Online marketing is scary. Especially when you are just starting out and don’t know where to start or which direction to go in. Right now we are promoting the new “Course for Bloggers” through Facebook. Someone left a comment on the ad saying that what we were offering could be viewed on Youtube for free. Obviously I am not going to enter into this debate but it does show one thing that is true. local businessPhoto rights by Fotolia It is possible to find any information you need to become the greatest expert on any subject without spending a single cent .
This requires that you have a good command
of foreign languages such as English and that you have at your disposal an essential resource in an almost infinite way: time . It is clear that you don’t have to be an expert in everything to be successful online. It also makes no sense to value time as if it had no value. After the long speech I just gave you, let’s get to the point of this post, which is already due. Contents [ hide ] 1 Why a blog is a key asset for your local business 1.1
People search for local businesses
on the internet 1.2 Few are there and even fewer businesses are doing really well 1.3 The blog allows to present information in a more flexible way than the static web 2 Concrete Actions to Get the Most Out of a Blog if You Have a Local Business 2.1 Choose a domain name that includes the service and the city 2.2 Take your first steps in local SEO 2.3 Facebook Ads to direct potential customers to your website Why a blog is a key asset for your local business The other day I wanted to go to the hairdresser I usually go to lately.
I had to make a reservation because
it can be difficult to go without an appointment on weekends. I couldn’t remember the name of the hairdresser so I searched for “hairdresser + name of town”. I got about 30 results but none of them reminded me of my hairdresser. At that moment my wife arrives and gives me the hairdresser’s card that was on the table. People search for local businesses on the internet The above case is nothing new. Despite the fact that the Internet is increasingly dominating our lives in every aspect, many retailers still successfully ignore it. In my case, I would probably have left that day at another hair salon if it hadn’t been for my wife.
If I had been satisfiedI would have even
had the possibility of not only losing a haircut but a client forever. Few are there and even fewer businesses are doing really well. The fact that local businesses are neglecting online marketing offers a huge opportunity. It is clear that many today do not need the internet channel to get customers. Tomorrow you have to be there because others will take the step in a few years. The customers who will buy from you in 5 years are those who can no longer live without their smartphone and the main channel The blog allows you to present information in a more flexible way than the static web. I was going to convince you in this paragraph about.
The usefulness of a blog for an online business and I haven’t even dedicated a single sentence to it yet. So now it’s time for me to get down to business: If people are searching online, then a blog increases the chances of them finding you if you offer related content. The more meaningful content you post, the more chances you have of connecting, building loyalty and attracting new customers. A blog can serve as a communication channel when you are not there.
Social networks are more complicated
to manage because during the day the small business owner has to attend to his clients. You are independent of a programmer when it comes to publishing new content. Blogging requires relatively little knowledge and/or training to be able to manage it. Many small businesses make the mistake of using platforms that are set up once and statically for little money but are expensive in terms of money and time when you want to make changes. Concrete actions to get the most out of a blog if you have a local business If you’ve made it this far, I may have convinced you of the usefulness of having a blog as a small business owner.
The million-dollar question is:
what can I do and how do I get started? Choose a domain name that includes the service and the city To start, you need a domain name for your blog. To get the most out of the potential traffic from Google, it is ideal to include the service and the city within it. If you are a hairdresser in Rivas, you could choose www.peluqueriarivas.es if this extension is still available. You can also choose the dot como, net, eu or info as a second option. If you already have a website, you could do it in the following way: Yourwebsite.com/blog or even blog.yourwebsite.com (preferred by many SEOs because if you mess up your blog and Google penalizes you, the main website is not affected). If you have a static website that allows few changes, you could include a banner or link that directs to the blog on a new domain, choosing a name like the one I suggested above.
Although some say that the domain name
is no longer valuable for SEO, I recommend that you do it if you are starting from scratch. In the projects that I launch (or to which I have access) it is usually of high importance and makes it much easier to appear later in the top 10. Take your first steps in local SEO To start, you must create an account on Google My Business . It’s free, so the risk you run is minimal (apart from wasting time, of course). If I remember correctly, 30% of searches are local (here’s a post from 2012 that talks about 20% and 40% from mobile). This means that they are usually of the type “restaurant in Valencia” or “electrician Albacete.