Google Local Search: Going Local Down In Acapulco.
Excuse the song reference but if you are running a local small business you’d be surprised at how easy it is to rank well in your market using the above SEO strategy. Let me give you a very real example of a client of mine.
Danny came to me asking about websites, he’d heard through George (who runs the fishing trips on the Quay) that I build websites and people’s phones ring as a result of those websites.
Danny is a plasterer, you know, the inside and outside surfaces of houses, ceilings, wall insulation etc. So Danny popped into our Falmouth Boat Hire office (a van at the time) and started asking me if I could do something.
This is how it went.
Me: “So Danny you want to attract people that are looking for a plasterer in Falmouth/Cornwall?”
Danny: “Yes, mate”.
Me: “So no disrespect Danny but you can’t have a website called Danny Cole Plastering because nobody searches for Danny Cole Plastering.”
Danny: “How do you mean?”
Me: “Danny, the thing is people will be carrying out searches for things like ‘plastering in falmouth’ or ‘plasterer in Cornwall’ or ‘Falmouth based plasterer’. And you should build out your business from that if you want to use Google.”
Danny: “Really? But people know me as Danny Cole”
Me: “Danny, is your phone ringing? Only word of mouth will come to you from people knowing you, what about all the people using Google all the time these days, on their phones?”
Danny: “OK I get it, so that’s what you have done with Falmouth Boat Hire, and George’s website too?”
Me: “Exactly, I have started from what Google wants, or rather what people are searching for and built from there, to provide exactly that”.
Danny: “That’s smart man, can you do it for me?”
Me: “Of course, give me a week or two”.
And that was that, I registered the domain of cornwallplasterers.com and told him to publish content of his jobs including the location, this is important, the location bit. So I gave some examples of how to format the posts and what type of title to use.
Titles like these became posts:
- Cornwall Plasterers in Falmouth
- Falmouth Plasterer Completes New Walls
- Plastering Job Completed in Penryn
Etc..
For each of these posts, a unique link appears in Google. And considering none of his competition use this strategy he is now ranking number one for nearly all of the search terms he needs, to keep an endless supply of new clients calling. Danny even went on to rebrand his van with Cornwall Plasterers across the side, on my advice.
I have done this for countless local businesses, this is just one example. Falmouth Boat Hire is another.
You can do this for your own local business very easily. Chances are your competitors are not doing it. You also don’t have to see a website as THE website, why don’t you have three or four and treat each as a unique marketing channel?
Websites are very cost effective.
If you want to do this yourself I recommend buying my Google Local Search Course, of if you want me to do it for you get in touch.