Local SEO Tips to Help Local Small Town Business Owners Improve Your Visibility Online (Part 1)

Forward: This article is the first in a series of blog entries dedicated to helping entrepreneurs, local small business owners and nonprofit organizations negatively affected by a slow economy, shutdowns and layoffs, and other issues due to COVID-19. My hope is to help you improve your online visibility by focusing on local SEO and adjusting your local marketing efforts. Your website and social media presence are essential to the success of your business, now more than ever. We are witnessing one of the toughest years this country has ever experienced.  I'm no doctor or scientist, so I can’t solve to COVID issue, but I am a digital marketing specialist. I can use the knowledge I’ve gained over the years to help people like you by improving your reach online, so you can sell more products and services and get the positive attention you deserve. This week's post is a prelude to a series of upcoming articles dedicated to specific niches and industries, so if you haven't subscribed to my blog yet, do it today (you won't regret it). 

COVID-19 is Attacking Local Small Businesses

Recently, Yelp shared a report on the effect COVID-19 is having on small businesses all over the country. The Yelp Economic Impact report tracks business closures through Yelp customer review listings. They found that an estimated 163,735 businesses have closed in the U.S. as of August and they don't expect it to get better anytime soon. 

According to another survey by Main Street America, "...millions of small businesses will be at great risk of closing permanently if the crisis continues for several more months. Of the nations approximately 30 million small businesses, nearly 7.5 million small businesses may be at risk of closing permanently over the coming five months, and 3.5 million are at risk of closure in the next two months."

Here at home, local small businesses have it even worse. College towns like Raleigh and Chapel Hill are getting hit even harder. They depend on the Fall income boost from kids going back-to-school. This year, that boost never came. Retailers, bars, theatres, and restaurants are all getting their asses kicked, as well as the vendors and service providers that serve them. 

While much of this news is bleak, there is hope.

When any industry struggles, we all feel it. It’s our duty to do all we can to stay in business, while supporting other local businesses to help them stay open. Still, many folks have already closed up shop or lost a job due to their company closing. Crisis breeds creativity, so instead of burying our heads in the sand and waiting for relief, many people are coming up with their own innovative ideas to stay afloat. These include:

• Starting new online ventures like e-commerce businesses, affiliate marketing or consulting services;

• Rebuilding their business to offer services online;

• Learning new skills or honing old skills to use in creative ways; or

• Taking the experience and skills they gained working in one profession and using them to help in another, such as flight attendants helping at hospitals and nursing homes.

Whether or not you decide to take a shot at doing something new online or you continue working hard to stay open, one thing is for sure: 

You must have a strong digital presence to succeed. 

The problem is, marketing your business isn’t easy. One common issue I see here in the RTP (especially the small towns that surround the big three) is their disregard for the opportunities the internet offers. When I moved here from Northern Virginia, it was like stepping back in time. It was cute and kind of cool, but these days it is imperative you're business is online. 

That means you need to have two things:

1. A fast, easy to navigate, mobile-responsive, and search engine optimized website with a clear call-to-action, a blog to provide fresh content on a frequent basis, backlinks, and an email sign-up form to help build an email list of potential customers.

2. Social media pages on Facebook, LinkedIn, and a third platform depending on your industry. (Instagram is great for fashion, design, health, and beauty, lifestyle, photography, etc. etc., Pinterest is great for anyone especially in retail, Snapchat and TikTok great for personal brands, realtors, entertainers, etc.) 

There is much more to it, but without a website and social media presence, your business is invisible.

In the past, small town businesses did quite well with word-of-mouth advertising. Business owners were involved in the community, we networked in person and attended Chamber of Commerce events. We met for coffee before work to catch up and met for drinks after, to unwind. Social interaction was a key factor in how well your local business did.

Today, it’s much more difficult to meet for coffee or let loose after work. Networking and vendor events are virtual now, so those personal one-on-ones with referral partners just aren’t occurring. COVID-19 is keeping people indoors, so people aren’t socializing the way we did. If you want to succeed, you need a digital storefront people can easily find, learn about your products and services and easily move forward either making a purchase or set up an appointment. Therefore, slapping together a half-assed website or using your Facebook page as your website just isn't going to cut it, anymore. You are competing with the rest of the world, so it's time to kick it up 10 notches and get serious about your online presence. 

Local SEO: Don't fear it, embrace it!

One essential aspect of digital marketing is Search Engine Optimization or SEO. SEO is the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a website by ensuring it appears high on the list of search engine results. Local SEO is one of the hottest trends in marketing because it evens the playing field between large and small businesses. It’s also just one of many examples of how your business could benefit from a good SEO strategy. It seems simple enough; however, when most small business owners start digging into the many aspects of SEO, they get overwhelmed.

• They feel they are to far behind the competition, so they don’t consider it in their marketing strategy. The truth is, Local SEO is different and offers small business owners are real opportunity to compete with anyone.

