In some aspects online marketing best practices and tactics apply to both standard and local marketers, but (in the most obvious fashion) local search layers on geographic information as the anchor. Think of various ways a consumer finds businesses online. Now layer in the geographic factor and strategies shift greatly. With the increase in opportunities around local search, businesses can find themselves in the proverbial dust if they don’t adapt and overcome.

So what are the different opportunities out there for those looking to integrate their marketing efforts on a local level?

Google Local Search and Places Pages

Google and other search engines provide localized listings to increase relevance when appropriate. These listings include nearby businesses as well as additional address/contact Information.

The components of Google’s local results;

Google provides a ‘Places’ filter on the left navigation to only see results by Places pages

Reviews, Places pages, and a map display the local results on the search engine results page (SERP).

The map displays the top results for places. Depending on the number of listings, they typically show between 7 and 10 listings.

As can be seen in the screenshot below, reviews are given priority placement in the SERP compared to the company’s Places page. Reviews can also be linked up to your Places page. However, customer reviews are key to providing potential consumers assurance. In addition, review pages create additional content for search engines to index!

Google Merchant Center (GMC)

If your business sells products and has a product feed, then Google’s merchant center will provide two distinct opportunities.

1. Managing feeds through GMC allows a business to list their products on their linked Google Places page, in organic results, and of course Google (Shopping) Product Search.
2. Submitting store data through GMC allows consumers to not only find the products they are looking for, but also which brick and mortar locations carry the products, and even if they are in stock!
   • Truly a great integration of online driving brick and mortar sales.
   • TIP – listings can be managed or uploaded individually, but for businesses with 10 or more stores, it’s recommended to utilize a bulk business listings file. Be sure the ‘store codes’ match up exactly what you have in your Google Places feed so Google matches your products to the appropriate store location.

For more information on Google Merchant Center read Mark’s post from Monday on Google Product Extensions

Examples below show the integrations on Google’s organic search results, Google Shopping, and Google Places:

Organic Listings in SERP

Google Shopping & Google Places Integration

Google Places with GMC Integration

Adwords and Business Location

• If you are running paid search, then a great option is synching up your local business account with Adwords.
• This will show the business address directly in the sponsored ad copy, with the option to expand and show a map view.

Increase Presence in Local Search Landscape

• The whole goal of local search is to anticipate the various ways consumers might find a business and optimize your visibility within that landscape. Many of the tactics above are specific to increasing your presence on Google, but there are many other ways to optimize your business online in terms of your website, local search services/listings, paid and non-paid marketing, as well as SEO and Social efforts.

Random Easter Eggs

• Consider customizing landing pages on your site based on the geography or site location they are coming from. Providing a customized user experience can maximize a consumer’s buying experience and improve conversion rates greatly.
  • If a consumer runs a search on a search engine and is then forced to run that same search on your site that’s likely to be more work than a consumer is willing to do – especially when Google is probably showing 100 other competitors with the same product! Make it easy for a consumer to make a purchase from your store.
• If you are running any form of sponsored advertising with search engines, try testing or adding in the city, state, or neighborhood information in the ad when appropriate for the keyword set. This brings the relevance to a much higher level, once again focusing on increasing conversions.
• With the increase in mobile usage, it’s important to optimize the user’s experience via the mobile web. When consumers are out and about, they spend a lot less time on your mobile site, so keep the user’s needs in mind when building the functionality.
• Before implementing your local search program, test out your address on as many mapping sites as possible to ensure they all read it and display the correct location. Ensuring consistency is very important. You never want to get the consumer so far into the purchase process and to your brick and mortar only to have them drive up to an empty field.
• Optimizing and submitting your business information to major sites that have local components is imperative to being visible at the time of intent. Personally I’ve seen instances where a business 10 times better than the competition has zero presence anywhere, allowing the less desirable competition grabbing the local tourists up and local searchers.