Local Search successes?

I am adjusting my marketing strategies.

For the last 15 years I've been happily providing consulting services to mostly humungo Fortune 500 companies, plus a few smaller clients. I have to say that I always enjoyed the work for the smaller clients. The results are immediate and make a real difference to my clients. An example is a motor repair shop in my home town of Purcellville VA (where the heck is that? Oh, almost W.VA!) that has seen a 50% increase in business since I set up their Web site and a social media campaign for them.

Anyway, now I am trying to learn about local search, which I think is the next "big thing" in online marketing. I read something the other day that 75% of retail purchases are still made within 10 miles of the customer's home location. Sooo... wondering if anyone can share success stories about how you grew sales for a local business? I will share back!

Thanks - and happy new year!

Sian

 That's interesrting. I would imagine that could be true depending on where one lives and what the purchase is. Around this area sales tax ranges from 7 to as much as 11.5%. Some people will drive quite a ways to save money. Folks regularly drive from Illionis to Indiana to buy cigerettes, because of taxes. Some even "fill orders" for others to help defray thier own costs. Big ticket items, and with gas being "cheap" again, people will drive a distance to save $$. Probablly most of our daily shopping is close to home or work.

Service, however, I think that is true. People are mostly creatures of habit, and try to stay close to their normal "path". I know I do. I try to do everything on my way home. I try to combine all my errands. Once I'm home I'm not goung out again. I think most people try to find services close to home or work.

Could you post a link to the website you just did in your hometown? I would like to see local stratagies

Thanks, Mike

Sian........

 I think you're right-on. I recently heard a comment that the future of the internet was local contact and local content. For those of us that are in small communities this is music to our ears. It sounds as if you have put something together that has value to your clients to the degree that they are willing to divert some of their precesious revenue to. Good for you.

I also would enjoy hearing/seeing more about how you are acomplishing the education of "small town" business people.

Alex

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Sian and all,

I have spent a lot of time working on local search optimization. I too, am a big believer in how powerful it can be for local businesses of any size.

I could write a long post on all of the various techniques and recommendations I would make for you, but I found a few good posts that do it better. Really quickly I think the most important thing for local search optimization is keyword selection. That is, determining what keyword phrases with the local identifiers you want to target and optimize your website to get rankings on.Once you have that you can apply those to nearly every strategy and tip that the follow posts provide.

This is a good comprehensive post - SEO Tips for Local Businesses

This one has some interesting step by step tips - Tips for Local Search Engine Optimization for Your Site - Written by a Superpages.com employee

This one makes great points about keyword selection  - Choosing Keywords for Local SEO

This one is a good guide as well, I particularly like the advice in the second paragraph - Local SEO Tips for Small Businesses

I hope that you guys find these helpful. Being a huge SEO fanatic myself, I love the opportunity that exists with localized online marketing. In my opinion it is one of the largest untapped opportunities for small businesses.

Cheers!

Julia these are some good articles. I also try check out these sites from time to time in order to keep up with local SEO and local marketing scene:

stephenespinosa.com

localseoguide.com

davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml

localvisibility.net

localsearchnews.net

hyperlocalblogger.com

David Mihm just published the results of his second "Local Search Ranking Factors" survey a few days ago. It might be worthwhile to take a look at it and compare with last year's results.

I think you're right-on. I recently heard a comment that the future of the internet was local contact and local content.

I agree completely.  Locally you might have certain advantages over big stores like logistics and geographical locations.  Someone might save $20 buying an item online at a big store but it costs them $10 for shipping and they have to wait for the item, use their credit card online, and will have a hassle on their hands and more shipping costs if anything goes wrong with the items they buy.  Plenty of reasons for people to keep their dollars plugging into their local economy.  I'm all for promoting one's website via local newspaper, radio, television, community newsletters, sponsoring events, and local online groups.