Local Area Marketing

Online Local Area Marketing positions your business in a local area and helps you rank well for a geographic location.  This is invaluable in getting the right customers to your website. 

This is used by Google in search results – if you are looking for a local business, such as a dentist, Google knows where you are located geographically and lists dentists that are near to you.  It is no use listing dentists in New York, USA, if you are based in Melbourne, Australia.

Sometimes Google gets this wrong.  You can help ‘locate’ your business with a variety of strategies.  These include correct and consistent information in a variety of Directory Listings, along with appropriate Social Media pages.

What’s a Directory Listing?

These are massive websites that collect business data about every business they encounter online.  They then sell advertising and premium listings to make money. 

It is quite likely your business details exist on a number of these sites already.  It is also quite likely these details are incomplete or even incorrect.  It is up to you to correct this information.  The Directory site won’t correct it unless a request is put to them.

Why bother?  Because consistent information from a number of different websites tells Google that your business is genuine and worth promoting.  This moves your business up in the search engine rankings. 

How do you do it?  Every listing has instructions on how to request changes.  These are sometimes hard to follow and always require followup to confirm the requested changes have been made.

Examples of Directory Listings

Examples of Directory Listings are Google Business Profiles (the red flag on a Google Map in searches), True Local, Start Local, Yellow Pages, WOMO and a range of others.  Some are industry specific.  Our recommendation is to list on at least 10 directory sites. 

Examples of Social Media

Examples of Social Media are Google Business Profiles (Google crosses categories!), You Tube, Linked In, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram, to name a few.  Which ones suit your business model and your audience?  Is it worth your time and effort to have a presence?  Remember, with Social Media, to be effective you need to be consistent and regular.  It is a way to engage with your audience, so you need to respond to comments made.