Local Search Engines Marketing Strategies Exposed

As the #1 local search provider worldwide (at the time of this writing) on Elance according to the Elance search directory of over 400,000 people I actually don’t receive this question a great deal of the time. What I do receive is misguided people who make marketing requests that simply work against their own better interest when it comes to local search engines marketing.

For example, if you are providing “blue widgets” to your local market place ranking for the term “blue widgets” really is not in your best interest (at least not at first).

Why?

Exposing Local Search Engines Marketing Strategies

Well, the term “blue widgets” is a broad based term. If you don’t already have strong rankings within your local market place online then targeting “blue widgets your location” does many things for you including reducing the number of people who are targeting that term and hence increase the possibility of your ranking quicker and higher on the search engines as a result.

Another misdirected concept is that the first thing you want to rank as a local business online is your Website. I’ll certainly agree that you do want to rank your Website online and as a local business there are specific ways of doing this, but it’s actually not the first thing you want to rank.

Unlike a broad based format local businesses have an added section given to them on Google, Yahoo and Bing which are called Maps. Given that most people focus on Google they are generally referred to as Google Maps but it must be understood that the other 2 major search engine providers also have their own Local Maps offerings.

Why is this important?

Typically, the Local Maps appear above organic rankings with rare exceptions. As a result you have a greater chance of being found online within the organic search results on the Local Maps than within the organic rankings themselves. Not only that, but it is much easier to rank on Local Maps than in related organic search results and having that ranking can greatly help you when it comes to ranking your Website content.

Understanding Local Search Engine Marketing

So what exactly is local search?

Local search is designed to target a local audience with a local message no matter where your location might be. While a great deal of this activity takes place via search engine Maps on Google, Bing & Yahoo there are ways to target local marketing strategies from your Website also.

Many people I speak with come to me with the message that they have tried everything they know to target their local market and it just isn’t working for them.

What is the problem?

In my opinion, it is a lack of understanding both within on-page and off-page activities for local marketing including actually understanding what on-page and off-page marketing is for the local business model online. To that end my next two posts will deal with on-page and off-page marketing and how they affect your success with your local business online.

Here are the 3 place for local search engines marketing strategies I recommend considering for the success of your own business online.

• Google Local Maps
• Bing Local Maps
• Yahoo Local Maps

Which of the 3 do you prefer to focus on and why?

Guy Siverson

Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at ViralTNTeam

My mission is to deliver high quality online marketing information that you can easily grow your business by. Please use the comments below to ask about points I missed, provide further thoughts of wisdom or request new topics for me to cover. Thanks in advance. I look forward to being your one stop shop for all things related to the online marketing niche.