Building SEO Websites That Grab Local Customers And Leads

As you’re designing or re-designing your business website, one critical question to ask is what, exactly, you need that site to do for you. How will it support your particular ways of doing business? If your business is conducted entirely online, you’ll employ search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) tactics to build web traffic and engagement, and generate leads without considering the location of those prospects. If your business requires attracting customers to a physical location, your SEO and SEM strategy needs to include some more precisely targeted techniques to grab the attention of local customers.

Understanding How Customers Use The Web To Find Local Businesses

Search engine users’ expectations have changed significantly as SERP algorithms have become more sophisticated, and as users become more reliant on smart phones to give them instant access to information relevant to their current location. Google conducted a study of consumers’ local search behaviors, and the results provide insights that local business should be making full use of, both in building their websites, and in planning advertising expenditures.

• 80 Percent Search For Local Information – Among the users in Google’s study, 4 out of 5 used Google to search for local businesses, using search terms like “near me,” using a city name, or by ZIP code. Every page on your website should include your address, directions, phone, and hours.

• Same-Day Visits And Sales – Half of smartphone users and a third of computer and tablet users who search for a local business visit a store from their search results that same day. It’s critical that your website SEO includes not only your address but also keywords that point to your regional location: City or town, and district, neighborhood, or suburb, if applicable.

• Cater To Smartphone Users – Smartphone users can be a valuable pool of customers, but their behaviors are quite specific, and websites that don’t cater to them lose out. Google and other search engines penalize websites that are not fully mobile-responsive, and which do not load promptly. Mobile users further penalize websites that don’t load quickly by abandoning their attempt to access the sites: About 20 percent will abandon their attempt after 5 seconds of less of wait time, and additional 30 percent will abandon a site if the page hasn’t loaded in 10 seconds. Be certain that your site features optimized display for mobile browsers, and streamlined page-load protocols.

• Digital Ads – Digital advertising using services like Facebook Ads and Google AdWords can be extremely effective means to getting more local customers, if you use them to best advantage. Before paying for digital ads, you need a website that is fine-tuned to grab customers by the hand on the landing page and walk them into a carefully crafted sales funnel. There should be lead magnets like bonus content, to help you generate local leads, and, of course, every page should include buttons to help customers find and call you easily. Once you’ve got a solid support system built into your site, using digital advertising tools like buyer demographics, radius bidding and location bid adjustment can help you get the best return on your ad investment by serving your ads to the most likely buyers.

SEO Website Design & Marketing For Local Business And Long Reach

Whether your business is looking for local customers in Naperville, regional customers around Chicago, or a broad-reaching website for nation-wide and international sales, Design and Promote can help. With everything from branding and website design to custom SEO and SEM campaign-planning services, our consultants can help your business make more effective use of the tools you already have. We’ll work with you to fine-tune your website, social media presence, and digital ad campaigns, to ensure that you’re getting the highest possible return on those investments. Request a complimentary website audit, and we’ll prepare a report showing areas where your website could be working harder to achieve your goals.