WSI Internet Marketing Blog

Optimising eCommerce Sites off Page Optimisation

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 17:18:00 GMT

Off-Page Optimisation

Offsite optimisation is all about acquiring quality inbound keyword links. It is best to get links from high ranking websites and web pages, but internal repeating links within your own website also count. Here’s how to improve off-page SEO:

Submit articles to various article directories for syndication and curation, making sure your content contains many keyword links back to your other content pages.
Go social! Create profiles on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other social networks to get links from existing customers.
Cross-reference related items between individual product pages (include accessories or similar products). This creates healthy internal links.
Create and share video content to attract more visitors.
Create a blog and be active in forum discussions in the area of your business.
Issue press releases and PR briefs about product launches, events and promotional offers regularly.

Just starting out as an online retailer with a few products to sell? Selling thousands of products online for many years now? Either way, make sure your eCommerce site is optimized for the search engines so you are most visible to your potential customers.

WSI can help optimise you eCommerce site for higher page rankings, better conversions and increased sales.

Optimising eCommerce Sites for Search Engines

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 17:19:00 GMT

If your business relies on an eCommerce site, then you know it's important to appear in the organic search results ahead of your competitors; especially if your competitors are selling the same products online. Having top rankings for an eCommerce website is crucial for long term success in the online marketing world.

On-Page Optimisation

Optimising an eCommerce site isn't that different than optimising any other type of web site. To make a page rank well in the organic search results, it needs a good title tag (that includes the keywords you're targeting); and good content on the page that includes the appropriate keywords. Here are some more tips for on-page optimisation:

Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.
To achieve good keyword focus, limit yourself to just one or two keywords per content page. You can even create a page for each product in your store so that you can take advantage of long-tail keyword phrases.
One reason why product pages on eCommerce sites appear in the search engine indexes and then disappear is because they are duplicating content (which the search engines catch on). Keep content and tags unique.
If you're selling products that your competitors are also selling, then your product descriptions need to be unique and different from theirs. Don’t just copy the generic product descriptions of items that are provided by the manufacturer. You’ll risk having your page considered a duplicate page by Google and other search engines.
Add links to related products or accessories, or perhaps a testimonial about the product. Adding ‘related products' type of navigation on your product pages will help visitors stay on your site.
Product Reviews can increase your visibility and improve your page rankings. This gives the search engines more content to read and also creates a third party endorsement for your product.

Online shoppers are using search engines to compare product features and prices, and if your eCommerce site isn’t positioned in the top search engine results, you're missing out on a lot of potential online sales!

Business Blogs can change the way your company is viewed

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:11:00 GMT

A business blog today is much more than an online journal for companies to share news and views. Yes, it’s true that blogs can transform your business but more than that, an effective blog can change the way your customers, employees and associates perceive your business. As thought leadership becomes the leading objective of your blog, a growing audience starts to recognize the distinctive value your company brings to the table.

Your business blog can truly transform the way the world sees you—and the best part is, you are in control to shape and nurture this image for greater profitability, steady growth and dominant leadership in the competitive landscape.

What a Blog Can Do For Your Business

Business blogs are an excellent corporate tool to share a company's expertise, offer a perspective on the industry, i.e. trends and developments, build additional web traffic, and connect with potential customers. Blogs are popular with online audiences because they offer fresh new voices and opinions. Business blogs can increase SEO ranking by on-page optimization, off-page optimization or link building, content creation and internal linking.

A blog lets you reach a bigger audience
With a blog, you can establish yourself as an expert in your industry
Gives you free publicity through search engine results pages
Can bring more traffic to your website
It’s another way to interact with your customers
Makes your website look more active and content rich (great for SEO)
A blog shows the human side of your business, and that you aren’t just an anonymous Internet entity.

Gives you a medium to promote new products and offers feedback / reactions quicker than other methods. If you would like to find out more about how blogging can help your business to spread the word please contact WSI South East.

Do's and Don'ts of Business Blogging

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:07:00 GMT

Do’s and Don’ts for business blogging

Ultimately, even though to build organic traffic is important, for a blog to succeed and last long, it is more important to write clear, compelling content for human readers.

Here are some do’s and don’ts for effective business blogging:

Do’s

Add links within your blog posts pointing back to other important pages that will help your rankings.

Make sure the information you provide on your business blog is meaningful to customers and updated frequently, so they have a reason to return.

Engage visitors in a dialogue. Filter out spam and profanity, but encourage comments, views and opinions without moderating them too much.

