Need Better Local Search Results? Make Sure You’re Using Mobile!
These days the question isn’t “Do you have a mobile strategy?”, but “How is mobile doing for you?”
More than ever before, local business owners need to realize the incredible opportunity that being active in mobile offers them, and how best to make the most of that. Here are several reasons why this is important, plus some things you can do about it.
Why you need to be mobilized
Part of this is based on being aware of what your market is doing with their mobile devices. Here are a couple eye-opening statistics to help all of us get an understanding on just how important this is:
- A whopping 97 percent of people search online for products or services in their local area.
- A full 73 percent of those mobile searches result in visitors and conversions.
- It is real time: 70 percent of those searchers act upon them within an hour.
- They’ll use it in your store: 15 percent of consumers use their smartphone to price shop while they’re in your store.
What you can do to take advantage of mobile for local search
There a number of things you can do to ensure your business is ready and available for mobile visitors and customers.
Get your site mobile ready – There is some adjustment to make when it comes to ensuring your site renders well on mobile devices. Don’t leave this to chance, thinking it will show up “good enough”. You’ve got very little time to make a great impression, by some accounts fewer than ten seconds, and if you spend all of that just loading your page, the result is going to be that most people will leave before even viewing your page.
Take care with font and button sizes – Since your screen is obviously a great deal smaller, you need to make the demands on your readers less challenging. Don’t overload them with big sections of small text, and also, ensure that any buttons you would like clicked are large enough to easily touch.
Initiate an engagement strategy – Don’t leave them hanging: reply promptly to comments and concerns, and particularly complaints. Also, make regular connections with those that are trying to engage your brand.
Claim your directory listings – You’ll want to claim any listing you find on local directories, and create them where you don’t. Stay consistent in the information you post on each site, so visitors and search engines can easily find you.