• SEO services are costly, but with a little coaching and by taking action on the things I mention below, you can get accomplish great things.

• SEO is always changing, how can someone keep up while still managing their own business. It’s possible, read on…

• They don’t know where to begin. Terms like “Crawling”, “Cloaking”, and “Bot” sound more like something one would read in a Sci-Fi novel than in a marketing strategy. For now, don’t worry about those scary words. Just take it one step at a time.

The truth is, SEO IS A COMPLEX PROCESS! it involves many different tactics and best practices that can change at any moment. However, as a small business serving your local market, a few simple adjustments will make a huge difference on how SEO can help your business get the attention it deserves. Ready? 

Before we move forward, I challenge you to take a few hours over the next week to do 1 thing to improve your brand's visibility online. Schedule 5-7 hours over next week, right now. If you need to work a few extra hours, it will be worth it. I promise!

Go on…I’ll wait…

OK, are you ready?

Improve Your Local SEO by Filling Out Your Local Directory Listings and Citations

Step One: If you haven’t done it yet, NOW is the time. Set up your Google My Business page.

If you refuse to take any other advice I offer, at least do this. Your Google My Business (GMB) page is more than just a local listing, your free Business Profile lets you manage how your business appears on Google Search and Maps. The benefits are priceless:

• It provides potential customers a place to learn more about you with links to your website, store hours, phone number, email and more.

• Instant messenger offers you a way to speak with customers while they are searching for companies like yours. You can engage in a one-on-one conversation with them online before they even arrive.

• Weekly posts allow you to share team pics, fun or informative info about your industry, or promotions with links to call or email you, visit your website or send visitors directly to a landing page where they can learn more.

• You can showcase products and services right on your listing!

• Add support links to your profile, so customers can purchase gift cards and make a donation.

• Post photos to your profile to show off what makes your business unique, highlight your company culture, and give customers good reason to choose you, every time.

• Check your monthly insights to see how many people called your company, visited your website or searched for you on Google maps.

• All your reviews are there too, so you can gain the trust of potential customers.

• Based on your business, people can place orders right on your page. The easier you make it for them the easier it is for them to choose you.

• You can share an offer directly to your followers to show how much you appreciate their loyalty and keep them coming back.

• To help customers stay informed about your business, create custom posters, social posts, and more from reviews and updates on your Business Profile on Google. All for free.

• You can even build a free website on your Google My Business profile.

Google My Business is like a mini website on Google.

Setting up a GMB page is free and will enable you to appear in local search results for queries specific to your products or services. If you have a office or shop, you will also show up on Google Maps.

Get started here:

• Set up your GMB page. You can begin by searching to see if you (or someone else) may have done this already by doing a search in Google Maps.

• If you have no page, then sign in with your Google Account and simply create one using the easy instructions provided. It’s best to sign up with your business email since this account will be for all your locations. (If you don’t have a custom email address for your business, you can get one here through G-Suites.)

• You will need to get your profile up to as near completed status as possible, then verify it through a phone call or postcard code. Until you have verified your listing, you will not be able to hit 100%. A couple things:

  • Enter complete data: Name, address, phone number, email, category and attributes (such as “Minority Owned Business” or Veteran Owned Business”) are all critical to a strong listing.

  • Verify your location.

  • Provide accurate open/closed hours and keep them that way (people really rely on them, especially out in the country because we may have to drive an additional 15 minutes to get to your shop and it’s super frustrating to get somewhere to find out they’ve changed their hours due to COVID).

  • Manage and respond to your reviews

  • Add photos

For more help setting up your GMB page, here are instructions.

Once your Google My Business page is set up, it’s time to move to the next step.

Step Two: Claim the rest of your local business listings.

Remember the Yellowpages? In 1886, a gentleman by the name of Reuben H. Donnelley established the first classified telephone directory, The Yellow Pages. No one knows for sure why they switched to yellow paper. They didn't start that way. Legend has it the printer ran out of white paper in 1883 and instead of waiting weeks for a new shipment, Donnelley used yellow.

Today, Yellowpages.com is just one of 100’s of online directories in which you can register (or cite) your business. Most of these listings are free and they offer a place where you can share your contact information, details about your products and services, and much more. They are called listings or citations and they are a very important aspect of your local marketing.

Consider this:

Say it was the 1985. You just opened a new company and you need to get the word out. TV, radio, newspapers/magazines and direct mail were your main channels for advertising, but they were all quite expensive. The Yellowpages offered a cost-affordable option to deliver your contact information to everyone in your area. Would you list your business or nonprofit in your local Yellowpages? Sure you would, everyone did. Now imagine the Yellowpages was just one of 50 local free directories. Wouldn't you want to be in all of them?

Same theory here.

When someone needs a product or service, they begin by searching online using search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo. Everyone who has a website and sells the products or services you do, can be found on search engines. Wouldn’t it make sense to have your business or nonprofit organization listed in as many places as possible. The more sites your business is listed on, the greater their chances are of finding you, right?

