Up until now, local search marketing was one of the components of conventional SEM. But with the advent of smartphones and location-based apps, the flood gates have been opened there is now no limit to the potential. The bottomline here is that location based SEM is the future, so there’s not much point in trying to ignore it.
Practically speaking, there are many similarities between location-based and traditional SEM, when it comes to improving ROI or response rates. Keyword research is a critical issue in both cases, and the tools used to build keyword lists are also the same. The only difference may be that awareness of the location’s layout and the culture may help finetune it better.
Another aspect that is specific here is hosting the site on a top level country domain (TLD) and using a local web hosting company. So a site that caters to UK-based consumers has to be hosted with a UK based hosting company and has to use a domain that ends with co.uk. The web pages load a lot faster, and the site shows up a lot more in the search results for consumers from the UK.
On a related note, it’s important here to mention the company’s full address on the home page (usually found on the bottom of the page) and also on the contact page. If possible, ensure the address is found site wide on every page. This helps because many of the engines have a ‘search near me’ facility which only works if the page/website/company has an address.
As for the actual campaign, this has to be a mix of strategic placements and keyword buys on the big three and also local engines (if there are any). Also do some research to find the major websites catering only to the destination in question. This means a local ad campaign on all the major and location-specific search engines, plus at least a few ad buys for 6 months to a year on big destination sites which offer permanent links.
There’s also the aforementioned mobile aspect, which is a whole different cup of tea. It is possible to target customers who use smart phones based on their location and recent activity. In addition to targeting people in the vicinity, it can also be target someone who recently did a search and booked London hotels and/or flights. Such consumers can be hit with everything from area restaurants to city tours and other services for visitors.
All these innovations are just the tip of the iceberg, and there’s a lot more about to be unleashed. There’s still time for companies who are already doing SEM to get started with local search marketing and find their bearings by learning on the go. But the window is closing fast, and pretty soon there’ll be day when there is no SEM and it will all be location based.
In order to make your web pages more efficient, the techniques of search engine optimisation can be implemented. An SEO professional will help to design websites that are traffic magnets.
