Furniture stores are looking for a new marketing strategy to improve furniture sales. We have a really great way to boost furniture sales through furniture business marketing. Local search marketing includes important marketing techniques like local SEO and managing local listings to increase visibility for local furniture business.
How local search marketing compares to traditional marketing efforts
Gone are the days when advertising on the radio or TV was enough to spread the word about your business. Now, effective marketing is a much more nuanced, multi-pronged effort. Many people don’t have cable or even a TV at all, and millennials and younger generations don’t listen to the radio – instead, they prefer much more curated content on podcasts and music apps.
Modern marketing efforts involve concentrated effort to gain exposure in many different mediums, and search engines are a large sector that savvy marketers are now honing in on, with dramatic results. There are so many techniques that enhance local search marketing efforts. Read on for a few to get you started. These essential marketing methods will help you take your business’ web presence from “meh” to “wow!” Focus efforts will pay off in the long run, when you have a furniture store that not only survives in this highly competitive modern age but thrives.
You want to get your furniture in the homes and professional settings of everyone in your local area – and local search marketing can make it happen. Get a leg up from the competition by educating yourself about SEO and find a few techniques to start with today. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it’s at the forefront of local search marketing trends.
Why local search marketing matters
When people search for a furniture store in your city, you want yours to be one of the top results, of course. But how do you make that happen? Is it just magic or a matter of guesswork? Nope – it’s not magical and doesn’t involve guessing at all. Businesses that want to stand above their competition know that local search marketing is the tool by which they can enhance the likelihood of appearing in top online search results. Local SEO services, provided by an SEO specialist (usually an independent contractor or someone already on staff who has had SEO training), can make a tremendous difference in terms of in-person traffic at your furniture store as well as online traffic in terms of increased page views.
There are so many well-searched, potent SEO techniques that can skyrocket your business from the bottom of the bucket to front-and-center. Isn’t it worth a few hours of your time to learn about how to do this? Of course it is! Read on for some concrete tips about local search marketing for your particular furniture business…
What is Google Map pack?
Many people have never heard of Google Map pack, and if you’re in that camp, that’s okay. Google Map pack is part of the much larger umbrella of local search marketing. The long name for Google Map pack is Google Local Listing Map Pack. In basic terms, when someone searches for “where to buy couch in Los Angeles” (for example), about only a few critical listings will appear as results.
It’s really important that your business be one of them so people will know about it and consider it as one of the options for where to purchase furniture. When people search online on Google, the following categories of results appear:
- Paid search
- Organic search results
- Map pack
- More organic search results (link 1)
The Map pack is a handy resource for users because it includes company names, addresses, URLs, and Google reviews. It’s very well-designed to be eye-catching. One-click and users have all the relevant information. Click the link above to see an excellent, visual explanation of Google Map pack – including where to find it on the search results page, why it matters, and be sure to read more (or employ the services of an SEO professional) to ensure your business is a top result in the Google Map Pack.
How furniture stores get in the Google Map pack
You don’t have to spend a fortune in order to appear in the Google Map Pack. Using keywords strategically, uploading blog content regularly, adding Alt Text to photos, and other techniques will boost your business page’s SEO and increase the likelihood of appearing in Google Map packs when users search. Contact an SEO professional for more detailed tips about improving your business’ SEO and increase the likelihood of appearing in the Google Map pack for users in your city. Many business owners are hesitant to enlist the services of an SEO specialist because they fear for their bottom line, but the vast majority find that the benefits far outweigh the cost.
Imagine if your business was in front of 500 more potential customers per month – wouldn’t that be worth $1500 a month to you? It’s simply a no-brainer proposition in this modern-day and age, when everyone relies so heavily on Google, social media, and other sources for recommendations and reviews. If no one knows about your business, they won’t find it, of course. So make sure as many people as possible know about your business through local search marketing techniques boosting SEO to be included in Google Map pack search results.
Local Searches and Trends
Enlisting the help of a local search marketing specialist is incredibly beneficial. For just a few hundred dollars per month, your business will be in front of so many more potential customer’s eyeballs. It’s all about casting as wide a net as possible. A local search marketing expert will research and continuously update exactly which keywords to plug into your website’s content to have maximum effect. What are local potential customers searching for? Don’t guess – enlist a SEO specialist to find out for sure in order to enhance the power of SEO.