Every blog article and post is an SEO opportunity. You can’t realistically optimize your site for every long tail search term, but you can certainly target niche keyword phrases. Each keyword or phrase should be within the first sentence or two of your blog.

Don’ts

Blog posts ought to be useful to your site visitors. Don’t just talk about your products; instead offer useful, free information that people can use. Blog articles garner links because they are interesting, informative, and not overly corporate or sales-focused.

Don’t keep using corporate rhetoric, acronyms and jargon that only a few will comprehend. Use common terms, keep the sentences grammatically simple, short and concise.

Don’t put off regular posts and updates. Search engines will periodically crawl websites looking for new and updated content, so blogging consistently ensures fresh content on your site.

Don’t try to micro-manage your brand image or keep consumers in the dark. Be confident that transparency is the best policy, and customers will reward your candor.

Online and offline businesses alike can benefit from starting a blog to offer their products and services to a wider audience, increase their traffic, and generate more leads and sales. Contact WSI South East to leverage the opportunity and start your business blog today.

Leveraging the Google + Power of Social Networks

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:03:00 GMT

If you have your own website or online business, an efficient social profile Page using Google+ will let you explore a whole new world of social media marketing, that is not only fun, but easy and profitable.

Google+ posts sent to “public” rank fairly well in Google search results. Merging Google properties into Google+ and integrating it with the search engines has a tremendous impact on where your company appears in search engine results pages (SERPs).
You can manage circles—distribute clients into specific categories and share different posts, news or deals with different circles accordingly. This is a great way to connect with fans and share information with clients.
“Hangouts” is another great way to engage your customers and colleagues. It’s a high quality video chat that allows you to interact with your fans face to face. This interaction will allow you to get to know them, answer questions as well as get live product/service feedback. Businesses can also use “Hangouts” for video conferencing, to push live events and seminars to customers.
Use the Google+ badge to promote your site and your Google+ page. Google+ badge links your website with your Google+ page and lets others know you’re here. When a visitor likes your site and clicks the icon they will be taken directly to your Google+ page and will be able to share and follow your posts.
Google+ Direct allows people to simply enter a ‘+’ before your company name when searching on Google and get directly to your Google+ page.
The +1 button on Google+ is an ideal way to have customers spread the word about your business and its presence on Google+. You can also connect your +1’s from your website to your +1’s on your Google+ page. People tend to trust recommendations from people they already know.
“Ripples” is a Google+ tool that allows you to watch your posts and information as they travel across social networks. You can easily determine who is sharing your content and who is paying attention to it.
With “analytics”, you can get information about your page’s followers, visitors, and the general traffic and social activity around your business.

Google+ for business is unique in that it has blurred the lines between personal social networks such as Facebook, and business networks like LinkedIn.

Building your Google + Presence

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:04:00 GMT

Businesses are beginning to see the value of Google+ with the new Pages feature. The new Google+ brand Pages look similar to Google+ Profiles, except for the little square icon that indicates that it’s a Page rather than a Profile. Users can add brands to their circles, check out their information, and browse their photos. When users add a brand to their circles, it helps increase that brand’s follower count.

So what are you waiting for? Create a Page for your business and take advantage of Google +:

Before you can create a Google+ Page for your business, you need a Google+ Profile. The ‘You+’ link on your Gmail dashboard will direct you to the Profile creation page.

Choose a category to begin. Local businesses is good for smaller, less well-known businesses. Product or brand would work for companies and larger known businesses. Company, institution, or organization is mainly for businesses that don’t directly sell something, mostly not-for-profits.

Personalize your page with a photo/logo and tagline. You can continue with an introduction, information, and contact information, and finish with a photo strip of five different photos.

It’s time to start engaging with the Google+ community. For your business Page, you can create circles (networks), start posting information and news through your feed. You can also add your Google+ Page details to your existing website and share it via other networks.

Here is a guide to Google +

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:02:00 GMT

The official slogan for Google+ is “real-life sharing—rethought for the web”. Google+, is a social network operated by Google Inc, with integration across a number of Google products, including Google Buzz and Google Profiles. Started in June 2011 as a test version, its popularity has grown by leaps and bounds. Google+ notices are posted inside users’ Gmail inbox, so it’s 100% real-time Gmail deliverability. When you write about a subject on Google+ and your circle friends Google that subject, your comments and links are displayed automatically on page one of Google. No back-linking, no on-site optimization, just free traffic. All these factors make it a social media platform that is likely to stay on the scene and gain increased favour.

