SEO and Local Search Marketing FAQ’s

Local Search Marketing FAQ

1. What is Local Search Marketing?

Local Search Marketing is a highly effective way of attracting motivated buying customers and putting them in front of your products and services.

Most people, when looking for a product or service want to find a local business to help them solve a problem. Attracting new business here means that we are connecting with the customers who are more likely to spend money with your business.

Traditional ‘paper directories’ advertising is now defunct with the majority of savvy consumers now searching online from their desktops and with their smartphones. Local SEO companies like Blend Local Search Marketing PTE Ltd employ a wide variety of proven online strategies that including, Google My Business, 3rd Party Review sites, Directory listings and Video Marketing to ensure it’s your company that gets founds time and time again by local customers.

2. What is a Local Search?

There are 2 types of local search queries. The first is conducted by simply adding a geo-targeted location modifier to the search term (a city, town or post/zip code). Lets assume you go to Google and type in the phrase  ‘local search marketing in Singapore’. The results will show local search marketing companies located in the island state.

The second type of local search is known as an ‘implicit local search’. The person searching does not use a location modifier in their search but the search engine assumes the search is local in nature and uses information associated with their account, IP address, location or smartphone to return local search results. For example, if you were in the area Gainesville GA. and did a search for ‘Orthodontists’, Google would automatically return results related to your location and not an Orthodontist in Timbuktu.

3. How Can My Business Be Found in Local Search

One of the ways to get your business seen by hungry customers in local search is to claim and set-up your business listings on Google My Business, Bing, ZocDocs, Yelp, Citysearch, Brownbook and up to 50 other online business directories.

Most of these listings are free to claim but most businesses set them up completely wrong, or not at all so that they do not receive the benefits of connecting to their target market. Once you have claimed them you need to compete each section fully with the same information paying particular attention to your business Name, Address, Phone number (NAP’s), website URL and primary keywords that your ideal customer would use to find you.

You can also add additional information like your opening times, brands payment methods and photos.

4. Why is it Important to Claim My Local Business Listings?

It’s very important to claim your local business listings such as Google My Business so:

1. You get found on page 1 in the ‘Snack Pack‘.
2. No one else hijacks your web presence
3. You will also have full control over your brand, messages and content on the web
4. It ensures the search engines find the correct information about your business and delivers targeted results to your prospects
5. Improve your rank in SERP’s (Search Engine Result Pages)
6. People looking for where you are located can easily find you

5. How Long Will it Take To Get My Google My business Listing Live?

When we implement a local search marketing strategy for any business, the Google My Business listing is actually the first listing we claim and complete. We then claim around 50 local business and niche listings and complete them fully with all your company’s information. We do this to help you connect with your target market.

We also produce a video and include more business information in the uploaded description and claim your listing with the two to four major data aggregators. The search engines verify your company details online with these data sources.

Once we have claimed your Google My Business page, Google needs to verify the listing and currently sends the business owner a postcard with a verification code. This can take 2 or 3 weeks to arrive by snail mail. Once we receive the code we can set your Google My Business page live.

6. What Makes a Great Local Search Listing?

There are three key components that will make your local search-listing stand head and shoulders above the rest.

1. Accuracy of Data: Your business information across all your 3rd party review sites, directories and local search listings has to be accurate and consistent. Particular attention to detail should be applied to your business name, address, post/zip code (NAP’s) and website information.
2. A Complete Listing: Every field in your local listing should be fully completed. This includes videos, photos (named with your keywords), opening times and business description. By completing all sections of your listing not only provides more information for the search engines to deliver better results but gives the searcher more information about your business. Once again, most businesses get this wrong because they do not understand the process of creating a targeted listing that matches the customers needs.
3. Keep your Listing up to Date: Keep you coupons and ‘special offers’ seasonally fresh to convert searchers in to customers at a higher rate. Also remember to update your opening times and manage and respond to any comments or questions. We would also encourage you to visit the page monthly so Google know’s you care.

7. How Do I Get Reviews On My Local Listings?

Reviews matter and will make a big difference that will result in higher rankings for your local listings if you have them. They provide third party information for the search engines and customers alike.

