Getting your local business used to be a pretty simple proposition. You took out a listing in the phone book, maybe placed a few newspaper ads here and there. If you were feeling really ambitious and had a little more money to spend, you might even test the waters by splurging on a few ads on public transit.
Lately though, you've been hearing about something called local search engine marketing, or maybe it was local SEM, or even local SEO. Either way, you're probably curious about what these are and if you need them.
Let's answer the second question first: yes. Your business needs to use local search engine marketing. It's an absolute requirement if you want your business to grow, or even survive in the next one to two decades.
Why? Well, let's back up for a second here. Does your business have a website? If not, have one made and get back to me later ' I'll wait.
If you do have a website, we can proceed. It doesn't matter if you're a manufacturer or a retailer who already does business online with customers locally, nationally, even globally or a pizza delivery place. You need a website and local search engine marketing for one very important reason: increasingly, the web is where your customers will find you.
You can best understand the importance of local SEM by putting yourself into the shoes of a potential customer. Suppose you're hungry and you'd like to have pizza delivered; a common enough situation. However, you just moved into the neighborhood and you're not sure who delivers to your location. What do you do?
If you thought to reach for the phone book, sorry and thanks for playing, but that's the wrong answer.
However, if you decided to consult Google for the answer, congratulations!
Consumers use search engines far more often than they do the yellow pages of the local phone book. It's faster and Google's local search results usually show you a map of where the businesses you're searching for are located. If you were using local search engine marketing, this hungry new arrival to the neighborhood could become a loyal customer. If you aren't clued in to the importance of local SEM though, they're probably your competitor's customer by now.
Even if your business isn't suited to actually selling a product or service online, you need to be where your customers are with local search engine marketing or risk being out-competed by other businesses who managed to adapt to new technology quicker. Close to 82% of consumers already do local searches online instead of using soon to be completely irrelevant sources like the phone book. There are already young people who have grown up using the web for local searches and there's no way they're going back to the yellow pages now.
What it comes down to as a small business owner is a simple choice between two alternatives:
Your business can adapt, or it can die.
If you want your business to stay in business, the time to make local search engine marketing part of your business and using local SEM to make your site visible to local consumers is now. The choice is yours, but it's not a hard one to make.
Starting from humble beginnings, Jeremy Stuzka now fuels his entrepreneurial passion by assisting businesses with Local Search Engine Marketing and continues helping others around the world achieve the life results they long for as a personal coach and by providing systems that teach how to become an entrepreneur.
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