It is easy to Geo-target your mailer or an ad placed in a newspaper, on TV and radio. You know exactly what area your mailing list or your local ‘off-line’ media covers. More importantly, you pay fixed price ‘per event’ – mailing, paper issue or radio spot. Life is, or rather was, simple…

Today you must have the ‘Internet presence’ to simply stay in business. Although Internet offers multiple venues for advertising, search engine marketing (SEM) in general, and specifically paid search advertising, will remain the most cost effective venue for some time, offering the best return on investment (ROI).

Let’s discuss paid search (or PPC – pay-per-click) advertising, which, unlike most other Internet venues, allows direct Geo-targeting of your ads. As the name implies, you pay for every ‘click’ whether the visitor is ‘local’ to your business or resides in another state. Thus, the effect of proper Geo-targeting could be thousands of saved advertising dollars, and substantially better quality of leads these ads generate…

Well, you have read all the guidelines offered by Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. and selected the target area around your business location to display your ads.

You listed the named localities around your business in your Google campaigns so that city name shows up as a free ‘4th line’ in your ad. Or, you begrudgingly selected some radius around your business on Google (10 miles is the lowest practical resolution), or even larger and seemingly arbitrary area on Yahoo or MSN. You followed all the right procedures, but did you actually optimize your ‘Geo exposure’? Perhaps…

HOW DOES A SEARCH ENGINE KNOW WHERE THE ‘SEARCHER’ IS LOCATED?

Let’s digress for a second. An area code and the first 3-digits of your phone number used to generally determine your home or office physical location – actually, the location of the local ‘central office’ servicing your prefix. Yet today, your 10-digit phone number is simply a virtual number, which could be completely unrelated to your physical location.

Similarly, the physical location of the computer you use to access Internet and search could be generally determined by the Internet address (‘IP address’) of the ‘gateway’ of your local Internet access provider (which used to be located no more than a few miles from you). Yet today, you likely have only a single DSL and a single cable provider offering Internet access in your area. Technology has evolved and it is neither necessary nor economical for these large national service providers to have their equivalent of a local ‘central office’. They simply aggregate and ‘haul’ data traffic from many neighborhoods to a central data center that could be 50 miles away from your actual location. As a result, the Internet address of the ‘gateway’ servicing your computer does not necessarily define your physical location any more! Your ads may show up for searchers located 50+ miles from your business but will not be served to the people living right next to it.

Sorry for the long and boring explanation, but the IP address of the computer you use is the primary way for any search engine to determine which ads to initially serve you as a searcher.

There are several services that attempt to map your IP address to your physical location (e.g. MaxMind, IP2Location, Melissa, etc.), but the results you see are vastly different and the accuracy is highly dependent on the state and city you are in. Google and other search engines maintain their own Geo-location databases but still miss the mark in many cases. Here is an example of how two services classified the same set of searchers:

Example of Geo-Location by Two Services

So, be aware, geo test your ads, and try to mitigate location inaccuracies through smart advertising… I did not mean to add to your confusion with this post, but if I did, my apologies. You always have an option to retaliate and call us or drop us a note with your comments or specific questions.

With all this talk of SEO and AdWords most businesses forget that their website needs to continue the work started at the entry point. You need to take those visitors and turn them into leads. In these tough times, it is all the more important to treat every potential lead carefully and try harder to make an impression. Your website is probably the most versatile tool you have, and if used correctly can turn those loose leads into happy customers. Here are 5 tips that should help you do just that:

Standards Compliance

Contrary to popular belief there is a ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ way to build your website. Standards guarantee accessibility, compatibility and stability. A site that is inaccessible or incompatible for certain customers means they never even get up to bat. You’re just tossing those leads into the garbage. Stability allows another web developer to be hired, and instantly understand and work with your old site. It also allows you to make changes more easily and that means you can keep your site fresh. 

Keep it Fresh

Keeping your site new and fresh is important to potential customers. It means your business is vibrant and successful. It means you’re stocked with the latest items and have a wider selection. An occasional news post, seasonal message or special offer goes a long way to convincing visitors that you are the right choice. 

Special Offers

Everybody loves a good deal and if you run a business, you know the value of sales and discounts in increasing revenue. Use your website to attract customers by offering your sale right in the browser. Get your web designer to whip up some graphics that will draw their attention. Be creative! 

Use Landing Pages

If you offer a wide variety of products chances are you advertise each of them differently. The internet is an instant medium and to be successful within its bounds you need to embrace that concept. If you can show your visitor something more relevant than the next guy, chances are you’re the one they’ll do business with. Landing pages allow you to specifically target the product or service that your visitor searched for-  tailoring their browsing experience to their needs rather than yours.

Track Your Visitors

Make sure that you have some visitor/hit tracking system that will tell you where your visitors came from. There are many free tools that let you see in great detail what people are searching for when they visit your site. This information is very important and can help you make informed decisions instead of blind guesses. Spend the time to learn the tools and you will reap the benefits.