How can local businesses use inbound marketing?

While online businesses primarily rely on SEO to draw people in, local brick-and-mortar businesses can also take advantage of inbound marketing techniques to bring in customers. Boosting your online presence can significantly help with lead acquisition, whether you want them to visit your store or have you deliver your services to them. SEO is an invaluable asset for many local enterprises.

Geo-modified Keywords

Search engine optimization is largely about including relevant keyword search terms in content. Using local SEO, you can modify keywords with service areas, helping customers find either your location or a company that can reach their location. For example, if you offer roofing services in multiple cities, you may want to create city pages for each service area that try to rank for keywords such as "roofing services in [city]." Retail outlets and other physical stores can also use inbound marketing keywords to draw traffic and bring more visitors to their locations.

Local Listings

Apart from organic keyword rankings to their websites, local listings can also increase SEO value, helping people find their business through local listing directories and Google searches for certain services in the company's specific area. Yext and many other local listing websites can help businesses appear in popular directories such as Yellow Pages and thousands of others. Having a Google+ business profile can also help more people find local companies.