Adapting Your Digital Marketing: Marketing & Local SEO during Covid-19

September 20, 2020
By GR Harlow
In Advisory, Digital Marketing, Industry, SEO, Website

You may think that because Covid has increased the amount of online shopping by consumers, local SEO doesn’t matter as much as it did pre-covid. However, that could not be further from the truth. Read on to find out why you should focus on local marketing and local SEO during Covid-19.

Local Marketing

Local marketing is a strategy that businesses can use to reach potential customers that live within a certain distance of their location. In other words, businesses can utilize this strategy when they want to target customers in a nearby neighborhood, city, etc.

Local marketing may be a new buzzword, but it’s an idea that’s been around for a long time. Believe it or not, it predates the internet and social media. Think back to newspaper and yellow pages ads, flyers on local bulletin boards, getting referrals through word of mouth, shopping at the corner store rather than huge retailers, etc. These were all examples of local marketing.

Today, that translates into Google My Business, Yelp, Trip Advisor, and all the other social media platforms available. In the age of Covid, it’s more important than ever to connect with your current and potential customers. Businesses need to adapt, strengthen, or build from scratch a local marketing plan that keeps them in front of their audience.

Get Your Name Out There

Pop quiz: if you want someone to find you, should you hide or make yourself as visible as possible? The answer is obvious, right? Get your business out there and make sure your customers notice you! This means registering for any online directory or social media platform that applies to your business. Below is a list of online directories and websites to peruse and sign up for those that make sense for your business.

Bing Places – While only 6% of website users utilize Bing for their web browser, remember that it is the default search engine for Internet Explorer and Edge.

FourSquare

Yellow Pages

Local SEO

Perhaps the most important piece of local marketing today is local SEO. 46% of all Google searches seek local information. That’s nearly half of all searches! This means you need get yourself in a position to be found by your customers, and don’t make them work too hard to do it. When your customers type in your service/brand/product + your location (could be a city, state, etc), you want your listing to appear in the top three results.

How to Boost Your Local SEO During Covid-19

Mobile Optimization

This is probably the most important design feature of any website. It NEEDS to be mobile friendly. Why? Here are some statistics:

3.5 billion smartphone users worldwide, and experts expect this number to continue rising. (Statista, 2020)
More than 87% of internet use comes from mobile devices. (Siteefy, 2020)
In 2019, the average American adult spent more time on their phone (3 hours 43 minutes) than they did watching TV (3 hours 35 minutes). (emarketer, 2019)
More than 40% of transactions happen via a mobile device. (Siteefy, 2020)
51% of internet users use mobile devices to make purchases, and two thirds use mobile apps to make these purchases. (Datareportal, 2020)
6 out of 10 shoppers choose brands or retailers based on the ease of their mobile site. (Google, 2019)
62% of mobile users will purchase from a competitor if they have a negative mobile experience. (Siteefy, 2020)

Google My Business

Second only to mobile optimization is having a complete, accurate, updated, and helpful Google My Business page.

Keywords

Find the keywords your customers will use to find you and use those throughout the content of your website. If you operate a local pizza place in your city, you will want to include “Your City” + pizza throughout your site.

Online Directories

Take advantage of the online directories we talked about previously. Most are free and it does wonders for your SEO, not to mention offering more visibility to your customers.

Online Reviews

Search engines love seeing positive reviews from happy customers on a regular basis, and rank businesses accordingly. Depending on your industry, think Google, Facebook, Yelp, Trip Advisor, Angie’s List, etc.

Contact Information

Include your business name and contact information on every page. This helps search engines find you when your customers search for you.

About Us/ Our Locations Pages

Include an About Us or Locations page on your website, especially if you have multiple locations. Include your contact information, store hours if applicable, and a Google map embedded in the page.

Optimize for Voice Search

Remember earlier when we talked about how many smartphone users there are? Think about how many of them are saying “Hey Siri” or “OK Google” to ask their questions, not to mention the Amazon Alexa being a staple in many homes. With so many people asking Siri, Google and Alexa to do their research for them, it’s important to make sure your content is easily found.

Backlinks

Backlinks boost your local SEO, but make sure they are from quality sources. To get backlinks, create high quality content that people want to link back to, and seek out guest blog opportunities to expand your audience.

Not Sure Where to Start? We Can Help!

If adapting your local marketing and local SEO during Covid-19 isn’t something you feel like dealing with, leave it to the team of experts at Blindspot. We are happy to take a look at your site, figure out where you are right now, and where you’d like to go! Get in touch today and find out how we can help.

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