If you are a local (offline) business owner, you might think that only global companies or companies that are strictly on the internet need online marketing and search engine optimization, but that is simply not the case. Virtually every business can benefit from having high search engine rankings and I will tell you why…
Local search has skyrocketed in recent years and has become an incredibly successful way to market local businesses. The internet is no longer a purely global search tool as it once was. And the use of it for business will only increase as technology becomes more of a part of our daily lives.
When consumers want to find a local plumber, house painting service, accountant, lawyer, roofing company, landscaping business, a photographer, or just about anything else, they turn to the internet far more than the yellow pages or other offline directories! They pull out their smartphones, tablets, laptops, or any other gadgets they happen to have with them at all times and they do a quick search.
The phone book was once a necessity found in the kitchen drawers of just about every home. Now they mostly get tossed into recycling bins, or sit on doorsteps where they have yet to be picked up and will eventually find their way to the trash.
If you think about it, who wants to spend 10 minutes digging through a 1000 pages of a phone book when it only takes 5 seconds to type a keyword search phrase into Google? Search engines have made the act of finding what you need much faster and easier.
The best way to get your business higher up in the results is to do search engine optimization (SEO). Google has made it their business to rank web pages – It’s our business to make sure your site ranks highly for the searches related to your industry. That way you get the leads, rather than your local competitors.
Your business may even already be online via your website. But are you really using that online presence to its fullest potential? Just having a website without marketing it is about like putting your store out in the middle of the desert and just hoping people will find it. That’s not going to happen!
My company can help target your desired local market using highly effective and proven internet marketing strategies. It takes more than just throwing up a simple website to get your search listings above your competitors, and in front of your potential customers.
Let me leave you with a real life true example that pretty much sums all of this up…
We currently have client that owns a fencing company in Central Iowa. They were spending thousands of dollars per year on various yellow book services, online and offline, without seeing any new clients in return. They threw away somewhere around $20,000+ last year alone.
Finally, a few months ago, they hired us to do SEO for them in Des Moines and now they are already getting several new targeted leads each week. They are now so busy that they can no longer keep up so they are hiring more help and expanding their operations. And they will continue to get more and more customers long into the future from the work we have done for them. That is the power of local SEO!
I could go on all day with similar stories as this. The fact is that local internet marketing works and it will become even more vital in coming years. If you are a local business owner then you need to get on it now before your competition leaves you eating their cyberdust!