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When you catch your customers right where they are, and in their neighborhoods, it is known as hyperlocal marketing!
How often do you make “nearby” searches?
Every time you make one, Google brings you the most relevant results showing not only the locations but also the reviews and ratings. Whenever you search to go to the nearby salon or lookup for the nearest bookstore, you conduct a hyperlocal search.
Often the businesses target people in the highly specific and limited geographical area for showing up to people who conduct ‘near me’ searches on their mobiles. So, the main idea behind hyperlocal marketing was to drive more foot traffic to physical locations.
Why was the need felt for hyperlocal marketing?
Data from Google suggested that in recent years the location-specific near-me searches rose by 130% year-on-year. This has also been instigated by the development of search technology which now makes Google make location-specific suggestions to the searches that have been conducted. This may not look big, but it is sea-change in the user attitudes to make more use of real-time geo-location tracking and how that location should be employed to furnish more germane results based on the search queries. There has been a general shift in the tendency of users to have their search results based on their location. Even Google has reshaped its local search in a way to prioritize results based on high-quality Google maps for every near-me search.
We can comfortably conclude that a combination of growing mobile device adoption and increased Google emphasis on local searches has added to the attraction of hyperlocal marketing.
Most Significant Rankings for Successful Hyperlocal Marketing Search Results
There are some typical rules of the game that cannot be ignored when you decide to go hyperlocal. Here are some of the most important rankings that you have to care about.
- My Business Listings on Google
If you are targeting hyperlocal markets then having a sound My Business Listing on Google is highly important. This is one parameter that will maximize your visibility in local search results. This is where Google picks up most of the data to cater to near me searches. These cover many details like address, contact, opening and closing hours, reviews, and even the ratings. Even if you deal with third-party services, these can be found in these listings.
- Reviews by the Customers
Every start-up knows the importance of word-of-the-mouth marketing. We, as customers often resort to checking reviews and other suggestions by other users before picking up a product, or choosing a hotel, etc. This has become commonplace, so businesses spend a lot of time and money to ensure every customer gets the best possible experience. In this age of social media, it is a dangerous idea to not worry about your existing customers. In hyperlocal marketing, the reviews of your customers and other testimonials will have a profound impact on the decision of new visitors. Even Google values these reviews and will display you on local searches based on these.
- Distance
When considering hyperlocal marketing, proximity will play a key role. Your distance from your potential customer or the place from where the query has been raised will play a significant role in bagging you the ‘My Business’ ranking signal. It is a little more complicated process than it appears. It has been seen that Google at times displays the results in clusters, even if other more suitable businesses are closer to the location of the user. This also depends on the search history of the user, purchase history, and web-behavior.
How will you Optimize for Effective Hyperlocal Marketing?
When you think hyperlocal, remember everything you do has to boil down to the place you are operating in. Let us see how we do this.
1. HyperLocal Content:
If you are a small business looking at increasing your local presence, you can begin by developing local content that will help you build strong relationships with people around you. Make content that resonates with what people are looking for and not what you are selling. It can be anything ranging from blogs to ads, flyers, images, infographics, etc. It can also mean hiring micro-influencers or local talents to connect with people. Try to make use of local events or festivals to take your message to the people.
2. Easily Visible Contact Info
This may seem trivial, but having a piece of easily visible contact information serves a great help for many people who want to reach you but don’t have ning out of time to go deeper into the website and look for the same. Let it be clear and apparent. You may play smart by including names of local monuments and landmarks to describe the location. It just adds to the local touch.
3. Structured Data Markup:
You have to mark your business as local even on the structured data markup that is linked to the website. It will help Google know more about your business. Many business attributes can be listed like the address, phone number, site logo, social links, business hours, etc. All this if handled well, significantly helps you bag appearances in relevant geographic search results.
4. Local Search Optimization
Just having a sound SEO will not bag you local foot-falls, unless you optimize for local searches and maintain a visual consistency across all channels. Make your website easy to navigate and work on your onsite demand generation strategy. Spend time on your URL structure, meta-descriptions, page titles, and give them a local orientation.
Hyperlocal marketing is always done with purely commercial intent and there is no escaping it. Be professional at every step, and ensure that you have a sound local presence. Engage with your customers regularly and sense their pulse. Hyperlocal is the way forward to your business to get new clients. How you encash this will depend on your expertise to steer this to your benefit.
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