For small business owners, there are so many local marketing methods to use, now it's almost overwhelming: Yelp, Yellow Pages, Google AdWords, etc., but one of the methods the simplest is perhaps one of the original ideas. Whoever has started will never stop paying dividends.
Local Blogging: What is the Local Small Business Blog?
Local blogs write about your area in reference to the services you do. For example a plumber in Tempe Arizona.
I'm sure you've heard that it's relatively difficult to rank on the first page on Google. Although this is technically true, it is also a big lie. This statement assumes that you are trying to rank on the first page for organic national search. We do not talk about that.
First of all, there is not only one type of Google search. People are obviously looking for topics that interest them, but they are also looking for videos and pictures. Both are essentially different research concepts. Another type of search feature that Google brings is local search.
If you enter pizza in Google, you will probably get local results and maybe some national organic results. Why? Because Google knows that when someone taps "pizza," he probably wants to order one more than read his story. Now take this same pizza search and add the name of your hometown: Pizza Tempe You will now see all the pizza options for the Italian type to eat in and around Tempe Arizona.
That pizzerias focus on this seems pretty obvious, but for plumbers and CPA, this technique may be less obvious.
First step: the exact same list, each time
Before you go out and spend tons of money hiring people to do all kinds of search engine marketing, the first thing you should do is claim your operation on Google, Yelp, & Hotfrog. Do not worry if your operation is home-based, just follow their rules.
Use exactly the same way to write the name and address of your business for every Internet list to go from the front. In other words, do not change the name of your company from Johns Plumbing to John's Plumbing ; these types of slight differences can wreak havoc. Now, do not forget to associate your website with Hot Frog, Google Local, yelp, and any other free web directory that you feel so inclined to.
Step Two: The Local Contact Page and the Contact Form
If you already have an established company name and website, you are comfortable. Make sure your website clearly shows your contact information that exactly matches the address of the Google Local listing – on your Contact page. Preferably, your website will also include a "contact form" that will easily allow potential customers to contact you for a service request. I prefer to keep the contact form as simple as possible.
Third Step: Blog on Business, Blog on Local Relations
The first blog post that many people write can seem extremely scary, put it back. Write it. Your first article must contain more than 600 words and contain information about what you do and where you do it. Depending on what you do exactly, people may be concerned about the quality of the writing. For example, a tutor may want to make sure his grammar is in order. But a practical man … maybe not so much. Giving in-depth details about the differences between PVC and PEX is probably far more important than your grammar for plumbers.
Now, you will want to repeat this exercise every week for about six months, changing the topics and locations, the more specific the problems in the area will be, the better. Coming back to our Tempe based plumber, he can have a lot of phone calls and requests to repair the plumbing associated with the heat of the summer. A little blog on how the heat in the Phoenix area can ruin your plumbing if your air conditioner is turned off might be a good idea.
You will notice in this article the absence of suggestions on the search for keywords. That's because your local cities, county and even sub-divisions are your keywords and when these are combined with details about plumbing information this can prove to be a powerful tool for marketing.
If you have trouble writing, start writing about the most common questions. Share some free knowledge with the hope that many consumers might give up trying to solve the problem themselves and call you.
With the client's permission, you can also publish an article about a past job and how you helped solve the client's problems. Maybe you can get ideas from other people in your field online.
As a general rule, no matter what you are talking about, the blog does not have to be perfect, very few people will read your whole message. The goal here is to get someone with a problem specific to your area that will find your message and click your button to contact me. An additional idea is to add photos, graphics and graphics to help break things and attract more visual customers.
Step Four: Link Your Local Items
I really wish this step to be simpler, but alas it is not the case. The finished URL of each blog post should be placed in a few places on the Internet. Some sites are easy to explain, for example by putting them on your Facebook page, your Twitter account and your associated profile.
But the others are more complicated. These include Quora, Guest Blog Posts, and various business-specific forums. The general idea with this is to place a small piece of information on what the article is and for who it is in many places on the internet. It's a bit like a directional tag explaining why someone should read it – like "Why PVC plumbing is a problem in Arizona Tempe, go to this article here."
Your fifth and last step: Give him time
As you write regularly each week, you may notice that it becomes easier with each publication; you can even start having too many ideas of what to write. Now comes the difficult part, leaving your articles sitting where they earn trust with the major search engines. The more specific, original and better the content, the more Google will appreciate your site. However, it takes time for this to happen.
Yes, there are more things you can do, like setting up a Google Analytics account with Google to understand the click flow. Set up a free Canva account to create unique graphics, and use Pinterest to graphically advertise your website, but none of these steps are actually required.
The end result of your local blog campaign
The genius of the local blog is that few companies do it regularly. Once your article is written and live on your website, it can serve clients for a decade or more. The blogging efforts of many companies are beginning, but most disappear after a year, not recognizing how much business it can bring them. Assuming your ultimate goal is to attract new customers, it's really hard to see the negative in starting a local site.