What’s So Special About Google Plus?

One key element of Google+ is a focus on targeted sharing within subsets of a social group (or what Google calls ‘Circles’).

Also within Google+ is a section specifically for viewing, managing and editing multimedia. Google+ includes an image editor, privacy options and sharing features.

‘Hangouts’ is Google’s new group chat feature. Instead of directly asking a friend to join a group chat, users instead click ‘start a hangout’ and they’re instantly in a video chat-room alone. At the same time, a message goes out to their social circles, letting them know that their friend is ‘hanging out’ and that they are invited to join.

Get ready to integrate Google+ into your Internet marketing strategy.

How to Turn Loyal Fans into Paying Customers

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 14:18:00 GMT

Here are some more tips for monetizing Facebook:

Facebook’s core value proposition is connecting and communicating with friends. While word-of-mouth, or “earned” media, helps brands gain Facebook fans, it can only go so far. Companies also need to contemplate using paid advertising to develop their Facebook fan-base.

Create engaging content. The simplicity of the “like” button means that there may be no actual engagement beyond the fleeting moment of the click. To be successful in this post-“like” phase of Facebook marketing, businesses need to excite their fan-base with compelling posts, interactions that spur a sense of community, and rewards for their ongoing support.

Give people a reason to become fans. Apps are a good way for any business to have engaging interactions with fans. Everyone wants the latest app, and you can place it for download on your page. The process of sharing will increase your business awareness and deliver good returns on your investment.

Use innovative apps to help monetize Facebook fan pages. For example, create apps that enable your business to post coupons for promotional discounts on your Facebook page. After clicking on the promotion, fans are prompted to provide their email addresses before receiving the coupon. Thus, you have not only increased the likelihood of a fan becoming a paying customer, but also gained a potential customer’s email address, which you can use for future marketing endeavours.

Incorporate e-commerce directly into your Facebook page. A Facebook storefront application will enable users to make purchases directly. You can also offer promotional deals to fans, but the storefront app offers the additional advantage of publishing a fan’s purchase on the Facebook news feed. This further promotes the item to your fan’s friends who can then make comments about the item.

Attracting new customers to your brand is a great benefit of Facebook fan pages; but if you have not monetised your Facebook page, then you are missing out on an easy way to generate revenue!

WSI can help create an effective online sales process to convert fans into buyers, get better conversions and increase sales.

Every Business can leverage Facebook Marketing

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 14:12:00 GMT

Facebook is currently THE most popular social media network online. Market-savvy brands are tapping into their Facebook audience to get instant feedback, find ideas on new product design and seek insights on how to market better. It is a great tool to build brand awareness within your target market. No matter what type of business you are in, you can use Facebook marketing to tap into your social network enhancing positive relationships for your business.

Building your Facebook presence

Remember, building and nurturing your network comes before monetization. So here’s how to get started:

After you’ve made your Facebook fan page, take advantage of the various tools Facebook offers businesses to promote their pages.
You can add your brand logo, any company photos, and as much information and content as you possibly can to build credibility.
Facebook allows you to connect your Twitter profile, your blog, and your website so they are all linked. The activities and interactions you undertake on one network will automatically be posted on all of your other networks.
Facebook also allows you to embed widgets on your website pages so that visitors to your site have the option of connecting to your Facebook page.
To jump start your business page, begin by determining which users and other Facebook groups are the most influential and which ones you should begin interacting with.

Once you start communicating regularly with other users and groups, you'll be surprised to see how quickly the interactions on your business page increase.

Five top tips for building your list

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:51:00 GMT

The advent of social media marketing continues to provide many opportunities for businesses to make real connections with customers. However, your social networking plans should enhance, rather than replace your email marketing activities. While Facebook's usage figures are impressive for example, they are still blitzed by the number of people that own and use an email address.

An effective email marketing strategy still has a key role to play in the modern marketer's online arsenal, working cohesively with other activities in order to create touch points with customers at a level they are comfortable with. The question then is not 'should I use email as a means to stay in touch with customers?' but instead, 'how do I build a targeted, responsive email list?'

There are a number of techniques to help build your email list – most of which can be implemented across your social media presence as well as your website.

