4 Must Have Mobile Tactics for Local Businesses

It seems like for the past three years marketers have been predicting that “this will be the year for mobile.” I’ve stated it but the mobile tsunami that we thought would absolutely flood the market in 2010 has turned out to be a slow leak of new, constant mobile adopters in 2013. We know that mobile is a big deal asmobile internet usage is projected to overtake desktop internet usage in the near future. However, as a local business you may not see or understand the value of “mobile” but according to a Google study about 50% of mobile searches have local intent and 88% of those who looked for local information on their smartphones take action within a day.

I can spout off more convincing stats but if you are a local business and you know you want to maximize your mobile – local presence, here’s what you need to do:

1. Have a mobile friendly website:

It kind of goes without saying but it is ultimately the first step into the mobile/local foray. A mobile site is important 48% of users stated that if a site didn’t work well on their smartphones, it made them feel like the company didn’t care about their business. For businesses that have more than one location make sure that each business has it’s own landing page on the website.

2. Consistent and Correct Name Address Phone Website:

Once again another “gimme” but extremely important. As you move forward with a local/mobile approach being consistent with how your name, address, phone number and website is a must. Especially if you have multiple locations make sure that you are consistent as this information reflects your business and will be used to cross reference and validate a business.

3. Claim Business Profiles:

Tons of business directories exist but start with Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yelp, Superpages and City Search. Essentially you need to claim and verify your business and make sure that any current information provided is correct and consistent with what was established in step 2. Beyond your NAP you’ll also need to make sure you provide a proper business category and description. Don’t forget about any industry specific directories, BBB or local chamber of commerce.

4. Grow Business Profiles (citations):

A business listing/profile will also be called a “citation” and the general rule of thumb in local SEO is that the more listings a business has, the better. However, finding and managing these citations outside of the big business directories can be difficult. At this point in the game I would recommend looking into a service like WhiteSpark or Yext that allows you to create, manage and grow your citations. A nice thing with using a service like WhiteSpark is that they are not only able to find citations but they also have the ability to determine citation quality and help you find unstructured citations that could be found outside of a business directory on blogs, newspaper websites or event listing websites.

This is just the surface on maximizing your mobile – local experience but taking these easy steps will be able to take any business in the right direction.

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