your business and specifically on how you promote your business. The Internet is here to stay; historically small business has relied on legacy media such as newspapers and radio to promote their business as well as advertising only mediums such as billboards. These media types focus on one thing and one thing only, eyeballs. The question you have to ask yourself now is this: Are there better ways to promote my business on the Internet? Is there something other than eyeballs me, as a business owner, needs to think about?
You are likely very comfortable advertising with your local newspaper, Yellow pages, and radio station, the same salesperson has been visiting you for many years and you purchase month after month and they talk about the number of houses delivered too, the number of listeners, etc. Have they mentioned anything about the 92 percent of newspapers that have reported a drop in readership or the major drop in print Yellow page usage?
Now, before you think that you have a business that is immune to the shift or that since you do not sell a product online that promoting your business on the Internet is not for you I would like to give you an example case where a business has grown their business by promoting online effectively.
This specific small business, a 3 person pet grooming salon in rural Missouri, had never had a website because they had never thought that a pet grooming shop would need online promotion, the yellowpages and newspaper seemed the obvious place to advertise, everyone has been doing it for years, right?
After someone came into their shop to discuss a small website and targeted promotion on the web they decided that having a website might be “neat” but the company working with them also explained the concept of building the site to allow for targeted traffic that allows for higher customer conversions. This was a new concept to them; advertising had always been about viewers not necessarily focusing on targeted viewers that convert to customers.
The pet grooming shop decided to move forward and purchased both advertising and a website. The advertising was targeted by community and also very important was the targeting of the website that was developed for them. It was developed specifically to receive traffic for pet grooming customers in their specific rural town.
The results, after just one month of being live the customer contacted their supplier and let them know that they had several new customers that let them know they found them on the web. What does this mean? It means in even small towns people are searching for offline businesses instead of going to the newspaper or flipping through the yellowpages. This is a group of customers that you, the small business owner, are missing.
For many years small businesses have complained about corporate America ruining community businesses. The same thing has the potential to happen on the Internet. How can you tell? First off you have to ask yourself how you use the Internet or think about how your potential customers use the Internet. If the first thing that you thought after reading that was that this does not matter since you do not use the Internet, the thing you actually need to think about is the second part of the sentence, “think about how your customers use the Internet”. One of the major mistakes many long time small business owners make is thinking that since they are not users of the Internet that their customers are not.
Corporate America has had budgets to do marketing online for years, in many cases if you search for a certain type of business online in small and large towns the large corporate companies show up in the search results. Why? Because they know how to use the Internet to extend the reach of their business. They understood that people are using the web for finding services and products locally. As a small business owner you need to think about this as well. The topic that seems so technical is actually your marketing today. No longer can you think about your website as a technical item but it needs to be looked at as a marketing tool. It is about finding customers not just having a website because it is “neat”.
The next thought many small business owners will have is my town is too small no one is searching for services here. That is also not true and will be changing rapidly. The US government has approved a 7.2 billion stimulus package to drive broadband Internet access into rural America. This means the way people access and use the Internet in these areas will change drastically and if your business is not prepared those “corporate guys” will take business away because they show up in Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Being small and rural does not matter anymore. Whether you are in New York City or Kearney, Nebraska the Internet is the Internet and people can find your competitors without having to drive to their doorstep.
So, if you have read this far I want to give you items to think about as you realize that maybe having a presence online that actually draws targeted viewers looking for your service or product is important:
Here is the best analogy to explain this: Shotgun vs. Rifle. Think of newspapers and radio as the shotgun approach and targeted web traffic as a rifle. How you get that targeted traffic is the more complicated part. But it has been proven many times that targeted traffic converts at a much higher rate than traffic received from the shotgun approach
SEO is the typical way this is said. SEO is the process of building your website in a way that draws the targeted visitors to your business presence online. Think about this, if the front door to your business is locked no one can get in. If your site is not optimized the front door might as well be locked.
This is VERY important, it is not as simple as just going to Godaddy.com and picking a name. It is important to select something that describes your business and if possible be rich in words that describe what you are doing. This helps gain the targeted traffic that is discussed above. In many cases it is worth the effort and money to acquire this domain name from a third party who may own the name currently. You selected your physical office location based on location; shouldn’t you also choose the best possible location for your online presence?
Once they get to your website you need to make sure they take action to contact or buy your product. Your site needs to be developed in a way that urges them to do this. This is most often the piece that is overlooked when developing a site along with SEO.
After spending time with small business owners in both large and small towns and cities I have found it very common to hear the comment “My (insert family member here) is building my website.” In almost all cases the site has been done in a way that is not optimized and will never have a visitor because the site was not used as a marketing tool but simply as an item that was “neat”. It is important that you understand that your website is as important to your business presence as the sales people you have working with customers or the office space you have. It is your face to the public, but if no one ever sees it because it is hidden in a crowd and is never seen then it does not matter if it is “pretty and nice looking”. You must optimize your web presence starting at the selection of your domain name and ending at the call to action to act once they get there.
For more information feel free contact me and ask how you can help prepare your business to gain customers from targeted, effective, online marketing solutions from Localtek, LLC.
Whether you are looking for ways to promote a new small business website or a major web development project it is important to find ways to promote the site, although search engines and targeted PPC advertising help drive traffic it is very important, especially for local small businesses to promote their sites on a day to day basis as their storefront on the Internet.
Too many times I have met with a business owner and they talk about having a website but then talk about how it has never had any traffic. In other words it was a neat thing to have but they never thought of it as a way to connect with customers or promote their business.
Here are a few ways to promote your online presence with offline methods:
Business Cards – Plain and simple, the standard business card is a standard in business. If you do not have your website listed on the business card you are missing one of the most effective ways to promote your site. I have seen this too many times, someone has a website but you look at their card and sure enough it is not there. Having your domain name in your email address is not enough, make it clear where to go to find your business online.
