Do you run a local business and want to increase the number of interested customers finding you online? We might just have a local online marketing strategy that you can implement.

If this sounds like you, then you are in the right place.

Here is what we will cover in this article: 

1. Create A Google Business Profile Profile
2. Optimize Your Site For Local SEO
3. Optimize Your Website For Conversion
4. Make Sure Your Website Has A Responsive Design

Now, let’s get you more clients with this local online marketing strategy! 

Create A Google Business Profile

If you don’t already have a Google Business Profile account, you need to make one ASAP. 

A Google Business Profile account allows you to control the way your business is seen by potential customers on the Google Search Engine and Google Maps. 

This means Google Business Profile is a crucial part of any local business marketing strategy. 

You can open your Google Business Profile at this link: https://www.google.com/business/

Once you open your Google Business Profile, be sure to fill out as much information in the account as possible. 

The more information you give Google about your business, the more likely they are to recommend you when potential customers come searching. 

Most importantly, be sure that you take the time to select the most accurate business category you can find to ensure that this local online marketing will work. 

Also, be sure to use as many categories as possible to help Google understand what type of business you have (right now the max number of business categories is 4). 

Another suggestion to follow for your Google Business Profile is to make sure your business name, address, and phone number (NAPs) are consistent on your website and other directories.

“Businesses that show inconsistent NAPs across the internet are viewed as less reliable than their competitors.”

Once you have created a complete Google Business Profile, it’s time to begin optimizing your website for local searches. 

Optimize Your Site For Local SEO

In order to optimize your website to get more local traffic, you first need to do some keyword research to find out how people near you are searching for you on Google. 

A keyword is a word or phrase that someone types into the Google Search Engine to find a solution to a problem. 

Here are five examples of local search terms:

1. Restaurants near me
2. Best things to do in Maui
3. Family doctors Chicago
4. Local event calendar
5. Top Realtors in Houston

Notice that local searches will always have some type of geographic indicator. This can be “near me”, the name of the city, state, or country, etc. 

You can find the keywords people are looking for to find your business in a tool like KWfinder. 

You can sign up for KWfinder for around $30 per month. We love this tool for keyword research. You can also use SEMRush which offers more SEO tools but starts at a higher price – around $100 per month. 

In the image below, you can see we entered the keyword “lawyers near me” and the KWfinder tool shows us similar keywords people are searching for. 

You can also see that you are able to filter the search result by location; the search shown in the image includes searches made globally. 

The first result “lawyers near me” has a monthly search volume of 189,000 searches per month. Of course, this will be lower in any geographic area (you can filter the tool for your own area), but you can see the terms people are interested in. 

In order to optimize your website to capture these local searches, follow these steps:

1. Choose the most relevant keywords for your services
2. Create a page on your website for each service you offer your community
3. Use the keyword in the page title (Top lawyer in Houston)
4. Use the relevant keyword in the page url –  https://www.attourneys.com/top-lawyers-in-houston
5. Use your new keyword in the normal text on your service page a few times

Once you have done this process for each service you offer, Google will find your new pages and begin showing them to potential costumes making relevant searches.

Once you are finished, you should have one Local SEO target page for each service you offer. 

The more unique keyword-targeted pages you create on your website, the more search terms you will begin showing up for on Google. This means more potential customers will find your website and come inside. 

Once you’ve completed your Local SEO target pages, it’s time to make sure those pages generate leads for your business. This is one of the best ways to organically increase your local online marketing, so its a must do.

Optimize Your Website For Conversion

Once a new user is browsing your website, it is important to make sure that they know how to move forward with your businesses local online marketing strategy. 

“Remember: The #1 reason your website exists is to generate leads for your business. Every design element and word should support this goal.”

In order to optimize your website for conversion, you first need to decide what you want your website visitors to do. 

Here are some common website Call To Actions:

• Schedule Your Free Meeting! 
• Claim Your Free Brochure!
• Schedule A Tour Today!
• Apply Today!

The best way to determine what your main Call To Action should be is to look at the steps other clients took just before working with you. 

Once you know what worked best for other clients, you can ask future clients to take the same action. 

Once you have decided on your Call To Action, keep everything else on your website focused on moving visitors to this end. 

Here are some suggestions to help optimize your website for conversion: 

• Your Call To Action Buttons should be the brightest colors on the page to draw the attention of your visitors. 
• Don’t use more than two different Calls To Action to keep the destination crystal clear. 
• Your page title should tell the visitor who you are, what you do, why you do it, how you do it, and what they should do next. 
• The text should be clear and concise. 
• Include testimonials of people who were happy they took the call to action or were happy with your services. 

Here is an example of our home page, which we feel closely reflects these conversion optimization design elements. 

After you have optimized your website for conversion, make sure your website looks good when people find it on different-sized screens. 

Make Sure Your Website Has A Responsive Design

There is nothing worse than getting everything right up to this point, but then having users who find your website completely unusable because your site doesn’t show up properly on mobile devices. 

Go into your website setting and make sure your design is “responsive”.

Responsive web design enables your website to automatically size itself properly on any screen size. 

Some website editors have a simple button you click to enable this setting; other more complex web design tools require specific updates to every page. This is great to keep up your local online marketing strategy in the future.

Once you make this change, take some time to test your site on devices with different screen sizes to make sure it looks right, before your potential customers do it for you. 

Once you have followed each step in this article, you will begin to generate more leads for your local business. 

That about sums it up for this post on local online marketing. 

Which suggestion did you find most useful? 

Let us know in the comments.