Many businesses sell products and services to a local market and target regional customer. Making use of location-based services (LBS) is the key for a better online reach of people in a certain city, county or state. Objective of these services is it to capture the needs of travelers, local citizens and neighbors.
Mobile searches target local results
Most wireless Internet devices are able to track the user’s location since they are equipped with GPS technology. Especially ecommerce businesses cannot miss to work with latitudes and longitudes within their websites. This applies to the physical location of the website, respectively server, and the place where the business is actually represented.
The advantage of location-based marketing is that the potential customer is already close to your place of business. It is more likely to capture him or her. Even if a consumer doesn’t search actively for something online, well-placed ads can trigger impulse buying.
One example for how to leverage location-based marketing for your business:
Someone is on vacation in your city for the first time and searches online for Mexican food. Location-based features on a mobile device will allow him to reduce the search results from thousands down to a couple of relevant restaurants within the area. These restaurants use GIS data in their websites, which is an abbreviation for Geographical Information System and serves as the new standard for location-based data.
Of course, local search doesn’t end with restaurants and hotels. Location-based search is considerable, if not necessarily, for everyone with a local store and a website.
Implement location-based SEO
The secret to success for making your business more visible in location-based searches is an optimized website and presence in location-based networks. Search engines need to find specific, geographical keywords and phrases in your content. Additionally, placing your business in local listings and maps is essential to get local first page rankings. Claiming your business listing in Google+ Local (former Local Places) and participating in the geo-tagging of Facebook and Foursquare are just first steps.
Try to find out which mobile apps and services your target group is using and get listed in these services. Among many others, location-based mobile applications and services include Yelp for mobile, the newcomer Neer for Android user or SCVNGR for Android and iPhones.
Find out if your site is already ready for wireless searching. Don’t miss the opportunity of location-based services and be one step ahead of your competitors!
