Local Search Engine Marketing Consultant

In the last two years Google has seen a 500% growth in mobile local search.  Google has also recorded a 67% growth in mobile inquiries in the past three months alone.

It is estimated that by 2013, local searches will comprise 35% of all searches.

What does this mean for a business marketing locally?

Two things.

First, you must optimize your web site for mobile.  Many websites look great on big screen displays, but are almost illegible when it comes down to mobile devices.  Depending on what platform your site is built on, it has varying degrees of difficulty.  One of the best platforms is WordPress, because there is a free (my favorite kind) plug-in that automatically optimizes your site for mobile devices.

The second consideration is local search engine marketing.  Whoever does your web promotion should know how to optimize your site for local marketing.  It’s not the same as marketing a site that does sales strictly over the internet.  As the president of my local Chamber of Commerce says “Shop Local, Buy Local”.  Those are your best customers, no matter how big your local market is.

A recent study indicated that 46% of small business owners plan to expand or grow their business by improving their website and online marketing.  Local search engine marketing should be a major component of this growth.

Here’s a trick (strategy) I’ve started to use to dominate my local market in a few industries.

First, a little background.

I own four businesses.  One is a business I’ve owned since 1990.  I have about 20 websites devoted to this one business.  They’re mostly keyword-rich domains that I’ve built websites on with about 8 – 10 pages. I haven’t had to make sales calls or do any mail-outs in over 5 years. Most of the new customers (non-referrals) come from the web.

Where did I get many of these websites?

From my competitors who either went out of business, or just dropped the domain names because they never developed the sites.

In the past two months I’ve bought two domains from current or ex-competitors.

One site is now generating over 300 hits a month, and the other is generating about 7 hits a day.

Now, neither of these stats sounds impressive, except for a few facts:

• Both of the sites were never optimized properly.
• I’ve only had them up for about 6 – 7 weeks.
• The industry I’m in is down about 50% due to the economy.
• The business I’m in is highly seasonal, with about 50% of the sales will be generated in the last 3 months of the year.

Here are the benefits:

• The cost was low, $7.07 (I used a promo code)on one site (expired domain) and $23. for the other (at auction, no other bids).
• Both sites have generated calls, and one sale has resulted, about $295. (That covers registration fees for a few years).
• Almost no maintenance required on either site (about 20 minutes per month).
• They both provide links to my other sites.
• They’ll be plenty more sales (and income) when the traffic grows, the busy season hits and the economy rebounds.

So, how can you use this strategy?

• Develop a list of the top keywords in your industry, using whatever tool you like (I use about 4 different tools, none of them are perfect).
• Buy only good keyword domains, or existing domains that have relevant links/traffic.
• Scan the major domain auctions for your all keywords once a month.
• When you hear about a competitor going out of business immediately buy their domain, or let it expire and buy it cheaper.
• Keep a list of all your competitor’s domains (with expiration dates) and submit them to GoDaddy’s Bulk Tool every couple of months.

I know it seems like a lot of work, but my business is doing well, even in a bad economy. Just yesterday, a lady called me three times for a quote (just shopping), not realizing she was calling the same company with three unique sites on the first page of Google.

Now, that’s market domination!

It’s a sad fact that 90% of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and paid media campaigns fail.  By failing, they not only don’t turn a profit, they actually lose money.

There are several reason for this:

Expensive Keywords

First, the most popular keywords are expensive.  Google Adwords, in which marketers bid against each other for keywords has gotten more expensive as there are a greater number of online marketers than ever before.

Some keywords, especially in very competitive markets, such as legal and insurance can run upwards of $50 each.  This is just for one click, not a customer.  So the cost of acquiring a new customer, given an overly optimistic conversion rate of 10%, may be as much as $500 for someone marketing online.  Many small companies simply cannot afford this.

Increased Competition

As more and more companies turn to the internet to generate leads and/or sales it’s been increasingly difficult to get your message heard.  Many small businesses that once only competed locally now have competition worldwide.

Click Fraud

Click fraud occurs when an individual clicks an online ad (PPC) with no intent to buy, just to cost the advertiser money.  Competitors are the most likely to click your ad.  While there are no actual statistics that identify the true percentage, this problem is recognized by all online marketers.

In fact, in 2005 Yahoo settled a class-action lawsuit because it was stated they did not do enough to prevent click fraud.  Google, in 2006 settled a similar lawsuit for $90 million.

Poor Conversion Rates

Many marketers have dismal conversion rates from their marketing campaigns.  The best campaigns often only convert 3% of their prospects.  So, for example, a keyword costing just $1 a click would cost almost one hundred dollars to acquire a customer if the conversion rate was one or two percent.

The Solution

The best solution is not to mess with paid traffic at all.  While search engine marketing may cost more upfront, the result is organic, free traffic.  Organic traffic from the search engines also tend to have a much higher conversion rate.

