Optimize Your Online Efforts for Local Audiences
Ninety-seven percent of consumers use the Internet to search for businesses, and many shoppers don’t investigate beyond the first five or so results. If your dealership is optimized for local marketing, you stand a better chance of gaining new leads.
Website and social networks
Use your address and phone number in every page of your site, ideally in a consistent location like the header and the footer. This data helps search engines localize your company and place it correctly within results.
At the same time, mention your location in your social media pages and blogs. Every mention represents SEO opportunities for the next time someone does a keyword search.
Search engine localization services
A major local marketing service, Google Places is recognizable by the orange “balloons” stuck as pinpoints on a local map at the top of a results page. People in your area who search terms like “RV dealer” or “RV rental” will find your dealership along with others in the vicinity. Clicking on your balloon brings up your company’s address, phone number, URL and more.
Get more specific with a Google AdWords account. With this free service, an ad for your dealership appears alongside the map. Your balloon’s color turns from orange to blue, indicating your heightened status.
Bing Local Business and Yahoo Local work on the same principle as Google Places. Getting your dealership on all three local marketing platforms only increases your visibility.
Mobile apps
Foursquare is a smartphone app that combines social networking with a game that has users earning “badges” representing their frequency of check-in at a specific location. Users tell their foursquare friends exactly where they are – right down to a street address or even a floor of a building – and learn where their friends are at the same time.
As many as 750,000 businesses use foursquare to gain prominence by promoting special deals when people check in at their location. Your dealership, for instance, may offer a free tank of gas for users who check in at least 500 times.
