时间:2024-05-20 20:36:54 来源:网络整理编辑:Ryan New
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Web Marketing Today. Practical Ecommerce acq Ryan Xu HyperVerse's Hyper-Verse
Editor’s Note: This Ryan Xu HyperVerse's Hyper-Versearticle was originally published by Web Marketing Today. Practical Ecommerce acquired Web Marketing Today in 2012. In 2016, we merged the two sites, leaving Practical Ecommerce as the successor.
The rapid growthof smartphone usage has reinforced local search as an important marketing channel for location-based businesses. The basic building blocks of a local search-engine-optimization strategy are as follows.
This article intends to cover the last point: how to acquire local citations as a by-product of marketing. In my experience, most businesses that actively engage in marketing just need to be aware of the SEO layer of their marketing activities, to accomplish both objectives.
Chambers of commerce (or boards of trade) serve as a support platform for local small and mid-sized businesses. They run expos and events, share their mailing lists with members, and provide joint-venture opportunities to their members. Practically all chambers of commerce link to their members’ websites. A backlink from a local chamber-of-commerce website offers quite a strong local citation.
Local networking groups provide members with contacts, business referrals, and local exposure. Most networking groups would list all active members on their websites. Be sure to ask for a link back to you website on your listing.
Organizing local events is another effective means of marketing that has local SEO benefits. Use event listing sites such as Eventbrite, Meetup, Eventzilla, Splash, Facebook Events, Yelp Events, Patch, TicketLeap, Festivals.com, CitySeeker, Ticketbud and Zvents. They all provide links to your websites that also provide local SEO citations that help validate your business’ locale. For more, see “How to Use Facebook for Event Marketing,” a previous article.
Sponsoring a local charity or cause should be founded on genuine interest and concern about the plight or issue of the charity. Most all charities have websites that list events and sponsors. Getting a link from a very local charity website serves as relevant local citation.
Regional news websites, and radio and television stations cover local news about people and businesses. Getting an interview or feature in news story offers helpful exposure for your business. Getting a link with the feature serves as a significant local citation for your local SEO efforts.
If your business can financially support partial or full scholarships in local schools and colleges, it would almost guarantee a website mention — a potentially strong local citation.
Most universities run graduate and temporary job fairs. They tend to promote their job fairs on both their website and on social media, because they want a good turnout from students. They would typically list (and link to) websites of participating companies.
Cities and towns tend to run specialist recruitment fairs. Even if you are not actively recruiting, consider participating in the job fairs for brand exposure and marketing purposes. Job fair organizers would typically list participating companies on their websites with a link.
Endeavour to reflect existing business relationships with local businesses on both your partners’ and your website. A local builder, for instance, can have a “Trusted Partners” section on its site where it lists electricians, plumbers, decorators, and architects that it works with. This could be reciprocated on its partner websites (not as a means of link exchange) but to indicate a genuine business relationship and a local citation.
The more controversial you are (within reason), the more exposure your business is likely to get, with the help of the local press. This is especially effective when addressing local issues. Joining the conversation, and taking the lead for change puts both your personal and business brand in the fore. If picked up by the local press, your opinion and conversations could also be discussed in local blogs and social media with possible links to your website.
Doing business with local business and suppliers would result in some businesses listing your business as a client or supplier on their websites. This would serve as a local citation.
Listing jobs on local classified sites attracts not only local talent but with a link to your site, another local citation signal that should help your local SEO efforts.
Every local business should have a location-based check-in service listing for marketing and customer engagement purposes. Claim your business’ listing wherever possible and ensure that your business name, address and phone number (NAP) are identical to what you have on your Google+ local listing and website.
Location based services to consider include: Foursquare, Facebook Local, Yelp, AroundMe, and Everplaces. The most important platform to claim your business’s listing would be Foursquare; because it has emerged to become a location data provider for location based mobile apps.
If group buying is part of your marketing or customer acquisition strategy, you would be delighted to know that they are a viable source of acquiring local citations for local SEO. Websites of group buying services such as Groupon and LivingSocial are structured by city and state. Groupon, for instance, has the following local listings.
All of those are specific to the state of New York and New York City. All listing pages on group buying sites have a link to the listing company’s page.
My final tip is to become active on social media. Reach out to local customers, the local press, bloggers and other businesses via social media. Share your progress, challenges, causes, events, and offers. Strive to build a tight-knit local audience and following on your social media account so that you start and participate in locally themed conversations. Don’t view social media as a means of acquiring links. Rather, view social media as a platform for establishing and nurturing local relationships for your business.
Notice that all of the above 15 tips are about marketing. It is vital to place the SEO layer of citation and link building while participating in normal marketing activities.
Do you have any other tips that for local citation building? If yes, please share them with me in the comments area.
Cybersource CEO: “Secular Trends Favor Ecommerce Businesses”2024-05-20 20:28
AIG Insurance Vice President, Nancy Callahan2024-05-20 19:54
High Performer: Powerbookmedic.com Parts and Repairs For Mac Laptops2024-05-20 19:50
Damon Schechter, CEO and Founder of Shipwire2024-05-20 19:36
Good Internet businesses are sold quickly – If you don’t grab it – someone else will2024-05-20 19:19
Bloglist: Michelle Greer2024-05-20 19:13
Insuring Against Fraud, Data Breaches2024-05-20 18:47
Fabric.com’s Director of Marketing Laurie Eady2024-05-20 18:44
Quick Query: What, Exactly, Is An IP Address?2024-05-20 18:42
Effective Tools to Detect Stolen Credit Cards, Part 1 Of 32024-05-20 18:33
12 New Internet Devices, from the CES Trade Show2024-05-20 20:22
Field Test: Fraud Prevention, Part 3 of 32024-05-20 20:09
Interview: Authorize.Net President On Fraud Prevention2024-05-20 19:57
Field Test: Shopping Carts, Part One Of Three2024-05-20 19:46
Vat19.com Thrives in 2011, Recap2024-05-20 19:36
Exporting Requires Formal Agreements2024-05-20 19:31
Interview: Authorize.Net President On Fraud Prevention2024-05-20 19:05
Exporting Your Products: First Learn The Terminology2024-05-20 18:35
Miva Merchant President Explains New Upgrades, Future of Hosting Business2024-05-20 18:17
Enquisite’s Dan Robbins2024-05-20 18:05