{"id":771,"date":"2017-08-10T13:01:47","date_gmt":"2017-08-10T13:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/2017\/08\/10\/6-ways-to-market-your-local-business-online-beyond-google-maps\/"},"modified":"2020-01-21T17:19:07","modified_gmt":"2020-01-21T17:19:07","slug":"6-ways-to-market-your-local-business-online-beyond-google-maps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2017\/08\/10\/6-ways-to-market-your-local-business-online-beyond-google-maps\/","title":{"rendered":"6 ways to market your local business online (beyond Google Maps)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Local businesses have lots of great opportunities to use digital channels to their advantage. Here are a few actionable ways to promote your local business online apart from the most important (and the most obvious) one:\u00a0Getting verified on Google Maps<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most of the time I try to avoid making very general statements when it comes to small companies. That is because the ways that businesses market to their audiences are not held back by expectation; they have every opportunity to apply innovation and creativity to their efforts.<\/p>\n

However, I do feel able to make at least one sweeping statement:\u00a0online visibility is crucial for local businesses. While you can also focus on IRL advertisements, your efforts will be far less impressive than the online equivalent.<\/p>\n

Evidence for the effectiveness of online visibility comes from\u00a0Google’s<\/a> findings that 50% of all Google<\/a> smartphone users who searched for a local business went there within 24 hours. In spite of this, as many as 60% of\u00a0small businesses don’t have a website<\/a>, with half of those feeling they are too small to need one… what?!<\/p>\n

This is a huge mistake. Businesses should be spending more time than ever marketing online, not just on Yelp or Google<\/a> Maps, either. Here are six areas to focus on if you want to see real results.<\/p>\n

1. Show off your knowledge of the local landscape<\/h2>\n

Writing local guides is perfect for\u00a0showing your knowledge<\/a>, getting social media shares and promoting your local business to an audience that cares about the city you live in.<\/p>\n

A local second hand clothing shop near me is well known for creating local guides that tie into their brand. For instance they create top lists for things like “Best Places in [City] to Find Second Hand Clothes That Are Like New” and “Top 10 Most Incredible Thrift Shop Finds”, using photos of items found by their customers.<\/p>\n

Another shop that sells outdoors gear regularly writes blog posts about the best hiking, camping, fishing, nature walk trails and more. It is a never ending list of relevant ideas that catch people’s attention and make them want to share.<\/p>\n

Useful resource<\/strong>: Starting a blog may still be quite an overwhelming undertaking for local businesses. There are too many steps involved.\u00a0This downloadable cheatsheet<\/a>\u00a0is a nice way to get you through the process safely.<\/p>\n

2. Get listed in popular local directories<\/h2>\n

\"dirjournal\"<\/p>\n

Many people use local directories<\/a>\u00a0to discover local businesses and read their ratings. And\u00a0Yellow Pages<\/a>\u00a0is not the only option here! Here are a few examples<\/a> of traffic-heavy local directories that will give your business some visibility:<\/p>\n