• The best place to start to acquire reviews for your local listings is to simply ask for them from your current happy customers and/or patients who are pleased with the services you provide to them. With new customers, ask them for favorable reviews of your business towards the end of the buying experience or treatment plan. You can provide them with a link to your listings to make it easy for them to leave a comment or review.
• Request an ABC Review Strategy from us. We will produce a custom package targeted at your customers or patients using the top three 3rd party review sites that will yield you the best results.
• If you send out emails place the listing link in your signature section and ask the recipient to write a review. If you have an Autoresponder series or newsletter you can do this too but vary the local listing on each mailing to keep it fresh and spread your reviews out on different listings.
• If you engage your customers with Social Media like Facebook Pages and twitter, you can provide links to your listing on your page or in your tweets and invite your fans to click the link and write a review.

Never create fake reviews. You’ll get rumbled and not only will it look bad for your business but it will erode the trust factor you should be building between yourself and your customers.

8. Can Social Media Be Used For Local Search?

With the constant changes in Google’s algorithm, there are now some branding benefits for using social media such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram in your local search SEO strategy.

If you have claimed your Facebook Page for your business you should be directing your customers to ‘Like’ the page. Ideally you should have a Facebook ‘Contact Us’ button so your ‘fans’ can easily contact you and you can have a dialogue with them to further your marketing opportunities.

Recently Facebook allowed an Appointment Scheduler to pages, so make sure you are using it.

Once someone has given your page a ‘Like’ you should engage with them and provide value and interest around your business and local community. Post on your wall on a regular basis and always include your keywords, hashtags and location modifiers in your posts.

Many people forget that Youtube is not only the second biggest search engine on the planet but it is also a social network.

You can upload your videos to Youtube and ensure you have a good description, keywords and at least one link back to your website. See our blog post Video Marketing 101 if you want to know how to do this. (If you are a local business, remember to include you company name, address, telephone number NAP’s and website URL too).

Engage with your viewers by leaving comments on their channels and allow them to do the same. Send out friend request and subscribe to similar channels to your own.

You should also post your videos on your website, Facebook Page, Twitter and Pinterest boards and before long you’ll see your videos getting more views and turning up in the Google search listings too.

If you are not using video in your local search marketing strategy, you are leaving out a vitally important part out of your online success story.

9. Are Blend only a Local Search Marketing Company?

Blend Local Search Marketing specialize in local SEO and digital marketing for orthodontists. Our unique difference is that we literally hold your hand and ensure that you attract more motivated customers, dominate local listings and more importantly help you convert your increased traffic into more sales success.

We are passionate about helping all businesses (SME’s) grow and succeed online and view your success as our success. We have proven Internet marketing strategies that work with all our clients, in fact many of our clients have come from recommendations from existing clients: )

Our results speak for themselves 100% of the time as we have no where to hide. Our customers can simply type their keywords into Google and very often they will see multiply listings for their businesses dominating their local search results. An added benefit is not only do they get a greater share of all the searches, they also push their competitors completely off the page.

It is because of our experience and skills of putting all of the ingredients of digital marketing together that we also have a lot of experience and success with the following to:

Website Design and Development – We build great websites that not only look great but are also functional and are designed and optimized from the ground up to perform well in search engines and convert more prospects into paying customers.

There’s no point in paying a lot of money out to a regular SEO company to get high rankings if all those people who visit your site soon leave it through bad design and unclear messages.

We build websites with strong ‘on page’ SEO principals, hypnotic copy, optimized layouts and many other tried, tested and proven marketing tactics that convert visitors to paying customers.

Video Marketing – We have developed a highly successful video marketing strategy that sees our clients’ videos (or our in-house productions) not only getting hundreds and thousands of hits but also dominating the normal search results on Google for all their major keywords.

Social Media Management – As from the beginning of 2019, we no longer offer social media management as a service. However, for new clients we will set up, brand and optimize your social networks and show you how to get the maximum benefits in the minimum amount of time.

