If your company produces a product that gets shipped worldwide and you don’t have a ‘brick and mortar’ store, this may not be such an issue for you. However, if you have a small business that provides products and services to local customers, you’ll want to make sure they can find you easily.

If you sell flowers in North Adelaide, for instance, you want to be on the first page of Google results when someone types in ‘flowers North Adelaide’ on their phone, tablet or computer. Unless you deliver in Melbourne or Perth, you don’t need to worry about customers in those areas – you only need to focus your energies on potential customers who want flowers (or want flowers delivered) in the Adelaide area.

So what can you do? Here are four tips to make sure your business gets found by local customers:

1. Make sure your website is optimised for mobile devices. According to recent statistics, over 50% of Australians now own a smartphone. Not only have that, but 19% of Australians searched for local suppliers and services on their smartphones on a daily basis. If customers can’t access or read your website on a phone or tablet, they’ll move on to another site and you’ll lose business.

2. Add your business on Google Places, Yahoo Small Business and local directories. Be sure to add your business to Google Places and Yahoo Small Business, which both have basic packages for free. In addition, sign up for local directory options such as Yelp and Yellow Pages.

3. Use local keywords. What areas do you serve? Do you have stores in more than one location? Do you offer on-site services for customers located anywhere between Gawler and Sellicks Beach? If your products and services are location-based, help customers find you by noting specific place names on your site.

4. Put your contact information in text (not an image) on every page of your site. This will help viewers find you and also help Google connect your business to local searches. Although be careful about including your email address which leaves you open to spam – there are workarounds you can do here. Preferably, you want to set up a ‘click-to-call’ feature directly from your site so that people can immediately dial your number from their phone once they find you.

Have questions? Need some help with improving your local marketing? Contact us today.