The importance of a local search engine marketing presence

Local search is still an untapped market with huge opportunities for success. Many of these searches are from motivated buyers actively looking for the services that you offer.

A huge fraction of searches online are local searches. Research studies have shown that up to 60% of all internet searches are local. However, what ever the exact figure there are a lot of local searches happening 24/7 from motivated buyers. These can be hundreds, thousands or even millions happening every day, during all hours of the day non-stop. But are these searches finding you?

If you want to advertise nationally or for mail order items then be prepared to pay much larger advertiser rates and for a fight for every click. But if you are a local business with a relatively small catchment area it is a lot easier a victory. Many local businesses, including your competitors have not even heard of local search marketing. Why not steal a march on your local competitors by out competing them locally.

Is Yell Enough? or Do You Need Another Way of Generating Local Business. Local Search Can Help!

Thousands of small or medium sized regional businesses spend upward of a £1000 per a month on Yellow pages or Thompson Local book adverts, Yell web listings and other forms of paper or print advertising. But book directories have become very competitive, the sponsored advert rates are more expensive, and  fewer and fewer people are using Yellow Pages as first point of call not to mention that the searches going through directories are declining. More and more people are turning towards search engines for local searches, and with the advancement of mapping technology and integrated directory listings the search engines have quickly generated a great local search service.

If you are a regional business who has always used Yellow Pages or Thomson Local as a key driver to generate leads and you have slowly been seeing a decline in the number of the quality of the leads coming through then it maybe time to find another way of generating clients!

Seek4Commerce can help develop a tailored approach to your local search marketing strategy. We can create much deeper penetration for your business locally meaning your business is maximizing its local exposure.

Regional businesses: What is the risk of not developing local search marketing service?

• Losing out on lucrative sales from regional customers because they can’t find you
• Missing out on new channels of acquiring customers
• Waiting until your competitors are doing it before you follow suit too late
• Not taking advantage of the reduced competition in local search to build up your business quicker

What are the key advantages of developing a local search marketing presence

• Your website will be a lot more visible in the local search engine rankings
• Motivated local buyers ready and willing to buy from you
• See your average customer acquisition cost go down as your local search marketing traffic increases.
• A lot more leads from people who prefer to work with a local vendor they can visit and trust.

If you would like some more information on creating a bespoke local search marketing or SEO plan then please contact us.

Why business blogging is so valuable!

Creating a blog and regularly posting good quality content can have huge benefits for your internet marketing strategy. Clearly, the structure and type of blog website depends on your plans for your website.

If you have useful content to contribute to your industry then a blog website will allow you to establish your website as a “thought leader” in the industry. This would subsequently increase your authority in the industry which is very important from a self marketing point of view, but also provide highly valuable SEO back links from web users to your website. The increasing number of back links will increase the authority of website in the eyes of the search engine which will rank your website higher for generic keyword terms.

The trust built up through sharing knowledge establishes your businesses reputation as an expert and this can rarely achieved through direct advertising.

Below are some of the key benefits of setting up a blog.

• Increase traffic and sales revenue
• Share content and increase trust in your business reputation
• Good quality content attracts high quality links
• Blog posts attract book marking and user contributions which aid search engine optimisation.
• Blogs encourage interaction and feedback from users.
• Distribute your blog content around the web through advanced content distribution strategies.
• Create a readership base & attract new followers
• Increase your websites depth of reach and visibility online. Articles posted on blogs usually rank very well in the search engines and this tactic can generate high quality traffic.

Seek4Commerce, an expert London SEO company are experts at helping businesses set up powerful blogiing strategies that compliment their current marketing campaigns.  contact us for more information on how a powerful blog strategy can help you.

Why are directory submissions important?

Directories classify websites by category and sub categories based on relevance. The category your website falls under is based on the products or services or information that you provide.  The categories are classified by the editors of the directories.

Directories are very helpful for back links and traffic that they generate for websites. The number, quality and topical relevance can impact on a website’s performance in the search engines and for this reason directory submissions are one of the main link building tactics on the internet for search engine optimisation.

However, it is not only the number of back links but a few influencing factors such as:

• The quality of the website providing the link
• The number of links on the web page providing the link
• The topical relevance of the directory
• The keyword density of the page and the topical relevance of the link
• The keywords in the  anchor text of the link
• Whether the content is static or dynamic
• Whether the link is “follow” or “no follow” meaning that search engines can or can not index the link.
• The volume of back links
• The velocity of link building over a period of time.
• The link growth relative to your key competitors and key industry website over a period of time.

How do you know which directory websites are good to submit to?

• Check out the quality of other website listed in the directory.
• Does the category have more than 50 links a page.
• Is the directory reviewed regularly by editors?
• What is the editorial policy and terms of use?
• What is the Alexa rank of the directory
• What kind of traffic does the directory achieve
• Are any of your competitors listed in your directory

The above considerations are just a few and not an exhaustive list, but it is best to do your research before spending time and money on directory submissions.

As previously mentioned directory submissions are a key source of one way link building that can aid your online PR and drive up your keyword positions in the search engines.

However, directory submissions are one tactic in the armoury of any SEO firm. The exact mix of  link building service depends onhow competitive your niche sector is and what your competitors are doing.

Some benefits that one way directory links provide is:

• Topical one way link to your website increasing your websites authority in your sector.
• Increase in your website page rank
• Higher search engine positions for core keywords and phrases for your website = higher traffic & higher sales and/or leads.
• Direct traffic from directory links
• Greater control over your link building campaigns.

Trusted Directories:

Trusted directories are a key source of traffic and also provide authoritative back links to your website. These directories have a lot more authority in the eyes of the search engines and carry more weight than standard links. Examples of trusted directories include:

• Open Directory
• Yahoo Directory
• Business.Com
• Yell.com

Seek4Commerce are a bespoke London SEO company that builds high quality link building programmes for our clients. All our submissions are manually done to ensure the best  results for our clients after very careful research.

Please get in touch if you would like to know more about how Seek4Commerce can build a powerful link building programme for you to get you listed high for your desired keywords or phrases.