Common Local Internet Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

As local businesses around America are created every day, business owners are constantly drowning in the world of internet marketing. Where do they start? Is it just with a Facebook page? Do they need their own website? How often do they update their pages? What social media platforms should they use? The list of questions goes on and on for local internet marketing. Local business owners get crushed under the amount of questions to answer and start to make mistakes that are very easy to avoid. Here are some of the most common local internet marketing mistakes for you to prevent from happening.

• Not making sites Public: We’ve all been there, afraid of sharing too much with the world so we make sure the privacy settings of our social media channels are locked down. As a local business owner though, this is the last thing you want to do. Every social media profile you have, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, etc. they should all be fully public so they’re easy to find and easier to index for Google.
• Creating the wrong Facebook: What this means is that sometimes, local business owners will create a Facebook profile instead of a Facebook page. There is a big difference between the two. A Facebook profile is what all your friends and family have. A Facebook page though is much different, as it’s tailored towards businesses. For local internet marketing, a Facebook page is the way to go.
• Ignoring the Facebook URL: Many, many business owners still don’t know that they can not only create a Facebook page, but also customize the URL for their Facebook page. Instead of www.facebook.com/(random letters and numbers) you could have facebook.com/(insert business name here) It will look much better and make it easier for Google to index your page.
• Not using your Business Name: This can be kind of an obvious one sometimes, but still a common mistake local business owners make when creating social media profiles. If you don’t use your business name, you will more than likely end up confusing your customers when they visit those pages. By using your business name, when you get indexed by Google, those social media pages will show up on search results and your customers will be able to find you easier.
• Uploading photos with generic names: One of the simplest ways to boost local internet marketing SEO is also one of the most overlooked ones. When uploading photos to your social media channels or your website, don’t use names such as IMG324 or Photo20. Instead, use names that contain your target keywords for the page or update you’re creating. By having keywords in the file names and Alt text of the picture, you can rank higher for Google search results.
• Duplicating online content: One of the biggest no-no’s for SEO is to duplicate and copy content that you see on other websites. Google will swing their penalty hammer down on you swiftly if you do this. As a local business owner, you’re very busy, but make sure to take time to come up with original content for your local internet marketing. This will help you in a big way down the road.
• Using Black Hat Tactics: If a service online seems too good to be true for SEO purposes, then it probably is. The fast and easy way is never the best way and Google will once again swing that penalty hammer and you’ll see your ranking drop heavily.

For local internet marketing, it’s a process that takes time and certainly won’t be done overnight. You need to create meaningful, original content that will keep your customers coming back for more on a daily basis. Keep them informed of what’s going on at your business and focus on giving them a positive experience. This is the best thing you can do for local internet marketing.