For many smaller and established businesses, online marketing may not be a priority. However, failing to tap into this market is going to result in missed possibilities for sales, and this is going be become an increasingly negative factor in the future.

In larger cities, especially in New York City where we are located, small business and businesses not advertising online are simply not visible to a larger and larger portion of the population. This is because more and more people are exclusively relying on online searches to find a shop, a service, or a product. If you are not tapping into online marketing for local businesses, these consumers are simply unaware you even exist.

The Mobility Factor

According to a study by Search Engine Land published online in 2012, over 85% of all consumers use online searches to find local businesses. The highest percentage of searches for local businesses is between 2-5 times per week, with the next highest at 6 to 10 times per week.

To make an even stronger case for online marketing for local businesses, the same report indicates that only 15% of all consumers surveyed indicated they have never used online searches to find a business in their community. Additionally, the report found consumers were just as likely to do an online search as asking someone for a personal recommendation for a good company.

Reviews in Online Marketing for Local Businesses

Meshing with the online search in lieu of a personal recommendation finding, as many as 75% of all people finding a company through online marketing for local businesses take the time to read at least 2 and up to 10 reviews.

Having your customers not only find the website for your business online, but also to leave a positive review, is a big selling factor. This will also help your business to advance through the search engine rankings, moving into the top spots that see the most traffic.

As a local business, setting up an online review option for products, and for general feedback, is an important consideration. This is seen as a very trustworthy source of information about the company, and it also provides additional information, use of keywords and even the use of alternative search terms that will further be tracked and recorded by search engines.

Getting Local

One issue we find consistent across online marketing for local businesses through do-it-yourself websites is the lack of use of geo tags, or the actual names of the cities served by the business. This is more than just a string of city names separated by commas; it involves working the name into the content in natural ways.

If the company name and location isn’t included in the content and within the website it won’t show up on local result. This is certainly true for the big search engine results, including Google and Bing, but it is also true for more localized search engines such as Yelp.

One thing we stress to all our customers working to improve their online marketing for local businesses is to make sure your city and state, as well as your business name or a keyword, is found in your tags, headings and in the content.

It can be difficult to develop a comprehensive strategy for local online marketing on your own, but our experience and expertise can make it easy. To schedule an appointment with our top NYC marketing team give us a call today and get your website noticed.