Important question for local business owners - are you making enough online sales? / Neil Brewster

I was sitting talking about marketing and websites with a local business owner yesterday (who makes some cool stuff but is not making enough online sales) discussing how to use your website to get more customers. A pretty common theme lately, something everybody seems to want. Anyhow, it prompted me to write this post:

Running a business is not easy. We may be lucky enough to have loyal existing customers, but unless we make sure we have a steady flow of new prospects and new clients we will constantly be in trouble, or always have that nagging feeling in the back of our minds of when we might get into trouble.

Keeping your website up to date is not easy and SEO even harder. Maybe you have just pushed it all to one side and tried to forget about it, the common thinking being that it is too difficult, too expensive and you just really don’t get what you need to do.

You’re not alone, hence I decided to put together 10 steps you can do yourself which will help you on the way:

  • Research your keywords

Research and find the right keywords that customers are using to search for you.

For example. If you are a restaurant owner in Richmond then Richmond Surrey Restaurants will be an important key phrase for you.

If you run a wine professionals course in Chiswick then it may be something like sommelier course London

Depending on your competition, it may be hard for you to rank well for your most important phrase or head term, but it will be easier to rank for a more specific terms, or “long tail” phrase. While you’re planning out the keyword phrases, think about both the head terms and the long tail phrase that relate and keep a log of them all on a spreadsheet.

Fortunately, search engines are good at understanding how terms relate so they will understand that a page whose primary term is “Estate Agent Twickenham” will also be relevant to someone looking for Property Rentals Twickenham.

Your main priority is to think about and understand the language that your customers will use when searching for you on search engines.

  • Optimize your site and content

Your content is critical for both visitors and search engines and the best thing you can do is to concentrate on putting as much high quality content onto your website as possible.

Forget rubbish advice to stuff your content with your keywords. It’s no longer effective and  search engines will figure you out,

Paid applications like Scribe Content can help with this if you are unsure plus you may get faster results.

Think about and review both your meta title and meta description.

Where it’s natural, you should include your town, City, County in your content, this will help let visitors and search engines know where you are.

Make sure your Contact page includes the following:

Your company name, address, phone number and google map.  Your physical address rather than a PO Box is best.

The more relevant, well written content you can add, the better it will be, making sure it is offering valuable advice, information, or is entertainment value to your website visitors.

  • Get your business on Google Local

Google Local, Google Plus, Local Google Plus…. Aaaargh! Confused? You are not alone.

Help is at hand and there is a great article here which describes everything you need. Do not under estimate or pass over this area, it is essential to get it right.

  • Create and claim your local listings

Local directories and review websites, you need to either create or claim all listings for your business.

Each listing will represent a mention of your business online and this is a component used in the ranking algorithm by search engines.

Remember, whilst we are a google state, it’s important to create a listing on Bing, Yahoo Local, and other local directories.

  • Be consistent

Search engines do not like inconsistent listings of your business online, and inconsistency will have a negative impact.

Be consistent when you list your business details, the exact wording of your business name, address and phone number across all sites.

Use the same details on your website, on all of your social media applications and on local directories /  review websites.

  • Ask for genuine reviews

Never add fake reviews for your business. If you have them, take them off now.

Using fake reviews will create problems for you, because search engines and customers will discover it.

Instead, ask your customers to leave a genuine review on your Google+ local page or wherever they prefer. Give them choices and only ask for one review and make it easy for them to do it.

  • Ensure your social media profiles are optimized

Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Quora etc etc it seems at times that the list is endless but you will need to make sure that every social profile you have includes your physical location including Town and County, along with your business name and a URL linking back to your website. Please remember that consistency is key

Never stop at increasing your exposure.

Make sure (if it’s relevant) that people can check in on Facebook, encourage it as it is good social proof.

  • Local Reach

A really good way to get attention to your local business is to get other people to talk about and link to your blog or website. Go and reach out to them and find a way to make them talk about you.

You can use Google Webmaster Tools to see who is linking to you now, additionally you can use various tools to help you look at your competitors to see who is linking to them, giving you the opportunity to also talk to them.

 Searching in Google for bloggers in your town or nearby may help you to find to find bloggers who might want to write about your business, you can also use social media to find customers at your location. Followerwonk helps you search for people on Twitter who live in a certain area.

Other ways of creating a conversation about you are to do things like sponsoring local events, hosting events in your community or networking.

  • Go Mobile

There are currently one million more mobiles activated every day than there are children born.

The opportunity surrounding mobile is no longer something that will be happening in the future, it is very much here and now. It is critical for a local business to be able to capitalise on the customers who are on the move and looking for you / your competitors on their devices. Make sure your site is responsive so that your clients have a good experience when they visit via a device

  • Test and Measure, Test and Measure …..

Once you have worked through all this stuff you will need to continually track and analyze the results.

Every week check your impressions and clicks of your keywords in Google Webmaster Tools. Don’t get too hung up on it as it’s hard to control but it will help you look for trends. Use Google Analytics and learn to love it. 85% of business owners don’t. Use it to analyze your organic traffic growth for starters.

You will start to see an improvement in traffic to your website within weeks of starting to action everything above.

 Now Crack On!

Go back to the beginning and get started. It may seem a lot but just take it one step at a time and you will reap the benefits. Schedule in to do a little bit each day rather than tackle it all in one go and it will seem easier.

Neil Brewster

http://www.neilbrewster.com/

photo credit: La Citta Vita via photopin cc