Readability for actual users is important, but goes hand-in-hand with making sure that Google and other search engine’s robots can process the information best. When search engines like your content because it’s optimized for SEO as much as possible, then your business will see an increase in traffic and as a result, in sales. Local marketing services in your particular area of the country and in your industry are definitely a worthwhile investment that you’ll never regret making.
Local Listing Citations
What are local listing citations? At its very core, a local listing citation is when your business name, address, and phone number appear online (link 2). That includes when someone searches on Google, Bing, Yahoo, or any other search platform. It also includes when your business appears on local business directories, on related business websites or apps, as well as whenever it’s mentioned on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Yelp, and infinitely more platforms).
Local listing citations exist to help users find local businesses in the fastest, most convenient way possible. Most users search and find the business they’re looking for within a couple of minutes, so smart businesses focus on boosting their local search marketing techniques as much as possible to compete with similar local businesses.
Types of Local Listing Citations
There are 3 types of local listing citations. They are:
- Major Local Business Data Platforms
- Geo/Industry-Specific Platforms
- The Wider Web
Major Local Business Data Platforms include data garnished from various sources, including review-based social media platforms like Facebook and Yelp, as well as core business platforms like Google My Business and Infogroup (among others).
Geo/Industry-Specific Platforms include websites that are specific to your business’ unique industry and geography, like the local chamber of commerce websites and professional organization websites. Smart business marketers should focus their efforts on gaining exposure on these types of websites in order to boost their SEO.
The Wider Web is a catch-all category that refers to everything not already mentioned above. This would include blogs, government databases, maps, news sources, and more. Also included in this category is content that the business itself publishes as a promotional effort, such as a company blog. Intentionally producing and publishing carefully-crafted content is always a great strategy local search marketing professionals do for businesses. 500 words every week is a strong baseline, though this number can be increased for SEO purposes if desired.
Why local search marketing?
Everything is so hyper-local these days. For most city-dwellers, the thought of driving for more than 15 minutes to get to a restaurant, bar, store, or other hotspot sounds ridiculous. As the popular funny saying goes, “Ain’t nobody got time for that!” In modern American society, everything is geared toward convenience. So make sure it’s as fast and easy as possible for potential customers to find your business by utilizing these strategies. Honing in on making into the Google Map pack for your city, paying attention to local searches and trends (especially by always updating your list of fundamental keywords), and striving to appear on a wide range of local listing citations can take your business’ SEO to a whole new level.
The next time you notice that someone’s walking around your furniture with a curious smile on their face, and you suspect that this is their first time in, ask them how they found your store. If you’ve been focusing on implementing local search marketing techniques with an SEO specialist, you won’t be surprised when they say, “Oh, I just googled ‘best place to buy furniture in [your city] and it popped right up!” With a grin, you’ll think to yourself, wow, all that effort and cost was absolutely worth it in every way.
Of course, you care about promoting your business to people, but the way to do that most effectively is to make sure your business website, blog, and any citations of your business are taken into account by the search engine algorithms. Harness the power of SEO through local search marketing techniques. Whether you’ve had your business for generations or you just opened a couple of months ago, it will be benefited from you concentrating on making sure it appears in Google Map packs, local searches, and trends (it’s all about the keywords and frequent content uploads!), and local listing citations in the 3 categories explained above.
The way of the future is here, and its name is local search marketing. Harness its power to increase your business’ sustainability and profitability today! Don’t be afraid to try something new… plenty of people don’t want to dip their toes into SEO techniques because they fear it’ll be too time-consuming or difficult. But you may be astonished to find that dozens of total customers are walking into your store within just a few weeks of focusing on enhancing SEO.
All of us here wish you continued success and increased prosperity in 2020 and beyond! We hope these techniques prove useful and practical for your furniture store. We welcome your feedback! Don’t hesitate to contact local marketing experts like us today to learn more about our local search marketing services and how we can take your business to a whole new level online.