1. Freebies
Everyone likes something for nothing – and will gladly part with their email address if that something is of value to them. Your freebie could consist of a number of things, such as:

a course of email tutorials
a complimentary white paper or special report
inclusion into a webinar
downloading a snippet of a lengthy industry report
giving access to membership area
a free prize draw or competition
or simply to receive a free newsletter full of helpful tips, news and resources

This list is in no way exhaustive, but could help get your creative juices flowing. The key is to offer a freebie that is targeted at and therefore of interest to your intended audience, to help 'qualify' your subscribers from the start.

2. Spread Your Net Wide
A useful way to get your content read and promote your newsletter is through the publishing of articles, or becoming a guest blogger. Use your article bio to include an invitation (and maybe offer a freebie) to encourage readers to subscribe to your newsletter.

3. Set Up a Squeeze Page
A squeeze page is a pre-sales letter which invites visitors to sign up to get the full sales message. The idea being to capture their email address before they move on to view the full sales letter. Using this method can also enable you to personalise the sales letter with the subscriber's name or other details you have requested.

4. Encourage Viral Activity
This point follows on from giving something away in order to get something back. This time though the intention is to actively encourage subscribers to share your freebie. It could be a video, an exclusive white paper or report, or even a game. This is especially effective if executed well across your social media properties.

5. Brucie Bonusses
Offer your visitors a bonus if they sign up for your newsletter, "a 20% off coupon" for example, or present a collection of targeted white papers or reports at a 'rock bottom' price. This works off a similar principle of course as our first point (something for nothing), but goes one step further in qualifying your subscribers as potential customers.

In all the above make sure to be transparent with how your subscribers' data will be used by publishing your company's privacy policy. This will go a long way to breaking down any trust barriers right from the outset.

Does your website resonate with your customers?

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:50:00 GMT

The decision to invest in an online presence for your business is no longer in question. The challenge now is more to do with how to differentiate yourself online, how to stand out from the 'cyber crowd'. Ideally, what makes you unique and engaging to your customers offline should be reflected just as effectively online.

The rise of social media has opened new and exciting opportunities for bringing businesses closer to consumers – but ultimately your website should also 'speak your customers language'. The following guidelines are designed to help you to develop a website which communicates effectively with your target audience.

1. Start with the End in Mind
Your first consideration starts before a line of code is written. What's the purpose of your website? What do you want to achieve by investing in an online presence? If you do not know what you are looking to achieve then it will be very difficult to be successful.

Starting with the end in mind will positively impact all areas of your website, from colours and layout to the creation, and even the positioning of your content.

2. Know Your Audience
Your website content, imagery and even colours can help make you more engaging to your customers. Get it right and you're sure to create that all important good first impression. Get it wrong on the other hand and prepare to be ignored.

A little research and consideration given to what appeals to your intended audience will help guide the 'look and feel' which will enhance your online presence, making a significant difference in your ability to speak your customers' language.

3. Making Your Content King
Now you're ready to get creative. With web technologies advancing at an impressive rate the number of imaginative ways to connect with your audience continues to grow. Each of the following platforms can be adapted to appeal to – and engage – any audience:

The obvious first, well written, easily digestible copy
PDF downloads for perfect printing (and reading later)
Video content – which opens a myriad of content ideas by itself
Social media platforms
Animations
Podcasts – and the video equivalent, Vodcasts
Webinar and other forms of online presentation
Slideshows with or without audio accompaniment

Just as importantly as the 'how' however, is the 'what'. Content is still king, so think quality over quantity when planning your message and don't be afraid to let your creative juices flow a little.

4. Remember it's a Conversation
An important part of connecting with your audience is to think dialogue rather than monologue. A website that never changes provides little reason for your audience to return after the first couple of visits. A blog is an ideal medium for publishing customer focussed content on a regular basis. Used well, a blog will also enable you to incorporate social media platforms to engage your audience above and beyond your initial content.

Critical to publishing customer focussed content on a regular basis is a well thought out content strategy. Simply put, this consists of a plan to regularly source, prepare and publish content designed to attract and engage your customers.

5 Steps for Video Marketing

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:48:00 GMT

In 2010 Gartner listed video as one of the top ten strategic online technology trends for 2011. With the year nearly three quarters over, their forecast seems justified. Consumers' appetite for streaming videos over their desktop, tablet and mobile devices is not abating. Seeing its potential, marketers in general are increasingly joining the online video trend as a way to get their message across more effectively – and to greater numbers.

Subsequently, more than two thirds of UK marketers are expected to have increased their online video ad spend in 2011 (IAB figures). With easier ways to consume video content and faster download speeds the trend shows no sign of slowing. So how can you get video marketing working for your business?

