The effects of not working with local business marketing hit me full in the face recently when I tried to book a table at my favourite local curry house. We have used them quite often and always had a lovely meal. On two occasions they even agreed to open especially for us on Sunday lunchtime... but we were the sole patrons.
Their restaurant was positioned about 50 yards up a side road from the main shopping centre in an area famous all over the country for its curry houses. Their food was wonderful and they could alter their menu to cater for vegans, carnivores, curry aficionados and those of us who prefer a nice casserole, vegetarians, as well as those who like the spiciest or mildest curries. But they never seemed to be able to fill all their tables.
The trouble was that, whenever we looked for his restaurant online, we could not find it. Not only was he not on the first page of Google, he wasn’t on any of the subsequent pages either. Nor could we find him easily when we searched on our mobiles. There were lots of his competitors, who did not offer nearly such good service or food, but not his business.
Because my own area of interest is local business seo, I asked him what he was doing to publicize the restaurant both on the internet and off but he reassured me that he had everything in place.
Three months after this talk, we could not get through on the phone when we wanted to book a table. Driving down to find out the problem, the restaurant was quite clearly no longer serving. The sign outside had been taken down and the fittings removed.
So exactly what should he have done?
Firstly, he didn’t need to buy entries in the local directories. It’s far more effective to fill out all the free entries and then turn down the relentless calls requesting that you upgrade to an enhanced version.
Create a list of words that you think your potential customers will be typing into the search engines and then use the Google Keyword checker to see if there is search volume for that term - how many times each month they are looked for. They will even recommend some other possibilities that might be more preferred than the key phrases you have thought up.
This is the reason why it is very important to discover which words and phrases are being entered into Google by consumers who are intent on buying your product or service and then integrating those search terms into the structure of your webpages so that Google can recognise that you are the most pertinent source of data on those search terms and start sending you the visitors that want more information. This is a local SEO Strategy
Get on Google First Page - Places listings
Not long ago Google realised that regional online research had become dominant, individuals wished to buy from a business in the area and customised their own search protocol to give importance to local organizations.
This was also a marketing chance not to be missed and they started giving businesses their own local listing called Google Places. However, where they felt anything was incorrect or missing, they would get their details from the free entries in the other local online directories making it imperative that you ensure that these are also complete.
The act of adding the new seven pack of Google Places entries on the first page of their SERPs (search engine results pages), Google had decreased the amount of room that was left for the other organic entries.
The upshot of this is that local organizations now have three possibilities to get seen on the first page of Google - in the organics with their own website or as a free directory entry or as one of the seven Google Places Page entries, providing they have made the effort to fill out all the information and facts appropriately everywhere that they can do it for nothing.
If only my local curry restaurant had known.
