Local Search Strategies That Pay Off

Are you a mom and pop business whose customers are local? Are you a Seattle-based or Peoria-based restaurant or florist or trinket shoppe who offers online ordering that only ships within the US? Then it does not make sense for you to pay for pay-per-click (PPC) ad that are seen on the other side of the globe! So don’t get taken in by the smooth SEO firms that tell you that you “must be number one in natural search results for “online trinket store.” If your target market is locally focused, then you need to use local search strategies and natural search engine optimization. Don’t waste your marketing dollars on expensive ad campaigns that won’t work best for your small to mid-sized local  business.

Should you totally ignore PPC for local marketing? Yes, and No…a PPC campaign, if hyper-focused can reach a highly targeted audience. You can create PPC ads that appear only in searches for specific zip codes, cities or gegraphically targeted areas. This is done by using highly targeted geographic keywords or phrases and parameters in the AdWords campaign setup. The best part of using these geo-specific keyword phrases is that they are lower priced and have less competition.

Using geo-specific keyword keeps you ads super focused on a particular region or area. It restricts your ads to specific consumers who can visit you on and off line (in your brick and mortar location).

When you use a geo-targeted keyword in a search on Google ( for example “ship fresh salmon seattle”), Google returns either a display of either a listing of results first in a pink box (paid listing) with a second column on the far right of additional paid listings:

or a map of often 3-10 local results for a local search. If you optimize your listing for local search you can often gain one of those top positions for your business and never have to spend a dime on pay per click campaigns:

Paid Positions

Using inexpensive local search techniques one can appear at the top of the map and not pay for the more expensive pay per click ads. It is easy and inexpensive (as in FREE) to implement.

Free Positions

First you must create a Google Gmail account and then add your Local Business Listing. These local listings are incredibly powerful as they appear at the top of the Google search results for most keyword searches with a geo-targeted keyword. If you optimize your site for keywords that are highly targeted and geographically oriented, you can rank highly and beat out your competitors inexpensively on search engines.
If you have questions on how to get started with your local search business listing, Get Found Now -Local Search Secrets Exposed is an easy to use valuable resource to help you step by step with the process.