Pie chart of employment by type
 

Local Online Marketing

Local information is an ever growing part of search and all the requirements to feature well in this are beyond one article. We wished to focus on preliminary decisions such as market viability, whether you are looking for areas to target, or have no choice due to location.

The first step is knowing a local online market. Business support or public body websites can offer valuable hints, including employment demographics. The pie chart above shows these for Surrey as an example, not typical of the UK with higher spending power, cultural and educational interests related to the employment profile.

With 1.2 million people and 87% internet access, the county offers a substantial audience but only if you meet their requirements. Population profiles help and can be verified by searches they carry out. A number of research tools available, our article on writing website content mentioned several which are useful here:

Why not experiment with them, get used to data patterns and how they clarify your market. In Surrey for example, we confirmed searches for many personal and household services are higher than a similar population level in South Yorkshire. Equally, searches for many sports goods and entertainment sites are higher there.

You could just use search data but a wider picture helps identify business potential. A fair chance business will have expanded to meet the need, look at competition levels. Aside from competition, you may find niche opportunities others are not pursuing.

Assess market size, compare this to other regions you might target, also track down search terms which are more prevalent locally. A combination of these, along with real world data you gather way beyond our pie chart example will help with building a site and your first decision, is the idea viable.

Many people who would not start a real world business seem happy to using a website. No wish to spoil their party, just introduce caution against a belief that websites are magical. They are excellent business tools but rarely a business themselves, or able to succeed without potential customers.

Most sites built are in any event for established businesses, looking for a share of their local market. An internet aware population use the web as a core source of information. They also use county or town names in searches "Telford estate agents" "IT support Devon" etc. You will benefit if your local businesses can meet their needs.

Matching Local Market Enquiries

The first requirement is an efficient website, in terms of build, performance, matching consumer requirements. If you decide to implement this yourself, be prepared for much research and a steep learning curve. There is no reason not to but if you are busy, professional help may pay for itself.

Our online world is commercial and competitive. Appearance, content and structure of the site should focus on the local online user and local terms. A site optimised just to represent a business which happens to be in a locality but not targeting that locality will not win.

Your site needs to work with a search engine business model, they create a user base by offering good search results and monetise via paid advertising, sponsored ads they hope users click on. To be at the forefront of their results, a business website must match enquiries they respond to.

There is value for some in a site which is simply an online brochure and contact point but often more in organic search. Many nuances to consider, with Google using 200 plus factors in their algorithm and the website needing to serve visitors but the effort to please both is worthwhile. Just be as sure as you can of technical factors and that your business is a match for the local market.

Focusing on Local Search

If your business happens to have purely national, or international aims, a software vendor for example, local search may not be for you. In reality a high proportion of businesses do have a local focus, service based, wholesale, or retail. Using a website and search engines to boost their customer network makes sense.

Part of online success in any defined locality is having this as your focus. Your business could also become wider known on the web but more complex to target local and national markets from the same website. For many this will not be essential and they can add the ingredients which help locally:

  • Ensure your site matches search terms for the local market and meets the needs of local people.
  • Consider an identity change, an accountant in Leeds is not sufficient, be the Leeds accountant.
  • Build a reputation locally and make sure this extends to the web, with other sites promoting you.
  • The web doesn't stand still, search engines like a flow of fresh, valuable content for their users.
  • Integrate the site into your business and your business into your site, be more than information.

Beyond the above, focus on terms to bring business, not just return in search for the sake of being there. This will need research but the opportunity is real and growing. Competing against every website in the country may not make sense, a local thrust could. If you would like to read more website help articles please do or contact us for any other assistance we can offer.