Laying Groundwork – Website
Creating a solid web presence starts with creating an SEO-friendly website. This establishes credibility in your market and helps with data aggregators (we’ll get to that in local search). Ideally, your website needs to be updated often and focus on keywords in your industry. In years past, you would want to make this site very large, but as we move into 2023, it’s better to have a website that is smaller and more streamlined. It should look modern but also match your brand.
Showing up in Local Search
The next most important step is to create a local search presence by signing up for free local data aggregators. The top three you should focus on, in this order, are Google My Business, Bing Places, and Yelp. In recent years, however, Google needs your company to exist in multiple databases to be adequately verified. We accomplish this by signing your company up with a data distributor. It’s essential to keep your description, business name, website, and hours consistent across these platforms for proper verification.
Setting up Social Media
Once we’ve established a website and local search presence, we want to set up social media accounts. Here, it’s important to create the same hashtag across all platforms, including YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. Once the big 3 have been set up, we’ll want to set up other social platforms, such as Twitter, TikTok, and LinkedIn. All of these should have the same description we used on the local search or shortened versions of it.
Updating Your Web Presence
All of the listed platforms above want you to use their platforms and reward users for spending more time on them. The more consistently you can post, the more likely you will appear in search and social feeds. Instagram prefers 2-3 times daily, whereas Google is based on how often your competition posts. We take an approach of once-a-week posting across the major 7 platforms (Your website, Google, Bing, Yelp, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook). We can then take these posts and turn them into Reels, Shorts, and TikToks. Potential clients vet potential business partners based on various locations. Some clients like to use Instagram, whereas others prefer Google. It’s important to show that your company is updated on where potential clients might be looking at you.
Reviews
To gain a competitive edge, your reviews on Google play more than one role. By having more reviews, your clients can feel safer making a purchase with you. By having more reviews than your competitors, you can show up more prominently in searches. Yelp and Facebook reviews serve more towards social proof to help a client purchase but don’t hold more weight in search engine results. We set up review collections in the form of e-mails to customers who purchased. People ask, “how do you get 400 reviews for a client,” and the answer is very simple, we ask.
Content to Create
When updating content across platforms, it’s hard to develop weekly content that would be interesting for people to engage with. Not every post will win the Pulitzer Prize, but every post should engage the potential client in one way or another. We often start in the FAQ section for the business and start posting answers. If one client seeks an answer to a question, others are likely seeking the same thing. We also post “action shots” of your work, “behind the scenes” to show realism, and location-based photos to establish the service area.
