It is essential for local business owners to include your location in your internet marketing campaigns. Business owners who decide to grow their local business by expanding to the internet often miss opportunities to connect with their potential audience by over-looking geo-targeting in their online content. Geo-targeting as discussed in a previous blog post “Internet Marketing Tip of The Day, Make Sure to Utilize Geo-Targeting” is focusing on your audience by geographic location.
Let’s say you’re a local Plumber from Mytown, New York who doesn’t identify where you are from, then the search engines and social media platforms will just toss your content into the pile with thousands of other Plumbers and the chances of potential clients living in the Mytown, New York area finding your content when the need a plumber drop dramatically.
Remember in the world of the internet the Gatekeepers are the search engines and the major social media platforms so it is important for you to identify your location so when they send their “bots” to crawl your content (website, posts, articles etc.) their algorithms identify and sort your content to the correct geographic location.
Primary and Secondary Geographic Locations
Your primary location is the physical location for Mytown, New York, now in the case of our Plumber if he goes to other Cities or Towns these are considered his “Service Area” so you can factor these in as well. If your business has a “Service Area” then find the largest City or Town that you service and include that location in your posts since that will likely get the most search traffic.
Example: We offer plumbing services for Mytown, New York and surrounding areas including Big City, New York.
Where to Include Your Location
Your Website
I have often stressed how important it is for a business owner to have your own domain based website another reason it is vital for local business owners is because it allows you to build up your credibility in your market for the services you offer.
- If you can include your location in your domain name that would be ideal because every time your website appears your location is identified. Example www.plumbingservicesmytown.com
- Include your location and secondary locations in your SEO (URLs, Title tags and Meta Descriptions)
- Include your Address on your website usually in the Header, Footer and Contact Pages are standard locations.
- Include in your Page content if it flows (don’t cram or stuff it) on your About us page etc.
- In your blog posts when talking about your goods and services.
Your Social Media
Most social media platforms allow you to include a bio description with your profile and if you’re a local business owner its essential that you include your address in your bio. The social media platforms main goal is to make money through the network connections on their platform so if you don’t include your location in your bio, they may not put you in the correct network. If you don’t think it matters just type the name of your town in the social media search box and see how many returns come back even for small towns.
Social Media Hashtags (#)
When you post on social media don’t forget to use hashtags (#) of your primary location and or secondary location. When you enter a hashtag on Instagram it will give you an idea of the amount of posts using that hashtag even a small amount will help increase your visibility.
Do Not Try Mislead the Search Engines and Social Media
If you’re a local business list and hashtag within the “Service Areas” you cover don’t try to list locations, you don’t serve hoping to get more exposure.
The chances of gaining real customers are slim to none
The search engines will notice and could “ding” you in their search rankings
It could cost you in Reviews or Reputation
You’ll just be competing with businesses that do cover those areas
It could cost you Money, I’ve seen many cases of businesses running PPC ads in locations that they don’t serve this just is wasting Money
Take a Few Minutes to Review Your Website and Social Media
It only takes a few minutes to review your content to make sure that you are including your location in your content and in most cases, you can adjust them quickly and cheaply.
If you have any question or comments reach out to me at info@ownedbyvets.com
TYFYS
DMC