Karyn Kozo, Vice President, Client Services Director | 06.15.2010
It pays to be local.
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Every marketer knows it – the information world has changed. Consumers are in the drivers seat, and they get their information when and where they want it. How consumers search for that information is also continuing to evolve.
Global access
With the integration of the internet into our daily lives, we’ve all became global information seekers. Finding in-depth information about an event in California on the website of a newspaper in India seems oddly “normal.” This global access has become so commonplace that we are blasé about the boundless access that we‘ve become accustomed to, and so reliant upon.
Patience is no longer a virtue
At the same time, as consumers, we’re becoming more and more impatient. Not too long ago, people would place an order online or through a brick & mortar store, and be willing to wait a week, sometimes two, for that product to be picked, packed, shipped and arrive at their home. Now, in the world of instant information and instant gratification, if we can’t get it overnight…or better yet, download it instantly from one source…we move on to another source that can.
Local relevance
Maybe that’s why we’re seeing a rise in a more local approach to information-seeking, particularly when it comes to products and services. In fact, according to Google, one out of every five searches is related to location. And it makes perfect sense. As in-charge consumers, we’re looking for brands and messages that are relevant to us. And relevant is evolving to include easily accessible – whether that’s the neighborhood restaurant, or a product one click away through online ordering. Think about it, why should we care about a brand if we can’t access it? Applebee’s might be a wonderful restaurant, but if there’s not one close by, it’s not going to be our neighborhood gathering place.
More and more, people are adding “local qualifiers” to search terms. Including things like zip codes and local town names to allow the search engines to refine the results of the query and serve a more qualified list to the seeker (“restaurants 60610” versus the broader “Chicago restaurants”). And a more qualified list means that the searcher has to spend less time sorting through information to find the resource they want so they can move on to other tasks.
What’s a marketer to do?
So, how do you keep in front of the people that you want to attract and make sure that they find you? Using the right combination of strategies can deliver some pretty impressive results.
1) Create local content on your website.
Ok, so that seems obvious, right? But, I mean really local content.
For instance, if you are a multi-unit retailer or franchisor, create an individual page(s) for each of your locations on your main website. In addition to listing all of the standard address information, think about what makes each location unique for the community it serves. For instance,
- Include some background information about the franchisee or manager – they are the face of that location, let visitors get to know them.
- Does this location serve specific neighborhoods or areas? If so, use those names so people can better identify with them – “serving the neighborhoods of Springhill and Chesterfield” makes the location more personal.
- Are there any special services this location offers?
- Are there unique things the visitor should know about the physical location, things that set this location apart from others or from competitor locations?
- Include photos – shots of the interior or exterior, or individuals, will give the page personality and give folks a sense of what to expect when they get there.
Of course, you’ll want to make sure that the content is created with the appropriate use of keywords to further help your SEO. And, from a programming standpoint, make sure to do all of the right things “under the hood” to ensure the pages are properly optimized, from title tags with town names to appropriate meta data.
Sure, it would be easier to just write some “generic local content” to appear on each of the individual pages, but that’s not going to provide the results that you’re looking for. It won’t take visitors, or crawlers, long to figure out that they are seeing the same content over and over on each of the local pages.
2) Link from local search.
Once your pages are built, link the local search (e.g., Google maps) listing for each location to the web page for that location.
Sounds like a no-brainer – link people who are searching for a specific location to detailed information about that location. But it will be a critical piece of your success.
3) PPC for local terms.
If your budget allows, create Paid Search campaigns to bid on keywords geo-targeted for each location and link the PPC ads to the local pages. This ensures that the locations will appear even when someone refines their search to something as narrow as “childcare 48084.”
Does being local work?
So, all that sounds great, but does it actually work? In a word, YES!
For one client, we implemented a program using the guidelines above to create nearly one hundred web pages for individual locations on the main corporate site. We linked to these pages from local search listings and used paid search to ensure that when someone was searching for a local resource in that category, our client was there.
The result? In the first three months since launch, these detailed local pages have more than doubled the number of leads. And that’s adding up to some pretty impressive revenue numbers.
Proof that being local really does work.
If you want to see how being local can work for you, contact Karyn Kozo at re:group.
