Local Business Internet Advertising

[Scott H.]

I have a small electrical co. which has changed its area of work and I am trying market more low voltage security systems. I am in the process of having a website developed and was looking for opinions on the best way to go about the seo and how important Goolge/Yahoo local would be as far as leads. I wanted to market my business in a 25 mile radius area of my residence.

[khaty]

I suggest if you want to market your site through internet hire an SEO. Google and Yahoo are both search engines, mostly people who search for something use search engines for fast and more relevant results of what they're searching for.

[kerrybrook]

Hi Scott. Where do you live? I know here we have an internet version of the local telephone book, superpages.com. Anymore, most people go to superpages to find a contractor etc rather than looking at the phone book. You can put a link to your website and specify the geographic area in which you will work in. Another option is to join your local BBB and be listed with them as well with a link to your website.

Hope that helps.
Kerry

[bdorland]

Does your website developer offer SEO services? If so, I'd absolutely do that. A solid SEO effort (by a professional) that is geotargeted will probably be just what the doctor ordered.

And in response to Kerry's suggestion regarding superpages.com, if you can get listed for free, by all means do it, but don't spend a dollar on their advertising packages. Put that money into SEO. Far more people will go to Google first before going to superpages.com.

[radiogirl]

Getting your site into Google Local and Yahoo Local is free and has nothing to do with SEO in the traditional way - if there is such a thing as traditional way online.

It's free and should take a total of 20 minutes tops. I don't know about Yahoo because I haven't seemed to have found the Canadian version of where I can sign up, but Google only took three days from the time I entered the information to showing up in the results for the keywords I chose.

If you aren't in a large competitive centre there is usually very little reason for a small business owner to go with an expensive optimization crew for a local effort (it's different when you have to compete on a national or international scale)

The key with local efforts where you can only serve a small geographic area is tie your online and offline efforts together...and work hard to encourage local referrals amongst satisfied clients...onsite testimonials seem to have even more weight in a small geographic area than on sites that appeal to a wider audience. Video and audio go a long way to impress local clients in most locations and it's not too expensive to pull together a fairly professional effort for little cost (though it's not dirt cheap to do so, the investment is usually well worth the effort)

Patrysha

[The Infotainer]

Originally Posted by Scott H.

I have a small electrical co. which has changed its area of work and I am trying market more low voltage security systems. I am in the process of having a website developed and was looking for opinions on the best way to go about the seo and how important Goolge/Yahoo local would be as far as leads. I wanted to market my business in a 25 mile radius area of my residence.

Scott

Already good advice on this. Some additional supporting comments:

=> First, find out what keywords and phrases your ideal clients use.
=> I'd presume that this would be your product / service plus a locality.
=> Optimize your site for that ie "low voltage security London"
=> DO it well and you'll show high for those searches
=> Clearly state at the top of your website which areas you serve, so you reject or allow (disqualify and qualify) the right searchers.
=> Get listed in online directories and ensure that your listing contains the keywords
=> Get tons of one way links from local businesses and from national ones, again with variations of your keywords in the anchor text.

You don't need tons of traffic, you only need quality, qualified leads.

I'd also open up some Blogs and Lenses and some social media entries about your product / services and get some backlinks that way.

Also join some forums where your ideal customers chat and make some helpful posts.

Good luck

John Gordon
The Infotainer



.

[chesa7]

Scott,

The most effective step I've taken is getting your business listed in Google Maps -- it is then the very first thing people will see when they do a search on your type of business! Its free, easy and very powerful -- I'd recommend it as your first step!

[youbetcha1018]

Originally Posted by khaty

I suggest if you want to market your site through internet hire an SEO. Google and Yahoo are both search engines, mostly people who search for something use search engines for fast and more relevant results of what they're searching for.

Agreed. If you have enough budget to hire an SEO do so. These people are experts and will help you.

[bdorland]

One last thing that I completely spaced off...Craigslist.com. Create a service listing for your local area on Craigslist and you'll not only receive the benefits of a quality backlink, you might just get a few direct phone calls for thos searching for local electrical service providers.

[Firstwebsearch]

You should probably hire a good SEO to market your site and services through the search engines. You would want to make accounts at all the online yellow pages and all the local services, like yahoo local. Most if not all provide free accounts.

Next you want to definitely join BBB if for nothing else then the link they usually provide to your website. On your site you need to target it to local keywords, for example electrical contractor las vegas, stuff like that.