Local Search Marketing Primer for Cumbria Business Owners

This is a topic I’m pretty passionate about as I first saw the need for this in Cumbria and especially in Carlisle; a couple of years ago, when I was looking for a new direction. There were so many businesses around the town who seemed to think local search marketing simply consisted of claiming their map listing, pointing a link at the website homepage… and away you go! And in all honesty – 2 years ago; a lot of businesses could get away with that. But the world moves on: with or without Carlisle and the rest of Cumbria.

Why All the Fuss About Local SEO – Local Search is Easy!

Google (and hot on their heels the other search engines) have got their beady eye on the quality and relevance of Local Search. Several 10s (if not 100s) of millions of dollars of investment and development have been invested in trying to make local search results a genuine answer to potential customer’s questions.  As I write, Google is working its way through hundreds of thousands of old UK business “Places” listings and trying to match their NAP data and extra information to G+’s new dashboard and database for local businesses deep within Google Plus itself. Myself and some considerably better known characters have been trying our hardest to get this message across to local businesses for the past couple of years. Local SEO for your website is going to be of the utmost importance over the coming few years.  Like all of these parts of your marketing plan, it is only a part of your overall marketing strategy.

After about 2 years of feeling like I’ve been talking to brick walls about the importance of  getting website content tuned in to what local customers are looking for, MY local search finally found an audience yesterday.  I’m used to an audience of 1, or occasionally 6, paying attention to my opinions about local online marketing.  But yesterday, courtesy of the GrowthTwenty13 event organised by Cumbria Business Growth Hub, I found myself in front of what began to look like a fairly packed room of possibly 40 + people; who squeezed themselves  in to Box 1 and 2 at Carlisle Race Course to listen to this little fish explain some of the latest information shared by the bigger better connected fish of local search marketing.

Eeek! More than 6 people. I was surprised by the level of interest in Local SEO education.  The hands were beginning to shake at this point!

The Way it is in Local

Rightly, for branding reasons, people are happy to invest in a website that looks good and functions well.  A smaller contingent of businesses are also grasping the thorny business of social media to communicate better with customers, clients and prospectives!  That’s all good and it’s fairly easy to see a result… or a fail!  But a bit like the ugly Cinderella in my upside down fairy tale analogy for online marketing, very few business owners are willing to see beyond the grey mist that talk of SEO often induces.  In a low competition area like Carlisle and to an extent the rest of Cumbria, the majority of businesses get found online just because they do Something.  Those days are coming to an end.  Unless your website design and social media strategy is underpinned by solid and structured search engine optimisation, which infuses every aspect of the web design and social activity – way before the pretty graphics are thought of, then you are developing with an Achilles Heel.  Winning in the Age of Now needs a well coordinated, thoroughly planned super optimised strategy!

GrowthTwenty13 Presentation: SEO the Ugly Sister of Local Online Marketing

This presentation is an attempt to condense 2 years of sheer graft into a 45 minute primer for business owners.  I hope it provides some useful insights into what is actually working – from the perspective of around 30 of the most important search marketing agencies working in local – not just from my Carlisle perspective.

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You can access the presentation at Prezi.

If you managed to plough your way through this presentation and you found something helpful please do me a favour and let the world know by clicking the opinion buttons below for Facebook.  If you aren’t comfortable getting all emotional for me, any share or comment below; would be much appreciated.