To be successful, your social media posts should be personal and reflect your companies ethos. You wont get this from generic posts from social media management companies.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – We have dedicated team that optimize your website ‘off the page’. I.E. building natural links back to your website, this is because gaining more links helps it rank higher in natural searches online. We believe in creating a strong foundation not only for now but also the long term success of your business.

It is by building relevant links consistently across a wide number of sources for our customers websites that ensures that they remain stable during and after Google’s major algorithm Panda, Penguin and BERT updates.

This includes: Directory Listings, Videos, Blog Comments, Guest Posts, Forum Comments, Press Releases, Local Online Community Websites, Blog Swaps, Sponsorships, Outreach and many more.

10. What is the Future of Local Search Marketing?

We’ve seen a rapid shift from traditional marketing and adverting with TV, radio, newspapers and paper directory market shares all dramatically dropping over a very short period of time.

Now we know customers are online searching for products, services and local businesses so if your business isn’t being found online you can bet your competitor’s is.

Technology has moved at such a lightening pace that even the desktop PC is looking a little jaded as more and more people now use their smart phones, ipads, tablets and ‘Voice‘ to surf the net. This is great news if you are a local business and have a responsive, mobile-friendly website and your local search listings set up correctly.

This kind of targeted, local mobile marketing strategy has a high response rate and a high ROI. It is definitely the future of Local Search Marketing, just you see!

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Start Your Local Search Marketing Strategy Today

Blend Local Search Marketing understands the competitive nature of the SEO industry, and we have experienced professionals who know how to make you stand out in the crowd.

If you don’t think you have the time to optimize your website search, we can help!

Contact us today for a free consultation and to learn how we can implement SEO for your business website!

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Singapore SEO FAQ

Everything You Need to Know About SEO in Singapore

SEO in Singapore is a necessity not only for e-commerce enterprises but for any company that wishes to build a clientele. The Singapore economy is a very vibrant one and attaining top rankings in the search engine results should be a top priority for any business that hopes to compete in its respective niche.

1. Will SEO work for my business?

The answer to this question is a little more involved than a yes or no. Search engine optimization will work for any business but it is imperative that a distinction is made so that you know what to expect.

Determining whether SEO will work for your business starts by doing some competitive research. Some of the most saturated and contested industries like insurance and finance are very difficult to enter as a smaller player. Credit card companies, banks and insurance providers allocate large portions of their marketing budgets in order to rank at the very top of search results. The same goes for e-commerce and tech giants like Amazon and AliBaba.

If your company is active in a space where the online competition is either weak or non-existent, optimizing your website for Google can skyrocket your results. If you can offer your audience helpful content relevant to their needs, the search engines will reward you by sending you traffic.

However, even in an extremely competitive market, there are ways for smaller businesses to use SEO in order to generate leads and to build their brands. The secret is in focusing your business’s search engine optimization efforts on market segments that are specialized and where the big players may not be placing great emphasis.

In short, SEO will work for your business regardless of how competitive your niche is. As long as you can adjust your strategy and your expectations to match your niche’s landscape, there is market share to be had. Finding the right SEO expert to consult with on the viability of your online efforts is the best way to approach the subject.

2. What is the simplest way to use SEO to help my business?

The simplest and most effective way to use SEO is to employ a content-driven strategy. If you inundate your audience with relevant articles, tutorials and videos, prospective clients will flock to you for answers on how to solve their problem. This is a powerful way of capturing Google’s attention and gaining traction in your field. Search engines deem authority websites as the most helpful for their users.

3. How long until I start seeing results?

In a world where big companies are always trying to please their shareholders and small businesses are trying to stay afloat against industry juggernauts, seeing results as soon as possible is desired by all. It is important to realize that SEO is a process that takes time. Implementing a strategy that is compliant with the terms and specifications put forth by search engines can take from three months to over a year. This, of course, depends on how competitive a market is and how much has already been done by a business to establish a web presence.

