Now is the best time for creating a local strategy of your presence on your local search engine results pages. The vast majority of businesses gain most of their revenue from local customers. And even if your potential customers are right down the street, they’re looking for you online. According to national survey groups that specialize in internet commerce.

What is Local Search and Why is it Important?

If you are a business that depends on local customers, such as a flower shop, an auto body shop or a restaurant, what could be better than coming up right at the top of the search engine results page for a keyword search including your geographic location?

If part of your website’s intent is to be relevant to local searchers, then optimizing your site for local search is a must!

Because local search results are now being placed very highly in the search engine results pages, the competition is steep and it’s important to make sure your site is well optimized for local search.

• 97% of consumers in the U.S. gather shopping information online before they buy. (source: NPD Group)
• 86% of Internet users have used the Web to find a local business. (source: Moz)
• 43% of search engine users are searching locally to buy offline, or in person. (source: comScore)
• 54% of all searchers have abandoned phone books in favor of search engines to find local businesses. (source: comScore)
• 73% of online activity is in one way or another related to local content. (Google) 
• 43% of search engine users are searching locally to buy offline, or in person. (source: comScore) 

If you’re not listed in the right places, customers might not find you. TH Web Consulting has 18 years of experience and technique to manage your local listings and integrate them into a successful internet marketing strategy. In short, we’ll put you on the online map.

A Local Search Scenario

Sarah owns a flower shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota that specializes in weddings. In general, all of Sarah’s customers are going to come from in and around Minneapolis. The shop is not going to be providing services to people in San Diego, California! So it is important for Sarah’s website to reach local searchers in and around Minneapolis looking for the services she provides.

How Are Local Search Results Displayed?

A local search is a query that involves a keyword along with a geographic location. You probably do local searches all the time when looking for a business in your area. Looking back at Sarah’s flower shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota…a local search would be just that, “Minneapolis, flower shop”, or something similar.

You need the phone to ring. For that to happen, your business needs to be visible in the local search results.

 We Can Help!

Our process is simple, because we’ve helped enough businesses that we know what steps really matter

Step 1 – Questionnaires

We send you a few questionnaires. After you fill them out, the ball is in our court for a while.

Step 2 – Keywords

We figure out which specific phrases your ideal local customers type into Google. We also set up reporting, so you can track the progress you make as a result of our work.

Step 3 – Link Audit

If Google frowns on your links and has penalized your site, we’ll connect you with people who can help get you unpenalized – while we continue to work on your local visibility.

Step 4 – Google Places Listing

We’ll audit your Google Places listing for any duplicates and problems, then we’ll implement fixes and make sure it’s perfectly optimized.

Step 5 – Citation Audit & Cleanup

We’ll find all your correct, incorrect, and duplicate listings on the most important sites. Remove duplicates, fix any discrepancies in your name, address, and phone number, and enhance your existing listings with as much information as possible.

Step 6 – Citation Building

We’ll analyze your existing citations, analyze your competitor citations, and identify new citation opportunities in your city and industry that you need to be listed on. Then, of course, we get you listed.

Step 7 – Website

We tune-up or revamp your site. We’ll make sure you have all the right pages, we’ll help you get those pages built, and we will make a thousand geeky tune-ups behind the scenes. First we’ll send you a write-up of all our suggestions, and once you have approved those suggestions, we’ll get the changes made.

Step 8 – Reviews

We help you get reviews from your customers. It’s always a challenge to figure out the best strategy – but we see it as a good challenge. All you need to do is continue to make customers happy, and encourage them to review you.

Step 9 – Content Help

You probably know that you should be creating at least a little “content,” but aren’t sure what or how. We’ll provide the guidance you need.

Step 10 – Link Suggestions

We’ll research “local” link opportunities in your city and industry and give you detailed suggestions on how to acquire those links.

Step 11 – Social Media Guidance

Not sure what “social” activities are fluff, and which ones can help you attract local customers? We’ll walk you through the highest-payoff activities.

Step 12 – Ongoing Strategy

We’ll tell you a few steps you need to take on an ongoing basis to keep your rankings growing. By this point you don’t need much more “SEO.” We’ve built your car, filled it up with gas, turned the key for you, and all you need to do is keep your foot on the gas and your eyes on the road.

Next Step: Increase Your Visibility

• Your team includes a 18 year organic/local-search aficionado.

• Our experience means you’ll have peace of mind in knowing we have made all the mistakes and done all the hard thinking, so you don’t have to do either.

• We’ll do nearly all the work. (On the few occasions we need something from you, we’ll let you know.)

The Next Step is Simple and Easy:  Contact Us Now and We’ll Schedule a Time to Discuss Your Needs.