How to Promote Your Business – What is Local Search Marketing?

Local search marketing is simply a method in which to promote a local business via a search engine. There are several ways this can be done. Here they are:

• Local business listings
• SEO
• PPC

Local business listings are offered by local business directories. There are many of them, and most of them offer free listings with the option to upgrade for greater exposure. Some of the top local business directories receive a great deal of search and type-in traffic, so you should definitely get your business added to them.

As a local business owner, you should have SEO as one of your top marketing priorities. SEO offers a cost-effective way to get highly targeted visitors to your site. Despite what many people will tell you, organic search rankings still dominate in terms of traffic volume from the search engines. The beauty of SEO is that you don’t have to worry about counting clicks or worrying about the cost of each click.

As someone who has practiced PPC marketing for over 7 years, I can tell you that it works. If it wasn’t effective, Google and Bing wouldn’t have advertisers spending billions of dollars on it every year. A successful PPC campaign usually doesn’t come overnight though. It’ll take time to fine-tune and optimize. Also keep in mind that platforms like Google Adwords uses an ad-serving algorithm that affects CPC prices dynamically. This adds to the complexity of advertising via Google, but most platforms are not this advanced. The best way to learn is by getting your feet wet. Start slow and ramp up as you get more comfortable with the platform.

Not sure? If you got questions about any of the topics I covered here, ask me.