For example, a website in a new niche with only a few players that have ‘weak’ sites can take just three or four months to rank highly for its best keywords. On the other hand, going up against established corporations in saturated markets will take longer. In any case, moving up the search engine results and being ranked for long-tail keywords can only help build your brand.

An experienced SEO agency that has a variety of case studies will be able to give you a pretty good estimate on the time-frame required for you to see results.

4. How much does SEO cost in Singapore?

The cost of SEO can vary based on the discrepancies mentioned above. A website that requires minimal intervention in order to boost its rankings will cost less than a very involved project in a high demand market. SEO packages can range from a few hundred dollars per month for the former to several thousands of dollars per month for a more challenging project. In any case, with the right business strategy and with a favorable profit margin, SEO will pay for itself.

One of the overlooked costs of SEO is the opportunity cost associated with not applying it to your website. Falling behind in the search engine race against your competition can have significant consequences.

5. How do I choose the right SEO agency?

Choosing the best SEO agency can mean the difference between increasing your market share and wasting marketing budget needlessly. In order to make the right choice, you need to know what differentiates a high-quality agency from the rest of the field.

A result-driven SEO agency will have many case studies it can show you. Past and current clients of the agency with measurable results are the best advertising a search engine optimization consultant can have. Also, testimonials and the ability for you to communicate with other clients to get confirmation as to the validity of the results should not be a problem. An agency that makes claims but is unwilling to provide proof should make you cautious.

The best Singapore-based SEO agency for your needs is one that will show you the path to success and offer a viable road map to success. They will not inflate expectations in order to get you to sign a contract. Their reputation depends on your success and having the proper vision will make the collaboration mutually beneficial.

Finally, a good SEO agency will provide a complimentary consultation where you can discuss all your needs and where you can ask any questions you may have.

Start Your Singapore SEO Strategy Today

Blend Local Search Marketing understands the competitive nature of the SEO industry in Singapore, and we have experienced professionals who know how to make you stand out from the crowd.

If you don’t think you have the time to optimize your website for search, we can help!

Contact us today for a free consultation and to learn how we can implement SEO for your business in Singapore!

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Orthodontic SEO FAQ

Questions You Should Be Asking About Your Orthodontic SEO

The number of internet users that find your practice online will depend largely on your orthodontic SEO. That’s why it’s important to start off on the right foot by implementing strategies that work and not wasting time on methods that do not. Let’s look at the questions that will determine the outcome of your digital marketing efforts for your orthodontic practice.

Large Digital Marketing Agency vs. Specialized SEO Agency for Orthodontists?

If we were asking this question ten to fifteen years ago, the answer might have been to choose a large digital marketing agency. Search engines were still at a phase in their development where a large agency could command more influence on rankings than a smaller, specialized competitor. That’s because the factors that determined rankings depended on the agency’s ability to generate large numbers of backlinks and other such technical drivers. Search engine algorithms gave these technical a greater weight in how they judged websites.

Today, Google and other search engine providers have advanced their ranking algorithms with the help of artificial intelligence (Google’s BERT update). Bots that scan websites are able to determine whether your content is relevant to your niche. They then give you a score based on your content and how users interact with it.

Even technical aspects of your website need to be tailored to your audience for achieving optimal results. One example of this is your website’s design. Do you need to have a call-to-action box on your homepage? If yes, should it be a pop-up or a form in the sidebar? Is a sidebar even necessary for your website?

Every additional feature can slow your website down, which can leave you with a lower score in Google’s eyes. Therefore, careful planning of your design and implementation to fit your audience’s habits and needs will factor in your SEO success or lack thereof. A specialized agency that has experience with orthodontists can do this much better.

What is a Good ROI for my Orthodontic Digital Marketing Campaign?

Marketing for orthodontists should be focused on metrics. Every action that is geared towards attracting clients should be measurable in a precise way. This will lead to the best use of your allocated budget and give you insights into what you are doing right and what you need to change.

A good return on investment will depend on a lot of factors that are particular to your practice. There is no industry benchmark that tells you what your ROI should be. The benchmark will be determined based on your orthodontic practice’s operation and how competitive the field is in your area. The higher the level of competition, the more effort and outlay you will have to make in order to achieve the desired results.

