What is Local Visibility?

Visibility helps you be found. Specifically, it makes you easily "findable" by those who are already interested in your products or services.

Currently, there are billions of searches happening every month. In fact, Google® alone processes 88 billion searches a month. Of those, an estimated 40% are for local products, businesses and services. This growing trend indicates the value of being visible.

Visibility works by optimizing your local and online content in order to show users and online search engines that you are the most relevant choice for whatever they are searching for. Many search engines provide great options that highlight local companies and give them the power to compete with even the largest companies.

Unfortunately, very few businesses use these tools to their full potential. But getting started can be simple and easy.

A quick example of why local visibility matters:

I was recently in Seattle and was going to the beach with my family. Since it was a nice day, I decided I wanted to buy a fancy kite to take with me. I used my phone to find the nearest kite store (I wanted a nice kite, not just any kite, so a specialty kite store was required). My phone found one about 15 miles away, helped me navigate to it, and I got the kite I wanted.

Only later did a friend mention that there was actually another kite store much closer to where I was staying. I would have gone there had I known, but since they were not listed on Google Maps, I had no idea. They lost my business without me even knowing.

For many retail companies, such as restaurants and specialty stores, a search engine listing can have a huge impact. During the course of my Seattle vacation, I visited dozens of other stores, shops and restaurants that had what I was looking for. I found them all using Internet searches, and I found them because they had made themselves visible and accessible.

The best part is that increasing local visibility can be relatively quick, easy, and inexpensive.

How can I build Local Visibility?

The most important thing to understand, and one of the few things that is universal to all businesses, is to understand how people find you. This is going to be step 1.

Step 1: Determine how people find you

There are lots of tools that you can use to help determine this, but using your own intuition can be a good start. You can ask yourself a couple of questions:

• If I was looking for X, what tools would I use?

Would you use a search engine? Would you try to find them on an online map? Would you use an online directory? Would you ask your friends on Twitter or Facebook? This can help you determine some of the best channels (areas) to target in your visibility campaign.

• If I was looking for X, how would I tell a computer what I wanted?

What would you type into a search engine to get the results you wanted? These keywords will be important for helping increase your visibility to people who are searching for the same thing.

There are also plenty of tools that can help you find what searches people use. My favorite is Google’s keyword tool, mostly because the largest number of people use Google, but also because it is free, easy to use, and provides good suggestions.

• If multiple people provide X in my area, what would make me choose one outlet over another?

As a business owner, evaluating yourself against your competition is going to be a little bit biased, and that is ok. You probably are better than your competition, but how do people know that? What can you show or tell them that will help them see what you see?

We all shop. We all know good businesses from bad businesses. Next time you go buy a new product, watch your behavior. Why do you choose one business over another? Is it closer, did it get better reviews; did it tell you the price online? As marketers, we have trouble doing this after awhile because we tend to over analyze everything, and so our actions become somewhat less authentic. If you notice this, try asking some other people (or even your current customers). Find out what works in your industry to make one business stand out over another.

Step 2: Evaluate your Visibility

Now that you have a general idea for how people find you, evaluate how visible you are, and what people see when they find you.

This is a fairly easy process. Pick your tool, your keywords, and evaluate your results. For example, let’s say you run a local catering company called ABC Catering, and your favorite search engine is Google. You might type in the words "Wedding Catering" into Google, and see what appears. Are you on the first page? How about the second page? If there is a map, is your business listed? Does your business appear anywhere at all?

If so, you are doing pretty well. Depending on the keywords you choose, you will rank better in some cases, and worse in others, so try a variety of words and phrases, and see how things change.

This can be a good baseline measurement for helping evaluate changes over time. It also helps you find your strengths and weaknesses. You can look at some of the other businesses that came up during your search and get an idea of who else is competing for your space.

Step 3: Create a Local Visibility Strategy

Your evaluation (step 2) should make crafting your strategy a bit easier. You should know your weaknesses, and what you want to strengthen. So how do you do that? What technologies do you use?

It is actually not as hard or as time intensive as you may think. There are plenty of methods for increasing local visibility. Some are easy, some are hard, some can have a big impact, and some will take a bit longer to have an effect. As always, if you need additional help, our search visibility consultants are always available to help craft and implement a tailored solution for your business and your needs.

In the next post, we will discuss two strategies for increasing local visibility.These focus on some of the quickest and easiest free methods that can have a big impact for B-to-C industries, such as shops, hotels, restaurants, and other retail establishments.

Amadeus Consulting offers a broad array of search visibility solutions for all types of online and offline business needs. For additional information about our services, please contact our business development team.