1. Think Personalisation Not Perfection
The stumbling block for most small businesses when considering video marketing is the unaffordable production costs. Ironically, the fact is that some of the most successful online video marketing campaigns have been done on a shoe string budget.

Today's video consumers are more concerned about watching entertaining; customer focussed content rather than expecting the highest of production values. That said, the production costs in most instances are in easy reach of a small business' marketing budget.

2. Make it Easy to View and Share
Once you have your video ready to go, your next step is to make it available for viewing using a dedicated video player. YouTube provides this service at no cost – but what you may save on the video hosting, you may lose on not having total control of how your video is viewed.

A dedicated video hosting and streaming service can provide you with your own branded video player which plays just as well across a number of desktop and mobile devices. A key component of your video player is giving viewers the ability to share the content with ease via the social networks or by email. Another nice feature is for the player to include a call to action button once your video concludes.

3. Optimise it For YouTube
While you may not want to use YouTube as your main online video player, you also don't want to ignore the marketing opportunity it offers. Owned by Google, YouTube is the world's second largest search engine, and regularly features within the first page of search results.

Optimising your video for YouTube can have a significant effect in securing your fair share of the huge number of viewers using YouTube to consume content on a daily basis.

4. Spread the Word
Use all your marketing collateral to help get the word out regarding your new video. While you may not be able to embed the video into an email (as email clients will simply strip the code), you can include an image of your video which when clicked, takes your subscriber directly to view your auto play video.

Your social media channels are a great place to promote your videos – and unlike email, will enable you to embed the video right into their platform. Making it easy to view and share.

5. Monitor What Works Best
Video is a very measurable medium, not only giving figures for the number of viewers, but also providing data for aborted views. Enabling you to identify unpopular content or if your videos are simply too long for example.

The key here, as with all your marketing activities, is to measure, rinse and repeat, improving as you go.

Social Media Spotlight: Tumblr

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 09:16:00 GMT

Tumblr.com is a new method of blogging similar to the likes of Twitter and WordPress. In fact, you could say it takes the best features from each and combines them by providing an attractive display, simply organised content and user friendly publishing tools.

While Tumblr does share similarities with other blogging platforms, it has many differences that set it apart from the “social media crowd”. A tumblr blog, or “tumblelog” uses short and minimalistic posts such as images or links to convey messages and thoughts in favour of the more conventional long winded editorial posts on other sites. Due to this approach, tumblr is widely known as a microblogger.

With its ease of use and extensive customisation options, many businesses have turned their sights to Tumblr as a way to promote their products and services. Tumblr provides businesses, large and small, a way to publish to and engage with their current audience.

Your Content, Your Way
Tumblr blogging grants users multiple features to set their content apart from other blogs across the web, making it more personalised in the process. Several types of posts are supported by tumblr, including:

the typical text format
photos are also supported and extremely popular
quotes from different sources online, including other tumblelogs may be used
links and Chat logs while similar to the text format are supported and presented in a more authentic manner
other popular blog post formats are audio and video

While not revolutionary, the Tumblr format does make the experience increasingly more personal, enabling the tumblelog owner to connect with their followers using an innovative approach.

Ease Of Use
Tumblr handles each supported format in a very efficient and simple manner. A tumble log owner has the option of texting blog updates from any mobile phone as well as through email.

Anything on the internet is up for grabs to post through the tumblrbookmarlet which allows the log owner to post anything they come across on the web. Instant messaging is another method to update a log by messaging Tumblrbot.

Impressively, one may even phone in to their Tumblr log and leave voice posts. In addition to these methods tumblr is connected through different social pathways and may be updated through things such as Facebook, Youtube, Digg, Twitter and other apps.

Right For You?
Tumblr allows for the tumblelog to become an extension of the owners brand through its extensive customisation processes. Its ease of use and plethora of supported formats ensures this – but is it the right social media platform for your business?

There is no doubt Tumblr provides another viable option for increasing your business reach and the sharing of content – but may not be for everyone.

While Tumblr’s simplicity and ease of use is one of its selling points, it could also be considered a disadvantage if your content requires more sophisticated publishing tools.

Before taking the plunge, it’s important to identify your objectives, the demographic of your intended audience and how publishing content to Tumblr fits into your existing social media activities.

In conclusion, Tumblr is clearly a social networking platform that is to be taken seriously – but may not be for everyone. If you would like to review the effectiveness of your social media plans, please call 0845 345 2592.

