Page 1 of Google: For Local Marketing, So What?

by czilbersher

Posted: 14 years ago 8 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Quick question for you folks who are already realizing success in your offline marketing businesses. I'm thinking of transitioning over to an offline marketing business model and am curious about others who sell the idea of high rankings in the SERPs to their target customers. Here's what I mean:

Let's say I live and work in Numptyville, population 35,000. I contact Joe's Plumbing and tell the owner that I can get him a page 1 Google ranking for his target customer's keywords (e.g., "plumbing in Numptyville, Numptyville plumbing, plumbing products Numptyville, plumbing services in Numptyville, etc." I build and SEO several sites for Joe's Plumbing, each one targeting one of those previous keywords. All of the sites easily rise to a #1 ranking. The problem is, none of those locally-targeted keywords get more than 3 or 4 searches in Google a month! So, given that the traffic is abysmal, it doesn't really matter that I can get a strong showing in the SERPs. My target customer cares about traffic; not rankings. How are you succeeding with the business model?

#google #local #marketing #page

Nic Lynn 14 years ago

First, you don't need to build 3 or 4 sites to get ranked against 3 or 4 different keywords (you can, but definitely not a requirement in most situations).

Second, you need to find out what keywords are driving traffic. And -- this is important -- you don't necessarily need to include Numptyville in all of your keyword strings. For instance, right this second, I just typed in two example in google... the words "plumber" and "gym" and got back local plumbers and gyms near me (i didn't type my suburb or city). Google is getting much more aggressive in returning local search results for keywords like gym and plumber, etc.

If those words along with your original words don't yield enough traffic, then your client needs to move somewhere where the plumbing system isn't of such high quality that no one needs his services.
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Jagged 14 years ago

Even if that 3 or 4 searches a month found his website (because it rank page 1...), then that 3-4 searchers translated into 2 new customers a month, thats 24 new customers a year...netting the plumber an average bill of $300...thats $7200 a year that he would have had. $14400 over 2 years, $21600 over 3 & so on...

Not to mention that those new customers will become recurring customers.....
also most likely...if he is any good, he should pick up a few referrals too....

I just used numbers to represent the theory I was portraying...could very well be more...$300 for a plumbing job is mighty cheap....but you get the idea...
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- summer07 14 years ago
  
  According to Dan Thies, an SEO guru, the top 3 Google listings get about 60% of the search traffic for a given keyword term.
  
  So first of all, being the the top 3 makes a big difference.
  
  Second, more and more people are using search instead of the yellow pages for local shopping.
  
  Now consider how many people are already using iphones or smart phones, and how many more will be using them to search for local products and services instantly from their mobile devices in the coming years.
  
  Local search traffic is only going to increase from here on....
  
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  52.ct 14 years ago
  
  I agree with Jagged. Consider quality over quantity.
  
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  CFOservices 14 years ago
  
  I am just a numbers guy, but to me it all starts with keyword research. Once you determined the keywords or keyword phrases that are not too competitive but have reasonable traffic you can optimize your site for those words. With respect to geographical locations, certainly there is not as much traffic with the geographical locations but Jagged is right when he says quality over quantity. Think about this too, it cannot be that difficult to optimize your site for a keyword that is not that competitive like those geographical keywords you mentioned. It is a good strategy to find keywords that most ignore and at least get on top with those, but have an overall strategy to get on top with more competitive keywords.
  
  I know, I should stick to number crunching!!
  
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nicholasb 14 years ago

actually they don't care about traffic they care about sales
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- Kelly Verge 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by nicholasb
  
  actually they don't care about traffic they care about sales
  
  That's exactly right.
  
  If you're selling a #1 placement on Google, you'll have difficulty closing sales and your clients won't be happy in the long run.
  
  A much better model is to first find out what the prospect needs then show them how you can help them get it.
  
  Here's a hint: none will say they need more traffic from Google, more hits on their website, or to rank highly for a keyword.
  
  They will say:
  
  They need more customers
  They need more sales
  They need to close more sales
  They need more leads
  They need better customer retention
  They need to increase profits
  Etc.
  
  Show them that you can help them get what they want and they'll sell themselves.
  
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ikuret75 14 years ago

Originally Posted by czilbersher

The problem is, none of those locally-targeted keywords get more than 3 or 4 searches in Google a month!

Actually, if you have 4 keywords as #1 and there are 3-4 searches a month for EACH keyword, then it will add up to more than 10 visitors from Google a month.

Plus, there is not only Google, some people still use MSN (Bing), Yahoo! etc and if you are good on G, probably similar results with those engines.

As it has been already mentioned, it is a good rate in my opinion because local customers are recurrent customers.
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