According to Mariam Ellis, MOZ Local SEO Specialist, "Every location-based business needs to own as much of its branded and core keyword SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) as possible. Taking maximum control of both structured and unstructured citations is one of the most obvious and sensible ways to achieve a high degree of ownership. Whether it’s structured, like a traditional TripAdvisor listing, or unstructured, like a mention of your business in local online news ranking in the first 3-5 pages of Google, these are identifiable business assets." 

Listing your business on local directories will improve your local businesses' visibility and rank online. 

There are two ways to do this:

• Use a service like Yext, where you rent your listing and as long as you pay for their service, they continue to show up. However, once you decide you don't want to pay for their service anymore, ALL your listings go away. ; or

• You manually enter your listings on 20-70 local structured directories like Apple Maps and Better Business Bureau, industry-structured sites like Houze or TripAdvisor, and unstructured sites like local blogs like Triangle Food Blog or Triangle Business Journal. This does take some time and must be consistent, using the same info on every listing, but you own them, forever! 

To help, I have created a spreadsheet with some of the most influential and relevant sites and provided you with all the info you should have ready to ensure all your listings are consistent. I suggest using it or something like it so you can track your listings.

Now, I understand this is time-consuming, but it truly does matter and it will help you get ahead of your competition. Now, I know many of us don’t have 5-7 hours to do this, but it's so important. Therefore, I am now offering it as a service starting today. Learn more...

Just think of these listings as another link to your website. You can do 20 and have 20 new links to your website, or you can do 70 and have 70 new links to your website. It’s pretty simple, just time consuming.

Next week, I will share your next step to improve your local SEO. Be sure to subscribe and enjoy the rest of your week! 🎃👻👽🤡🎃

Tips for Launching a Business You Can Run from Home

Being your own boss has a lot of appeal, but it’s even better if you can run your business from the comfort of home. Not only are operating costs lower when you work from home, it’s also great to have a nonexistent commute. All those perks are nice, but it doesn’t mean starting a home-based business is easy. The resources below can help guide you through the process of setting up a successful business to run from home.

Getting Established

Knowing you want to run your own business is just the beginning. To get your ideas off the ground, you’ll have to develop a business plan, think of your ideal customer or client and find ways to fund your business. 

You’ll also want to think carefully about the business structure you want. Your business structure determines what taxes you pay and what paperwork you need to file. Not only that, you have to choose a structure before you can register your business. 

Common structures include sole proprietorship, partnerships and limited liability companies (LLCs). For many people, an LLC is ideal because it limits personal liability for business issues. The rules for establishing an LLC as well as the tax requirements vary by state, so be sure to do your research to determine what’s best for you. 

Making a Distraction-Free Home Office 

In addition to establishing your business, you will also want to carve out a work area to operate your business at home. If you make and sell products or need to keep inventory on hand, think about setting up in the basement or converting your garage. If you simply run an online service, your space requirements will be much smaller and you can easily set up in a spare bedroom or other unused space. 

When choosing a work area, you also have to think about how to keep your work and personal life separate. This is hard enough if you live alone, but it’s even more challenging if you have pets or kids. BusinessKnowHow.com says it helps to keep regular hours and to make sure all business-related things are contained in one area. 

Finding Clients 

After putting together your work space, you’ll be ready to start focusing on running your business. Landing your first customer or client takes a lot of work, but you’ll need to persevere to be successful.

First, you have to make sure people know about your products or services. If your business provides a service like writing, consulting, accounting or just about any other service, it doesn’t hurt to make a profile on freelance job boards to find your first clients. You’ll also need to build and maintain a strong digital presence, but you’re best off hiring professionals for these tasks. Patrick Cox, The Cre8ive Consultant can help by creating a website, working with you to develop a strong social media presence, and build an email list using inbound lead generation to grow your email list.

You might also find it helps to run advertisements to help spread the word. Running ads on Google and Bing can be beneficial, but social media ads are often effective as well. Ads do cost money, but ThriveHive points out that you can also get free exposure on Google by diversifying your approach. Publishing useful content on your website or offering a free introductory consultation are just a few ways to put yourself out there. 

Maintaining Business Growth 

Landing a few clients and making your first sales is exciting, but now you have to think about ways to keep your momentum going. Maintaining relationships with your best clients and customers is a good way to earn repeat business. However, you also need to work on expanding your customer and client base. Posting regularly on social media, keeping your website fresh and starting an email newsletter are a few ways to bring in more clients. 

If you’ve always wanted to run a business, don’t let fear get in the way. By following these tips for success, you can ensure your great ideas get off the ground.

Amy Collett is creator of Biz Well, a website that helps professionals and entrepreneurs build and strengthen their personal brand. When she isn’t helping clients boost their careers or businesses, she enjoys coaching her daughter’s soccer team and training to become a yoga instructor.