Why Video is Great For eCommerce

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 09:14:00 GMT

As internet technologies advance and bandwidth speeds are boosted, online shoppers’ expectations naturally increase. While this trend may be unstoppable, the golden rule ‘content is king’ (long live the king by the way) is still true, the consumption of that content however, is becoming steadily more sophisticated.

Text and images have a key role to play in getting your message across. Well crafted copy and good use of product pictures will always entice sales – but with video having an increasingly significant impact on internet activity, websites limited to static content may soon be in danger of being left behind.

Video integration is steadily being embraced as a solution for quickly and efficiently presenting sales and marketing messages. The use of videos has several advantages over conventional static websites.

Great For Product Presentation
A great sales pitch will not only consist of benefits, benefits, benefits, it will also include removing any perceived risk in making the purchase. With this in mind, good use of video footage can significantly enhance the sales message by:

Presenting the benefits of the product in a multi-dimensional format
Filming product demonstrations
Enabling the retailer to connect with shoppers on a more personal level
Showing product reviews and user reviews
Helping address frequently asked questions & improve customer services

Keep in mind that video production doesn’t have to break your budget – some of the simplest videos often become the most popular.

Great For Search Traffic
Video searches tend to bring in a lot more traffic than normal search engine activity. A number of search engines have modified their search results to include videos among their results. With this in mind, a well optimised video may have a better chance of showing up on the first page of search results for phrases that might be too competitive to achieve any other way.

Great For Engagement
With the right broadcasting platform, your video can be consumed anywhere users have an internet connection. The increasing use of smart phones (which make viewing video a breeze) means the potential audience is growing fast. This reinforces video as a great way to increase your reach and engage more customers as you roll out new offers, deals, competitions and more.

Great For Social Sharing
Some of the videos on YouTube have been incredibly popular, achieving audience sizes that big budget programme makers can only dream of – and often produced with little or no expense. While it is fair to say business to consumer video footage may not always be as sharable as ‘amateur’ footage, the opportunities for sharing – and going viral – are real.

With a little imagination and a half decent recording device, video is an ideal tool to enhance your eCommerce marketing activities – and doesn’t need to cost the earth. Key to its success, as with any marketing activity, is in the planning. If you would like to explore how video can enhance your online marketing strategy, please call 0845 345 2592.

5 Step Plan to Local Search Success

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 09:12:00 GMT

As the web usage grows so the focus becomes more local. If your services are limited geographically, you need to pay attention to local search marketing opportunities. A number of networking sites like Foursquare and services such as Google Places exist to help connect local web traffic with businesses in their area.

If a search marketer offers the earth, be very wary, achieving top search result places should not be guaranteed. Instead, following genuine tried and tested techniques in identifying your business as local and relevant to searches will always be the best approach.

This article reviews a five step plan using some of the best practice techniques that will enable your business to win new customers locally.

1. Determine Your Locality
The first step in the plan is to identify your target audience; what is your geographic reach for example? Who is your ideal customer? If you are not sure where to start, you might like to see what you can learn from your competitors. In what way, if any, are they choosing to appeal to local internet users? Once completed, this step sets the foundation for your successful local search campaign.

2. Changing the Channels
Now you know where your target audience is, the next step is to identify the best channels – or websites – to attract them from. As well as obvious channels such as the search engines, this may also include banner advertisements, social networking (with increasing opportunities for local search), videos and more. At the same time as helping drive more website traffic, each channel will also increase your search engine visibility.

3. Get Personal
Take care that your marketing messages reflect something of your locality. The more relevant, or personal, the shopper feels you are being to them, the more likely you are to attract their attention – and their business.

This will also enable the search engines to successfully identify not only the relevancy of your services – but also your geography in relation to local searches.

4. It Was the Tortoise That Won
Be consistent and patient. Enough of the right techniques in the right places will win you the marketing ‘race’. Make sure your marketing plan incorporates a schedule of activities that matches your budget. A steady consistent approach will bear more long term search traffic than a short burst of misguided web marketing activity.

5. Test, Monitor, Tweak and Repeat
The last step in the plan is the testing and monitoring phase. It is only by monitoring the success of your results that you are able to improve and build on what you have accomplished. Identify how and when you will evaluate your local search marketing activities and re-tweak your plans accordingly.

Local search marketing does require an investment of time and money, but when done right, it will return your investment many times over. If you would like to get local search working for your business, please call 0845 345 2592