Plus, you never have to worry about click fraud or how much your advertising is costing you each day.

Once your site starts ranking on the SERPs (search engine results page) it’s cheaper to maintain your listing than pay for traffic.

Hi:

Thanks for all the positive comments about the blog.  I’ve had several folks asking about the theme.  It’s a custom WordPress theme that my wife put together (I’m just the marketing guy).

OK, I’m working on an article on competitive intelligence – how to check out your competition and see what they’re doing on the web.

Please drop a note about the tools you’re using to spy on your competition and other techniques you’re employing.  I’ll list the most popular tools and techniques in the article next week.

Thanks,

Jack

A recent study of a cafe chain of more than 1,700 respondents indicated that their Facebook Fans:

• Made 36 percent more visits to the company’s stores each month.                                              
• Spent 45 percent more of their eating-out dollars with the company.
• Spent 33 percent more at the company’s stores.
• Had 14 percent higher emotional attachment to the brand.
• Had 41 percent greater psychological loyalty toward the company.

This study proves that social media, especially Facebook can have an impact on sales, and increase word-of-mouth marketing for an organization.

Yusuf Mehdi of Bing recently stated “When developing search engine technology, Microsoft focused on returning good results for popular queries but ignored the minor ones. It turned out the long tail was much more important”.

So there you have it. The reason Microsoft was left in the dust.

Here’s another quote from Bing Director Stefan Weitz “One-third of queries that show up on Bing, it’s the first time we’ve ever seen that query.’ Yet the long tail is what makes most of Google’s money. Microsoft is so far behind now that they won’t crush Google.

A survey from MarketingSherpa in Dec 2009 of 500 social media network users indicated the top motivation of those who either friended or followed a brand online was to learn about specials and sales.  Learning about new products and services was cited as a secondary reason.

This data would seem to indicate that social media networks, such as Facebook and Twitter are better for interacting and engaging with existing customers than attracting new customers.

The prediction on the street is that the new Apple IPad will be a game-changer.  About 4 to 5 months ago I switched from a PC to an Apple MacBook Pro, and couldn’t be happier.  I’m still getting used to the differences, but overall I really like the speed and functionality of the Mac.

Apple is expected to sell between 8 and 10 million IPads this coming year.

Here’s an offer I found that may be useful for some:

Test and Keep the NEW Apple iPad, FREE!!!

It’s a sad fact that over 90% of internet web site marketing fails.  It can be frustrating, to spend hours and hours building a website, or paying someone hundreds of dollars to build a site, and not get any return for your time or money.

I know, because I’ve built out over 100 sites, and marketed hundreds more.

The common belief is that, similar to the movie Field of Dreams, “build it, and they will come”.

In truth, it should be “Research it, Build it, Optimize it, Market it, Promote it, and they will come”

Here are 5 steps to get you started today…

1. Set Realistic Goals.
2. Do Your Research.
3. Develop a Marketing Plan.
4. Implement Your Plan on a Daily/Weekly Basis.
5. Analyze Your Results and Adjust Your Plan.

Step 1 – Set Realistic Goals You’re not going to dominate the first page of Google overnight in an ultra-competitive market. The more competition you have, and the better internet-educated your competition is, the more difficult it will be.  I’ve learned things always take more time, and sometimes money, than you expect.  So, set modest goals in the beginning, and build on your successes.

Step 2 – Do Your Research Most people search by keywords or keyword phrases, such as “Boise Accountant” or “Austin Pest Control”.  Develop a list of the best keywords in your niche to drive traffic to your site.  If you don’t know how to do this, it’s money well spent to hire someone who does.  Read the book “The Long Tail”, it will assist you in your marketing research.  Along with keyword research, you must do a competitive analysis.  Unless you know who your competition is, and what they’re doing, you’ll never be able to beat them.

Step 3 – Develop a Marketing Plan The marketing plan should be a guide to get you to your goals. The plan should include who, what, when and where. Some of the strategies for marketing a website include blogs, press releases, articles, social media, directory listings and more.

Step 4 -Implement Your Plan on a Daily/Weekly Basis Decide who is going to implement each strategy in your marketing plan.  The search engines reward consistent action and content creation. In order to outrank your competition on the search engines you’ll have to do 5% more marketing and promotion then they do on a regular basis. If you don’t have the time to do it yourself, decide what you want to do in-house and then outsource the rest to a competent professional.

Step 5 -Analyze Your Results and Adjust Your Plan Once a month take a look at your results. How are your ranking? How much traffic are you generating on your site?  What is your conversion rate (turning visitors into prospects/buyers)?  See what’s working and what needs improving, and adjust accordingly.

Now, go get started on your internet web site marketing.

As the saying goes “A journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step”