Some small businesses like electricians, handyman, and coffee shops are limited to the area where they operate.

If you are one of them, here is a simple question for you—

Where are your customers coming from?

Any guesses? Well, that shouldn’t be a tough brainstorming session.

Generally, most of your customers are local. Right?

For example, if you are an electrician, your most service calls are from the customers living in your vicinity.

After all, a customer tends to buy from a business close to their home or work, out of comfort or convenience.

The more local customers you have, the better your business can grow.

A solid local online marketing strategy exposes your businesses to potential customers in your surroundings.

HERE’S WHY…

• 46% of all Google searches are looking for local businesses.
• 88% of searches for the local business get converted within 24 hours.
• 78% of location-based mobile searches lead to an offline purchase.
• “Near me” or “close by” searches grew by over 900% over the years.
• 28% of local searches become purchases.
• 4 in 5 consumers find local information over the Internet.

Online Local Marketing with Google My Business

Local online marketing strategies are important for the survival of your business. 

And Google My Business is the best way to ace your local marketing.

It is a free and simple tool to manage your “online presence across Google, including search and Maps”. It can help your business get found by a local audience looking for similar services over the Internet.

According to one study, the average business gets 1,009 monthly searches with Google My Business. 84% of them are routing from discovery searches, while 16% are direct searches.

How Google My Business Works

Google My Business aims to help a business capture their local customers. It shows customers the reviews, photos, social media accounts, directions, and other details associated with the business.

For example, our GMB-enabled business, KVR Webtech, looks like this if someone searches for it on the desktop.

On mobile, it will look like this.

Understanding the Benefits of Google My Business

Google My Business lets you capitalize on serious local sales and opportunities. As we have said earlier, it helps connect your business with local consumers. Here are some convincing benefits of using Google My Business for your small business:

• Increasing your visibility to the local customers.
• Helping you leave the right impression with your business info, photos, and other content in a glance.
• Hosting reviews that can encourage people to buy from you.
• Letting you appear in Maps and local pack listings.
• Most IMPORTANTLY—it is free and easy to use!

BUT RELYING Only ON GMB IS NOT ENOUGH!

There is no doubt that Google My Business can help you capitalize on the local searches, thereby growing your business.

But local online marketing is not all about Google My Business.

In fact, it goes beyond to two most important driving factors.

And these important factors are Local Service Ads and Google Guaranteed badge.

To improve your online local marketing, you need to integrate these two factors with your GMB strategy.

GET TO KNOW ABOUT LOCAL SERVICES ADS

Like GMB, Local Services ads or LSA helps you get found by people who look for the services you offer. Your ads will show up for the customers in your region.

Good thing is that you only pay if a customer approaches you directly through the ad.

Local Services ads appear right above the traditional paid search ads in the SERPs.

It can be ideal for many small businesses and professions, including plumbers, HVAC, garage door repair, carpet cleaners, event planners, and home improvement.

While a PPC method requires you to pay for even those inconvertible clicks, you pay only in LPA when you get a lead through the ad.

The lead cost is a set rate that is determined according to the category and market. Generally, it can cost you anywhere from $5 to $139. For example, a simple locksmith service leads in some markets are $5, but the lead cost for big water damage in a different place can be $139.

How It Works

Unlike PPC, it doesn’t let you designate keywords to target.

You are required to select categories or “job types” that represent the service and products you deal in.

Google decides which keywords are associated with those job types and an advertisement will appear based upon the areas and job types chosen by you. Besides, you won’t be provided with any keyword data to determine the potent keywords.

At this time, Local Services ads are only available in certain regions in the USA and Canada.

Learn About the Google Guarantee Badge

If you have ever searched Google for any service or business, such as a general contractor, you might have noticed a green checkmark set to that listing. This little stamp is the sign of verification by Google, hence called Google Guaranteed.

Google Guarantee badge helps you improve your reputation online and prompts customers to respond to your ads. To get this badge, you need to be qualified for the screening and qualification process through Google Local Services.

But this feature is not free of cost. You will have to pay $50 per month for using Google Guarantee Badge, costing you $600 annually. This fee will include both background and licensing checks. However, it is comparatively cheaper than Yelp that charges nearly $1,000 for various profile upgrades and advertisement per year.

INTEGRATE GMB WITH LOCAL SERVICES AND GOOGLE GUARANTEE

By the time you come to this point, you must have understood how GMB, LSA, and Google Guarantee can play an important role in your online local marketing.

To make the most of your local marketing strategies, you need to work over Local Services ad and Google Guarantee along with your Google My Business. This way, you can boost your chances to rank better in the search results.

Let Us Handle Your Online Local Marketing Needs

Let’s admit it. It is easy to create a GMB profile or opt for the Local Services ad. Some might even get qualified for Google Badge. But these features are not something you set and forget. If you are serious about your online local marketing, you need to optimize your profiles, understand your customers, and work over the right keywords. An efficient SEO pro knows how to make the most of these features, especially if you are looking for serious rankings.

That’s why we are here.

We are your local online marketing agency!

With our impressive portfolio in SEO and other forms of online marketing, we know what it takes to create a result-oriented GMB profile or how to hit the bull’s eye with Local Services ads. Contact us now!

About the author

Internet Marketing Analyst, present Director @kvrwebtech.com Since 2009. Providing Internet Marketing as a medium for all kind of businesses to achieve the modern era goals. Have been highly successful in cultivating projects in Real Estate, Financial and Education Sector.