Having said that, determining your return on investment as it pertains to marketing for orthodontists is straightforward. Using your historical data, determine what the lifetime value of a patient is. This will be an average of how much your current clients spend over the long term. If you add up the total revenue for all the patients you have in your clientele, adjusted for their lifetime value. Dividing by the number of patients will give you a figure that estimates the revenue you can expect to have from each new patient, on average.

By knowing the average lifetime value of a patient, you can then subtract the amount of money you spend acquiring a lead through marketing to get your income per patient. Finally, by dividing this average income per patient by the amount you spent on marketing, you will get a rate which if you multiply by 100 will be your ROI.

To alleviate any confusion, here’s an example. You calculate your average patient lifetime value to be $6000. We’ll put the amount of money you have to spend in order to gain a client at $2000. Therefore, your income per client is $4000. If you divide that by $2000, our outlay on marketing per acquisition, you get an ROI of 2 times your marketing spend or 200%.

This can be further illustrated as follows:

New client per month x 1 = $6,000 revenue

Cost per acquisition = $2000

ROI – 200%

A more likely event would be acquiring 4 new customers per month; therefore, the figures can be extrapolated. The new figures would be as follows:

Marketing costs $2000

New clients per month x 4 = $24,000 revenue

Cost per acquisition = $500

ROI – 800%

What constitutes a good ROI will depend on how you run your practice. Calculating your ROI for your digital marketing campaigns has the benefit of pointing out changes you may need to make in your strategies so you can reduce costs and generate more leads.

How Important Are Google, Facebook, And Yelp Reviews To An SEO Campaign?

As alluded to earlier, Google ranks websites based on how relevant they are to the needs of the audiences they are geared towards. Social signals and reviews play a big role in determining whether your visitors find your content relevant.

Google My Business is a directory functionality that the tech giant has added to its suite of free services. It is a local marketing tool where professionals can display their businesses can present information that is displayed in Google’s search engine results. A complete Google My Business profile that receives positive interaction from users will only reinforce your status as an authority in the orthodontics field in the eyes of Google.

Facebook and Yelp are also important indicators of how users view your content. Although they may not be considered make or break necessities for your orthodontic practice’s SEO, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have a healthy number of organic, positive reviews and comments that originate from Facebook and Yelp.

What Other Online Marketing Channels Are Effective for Orthodontists?

Keeping your website ranked highly seems to be the best way to generate leads for orthodontists. Social media is a complementary method of building brand equity and seems to be less effective at generating office visits for your dental practice. However, there is a method that can be highly effective when combined with your SEO efforts.

Building an e-mail list via which you can keep in touch with your clientele and inform them of specials of conveying orthodontics best practices is a highly effective strategy. Communicating directly with your clients via e-mail allows you to circumvent the limitations and specifications as imposed by other platforms.

For instance, Facebook limits the percentage of your audience with which you can communicate greatly so that you have to spend money in order to reach the entirety of your intended users. By employing e-mail marketing, you can relay your desired message to your clientele directly into their inbox.

A good platform to start and run your email campaigns on is Mailchimp.

What Should I Look for in an SEO Company?

SEO for orthodontists has peculiarities that are particular to an audience that is seeking dental services. It is important to find an agency that has experience getting results for orthodontists. You should also look for the consultant to have real case studies they can share with you.

Another important and often overlooked aspect of hiring an SEO agency for your orthodontic practice is ensuring they are HIPAA compliant.

The more versed the agency is with SEO for orthodontists, the better your results will be. If they can offer a complimentary consultation to answer any questions you may have and give you a road map of what they will achieve for you, take them up on the opportunity.

Start Your Orthodontic SEO Strategy Today

Blend Local Search Marketing has over a decade of experience in the orthodontic niche, and we have experienced professionals who know how to make you stand out from your competitors and mail-order braces companies.

If you don’t think you have the time to optimize your orthodontic website for search, we can help!

Contact us today for a free consultation and to learn how we can implement successful SEO for your orthodontic practise!