Take Out Menus - If you are a restaurant do not miss the chance to promote your website on your take home menus or even on your table menus. If you are a business in the area of a restaurant that has take home menus ask if you can buy space on their take home menus for your logo and website. It works, people take these home and stick them on their fridge and see it everyday.
T-Shirts - If you happen to have a business where a uniform is used or have had T-shirts printed up for various reasons make sure you stick your website on it, I have seen people have their phone numbers, addresses, hours, basically everything you can think of on it except for their domain name. A large portion of people focus on remembering the website name these days not the phone number. They can get the contact info from the website.
Billboards – Same as above, more people are looking for the website to go to more so than a phone number these days. A person I spoke to just tonight who is a very non-tech person said he even realized today that he realized it is now the FIRST thing he looks for and never pays attention to a phone number any more on a billboard. If you have a website and have bought billboard advertising do not miss the chance to promote your online billboard (website).
Newspaper and Radio Ads – Lets face it print media is dying a slow (but quickly turning to fast) death so why miss the chance to promote your online presence if you are still advertising in print media. You know people are heading online, make sure they know where to find you there. If you are advertising on radio same thing goes, people are tuning out ads more and more on radio, make sure you get in your website name so they know where to find your online presence, they are more likely to remember that than just about anything else that you may say.
Magnets – Want to keep your logo and site name in front of people hand out refrigerator magnets in your place of business. People use these to hold up pictures, menus, etc so it is a constant reminder when they go to the fridge.
Letterhead – Many small businesses still use letterhead to send business letters or promotional letters on a daily basis. Take advantage of this to get your website in front of the customers or partners you are promoting your message to with your offline paper mailings.
Car Stickers -Window stickers are a great way to get a site and logo in front of people, I see these daily and they are very cost effective to get printed up. Why not get your site name in front of everyone while you are running to get groceries are heading out on a sales call.
Banners – This is something I have used personally, I see many small businesses on a day to day basis that have banners in front of their place of business or in targeted highly visible locations in their area. Most are missing this chance to promote the place people can go to find out more about them, their website.
Team Sponsorships – For years one of the ways local businesses have shown their support for a community has been to sponsor a little league team or maybe the all star soccer team in their area. Think of the value you can get if you give more than just your business name on the jersey and instead put your site name. People are watching their children run around the field for hours at a time, why not keep your site name in front of them.
Need help getting your website found? Call Localtek at 800 647 2909
The Internet is not a scary place! This is something that any business owner or manager needs to know. The Internet is a valuable tool and resource that can level the playing field against the giant corporations and give you an advantage over your other competitors. The key to this is to have a site that is well designed, search engine optimized (specifically local SEO) and user friendly. When you combine these features with an aggressive social media campaign there is literally no limit to how your business can grow.
We are long past the days when just having a website that is pretty and just on-line is effective. As owners we need to understand just how the world has changed. Local Search Engine Optimization is the first area we need to grasp an understanding of. People use the Internet much differently now than they did even a few short years ago. Customers are searching for your goods and services locally, many times using the Smartphone that is in their pocket. Is your business ready for this paradigm shift?
Statistics show us that 80% of consumers now search locally and then come to your store to make their purchases off-line. If you can’t be found on-line this is a loss of sale for your business. If your website is not optimized for local search then you are going to be missing out on that business since 96% of users will not go past the first page of Google when they are searching.
At LocalTek one of our clients called in the other day to inquire about their website as they expected to be receiving orders online. After researching data we had on hand for the customer it was determined that the customer was in fact receiving targeted, high conversion customers, everyday specifically looking for their business or type of business in their area.
In a little less than a year this store has received almost 12,000 visitors to the website including days close to 300 visitors. This site also ranks number one on Google for specific terms the customer requires for the success of their business. This is a tremendous accomplishment for a small niche shop in a small city in southeast Missouri.
What this shows though is people are indeed finding local businesses but the large majority still visitor the local business to complete the transaction.
When you couple a quality website with a social media campaign using Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc. you are putting your business right where your consumers are. Social Media is the new “Word of Mouth” for your business and it is remarkably easy to control your message. The average Facebook user spends 50 minutes per day on the site. That amount of time jumps if it is on their mobile device. If your target audience is spending that amount of time using social media shouldn’t your business have a presence there also?
Combining local SEO with Social Media is the best solution to acquiring and then keeping customers. Keep your message in front of those people that have already enjoyed doing business with you and you are more likely to have repeat customers.
Call us now to let us help your business be found online.
If your small business has noticed a decline in business from the same Yellow Page ad you have been buying for years then you are witnessing the results of the drastic shift of consumers in large and small areas taking advantage of the easy access to information online.
Today people are much more likely to search for “Bonne Terre Restaurants” on Google before they pick up the print edition of the Yellow Pages. Along with this is the shift of people doing the exact same thing from their internet enabled mobile phone.
This trend is here to stay and is only going to accelerate with the rural broadband stimulus driving broadband access deeper into rural areas.
What do you do to be prepared?
It is not as simple as just having a website, you must have a website that has been properly setup to show up in Google or the other major search engines when someone searches for your business or the service or product you offer.
Most small businesses are not aware of this need, they are not aware that their website is now the primary way people will find information on them. The internet has become the phone book and your website has become your ad.
It is likely that even if you have a website it has not been properly optimized for local search and almost guaranteed if it was built more than a couple years ago it will not be setup in the proper way.
We at Localtek specialize in these services and our small business customers are proof positive that this works. Contact us today for a review of your website or quote for a website to help your business get online now.
