Over the last few weeks I have had a chance to talk to many small business owners about local SEO strategies that they can apply to their small local business.  These businesses have ranged from electricians to restaurant owners to doctors.  The reality is that local SEO is something that can help them greatly in nearly all cases.  However, when speaking with them I am typically met with great concern because of a few reasons: 1. these business owners know nothing about local search engine optimization and 2. these business owners often think they should be able to do any marketing for less than $200.  I can’t hold them accountable for now knowing about local search and SEO, but let’s be real; you get what you pay for and spending $200 on marketing is not going to do much for your business in the form of foot traffic, nor is it going to keep your business afloat in these tough economic times.

Because of these concerns, I seem to find that I get asked common questions by these business owners, so I am going to post those questions below and the answers for your review (that means you “local small business owner”).

Local Search Marketing Questions Answered

Q: What is local search?
A: “Local search is the use of specialized Internet search engines that allow users to submit geographically constrained searches against a structured database of local business listings. Typical local search queries include not only information about “what” the site visitor is searching for (such as keywords, a business category, or the name of a consumer product) but also “where” information, such as a street address, city name, postal code, or geographic coordinates like latitude and longitude.” Wikipedia.

Q: What is local search engine optimization?
A: Local SEO “is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (”organic” or “algorithmic”) search results.” Wikipedia.

Q: How will this help my business?
A: Whether you have a website or not, you can be included in local search results on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and many other online websites that help users find local business that meet their needs, otherwise known as search criteria.  When someone is looking for a restaurant in their local area they might type something like this into Google or another local search site: Thai food sandy utah.  When they do that search, you want your business to rank highly in the search results to give you the chance of brining that customer in to your location as compared to one of your competitors.

Q: Do I need a website?
A: You don’t need a website for local only results to show within search, but having a website can be helpful as you can then pursue rankings in other positions in search as well.

Q: How much will it cost to have a website made for me?
A: This question depends on your budget and your objectives.  You could spend as little as a few hundred dollars to upwards of 10k for a fairly dynamic and well built website for your business.  In some cases you could spend much more than that.

Q: What does it cost to have local SEO marketing done for my business?
A: In most cases you can start and maintain a fair local campaign for anywhere from $300 t0 $800 a month.  However, pricing will depend on how aggressive you want to be with your campaign and what kind of budget you are working with.

Q: How long will it take to see results?
A: You will see see traffic results to your website and business within 30-90 days.  The time-line can vary depending on the specific elements involved in your campaign and the developement time-line that might take place with building your website, or changing an existing website.

Q: How long would we keep paying you for local search services?
A: The services are on-going in most cases because you’ll want to continue to maintain your search rankings and they need to be maintenanced regularly by my company.  The good news is that if you are seeing the ROI then you should have no problem with continuing the service.