In a recent episode of MarketSnare’s podcast, “The Multi-Location Marketing Show,” my co-host and I talked extensively about organic visibility.
I like to think of organic visibility as being like a freight train. The organic visibility freight train takes a lot of time to get up to speed. But once it’s rolling, it’s almost impossible to stop. Also, it sure can carry a lot of weight for your organization.
To contrast, I like to think of paid advertising as being like a jet plane. The paid advertising jet plane gets up to speed really fast. But it’ll burn through your jet fuel in no time at all. So if you run out of budget, you’re no longer visible.
But metaphors—and puns—can only take us so far.
So, in this article, I’ll list four practical tips that your local business can start doing today to improve your organic search visibility.
1. Get local reviews
Do some clicking around to find out what local review websites your customers use to evaluate products or services like yours. What’s the most popular in your community? Is it Google My Business? Yelp? Angie’s List? The Better Business Bureau (BBB)?
Next, figure out how to get positive reviews on those sites.
2. Don’t make potential customers have to scroll in order to see your main call-to-action
Whatever your call-to-action is — whether it’s subscribing to a newsletter, buying a course, or giving a service a free try — have that CTA up high on the page. Don’t make someone have to scroll to see it.
3. Have a local phone number
If you just moved from, say, New York City to Miami, and your business is a fashion boutique store, one of the worst things you can do is put your old New York City number as the business number. No. New York City numbers often start with “917.” If a Miamian sees a non-local number, they might not call you. So get a local number (for instance, Miami phone numbers usually start with “786”).
4. Improve your website’s overall relevance by creating complementary content
Here are some examples.
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Say your company’s main business is selling local guide books. How about creating some videos that correspond to those guide books?
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Say your company’s bread and butter are webinars. How about creating some podcasts that supplement those webinars?
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Say your company’s does web design for local businesses. How about creating some infographics that explain your services?
Thanks for reading. If you’d like an insider’s view into local search visibility, be sure to check out my podcast episode in which Elliot Olson and I discuss organic visibility, how local companies can get ranked high on results of search engines, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and more.