When done right, local SEO can deliver amazing results. But we'll let the data do the talking. Here are 5 powerful marketing case studies you need to read.
Marketing is a numbers game. Gone are the days of intuitive wisdom and self-declared wizards proposing a new direction without reason. Today, we have the ability to see what's worked and what hasn't.
A lot of marketers are skeptical of alternative approaches to SEO and local SEO. This is understandable: the search engines are constantly changing their rules, and good business owners have suffered Google penalties before.
But it's also foolish. Because to quote Wayne Gretzky: "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."
While you're debating the merits of local SEO, the competition is already making a profit. So here are some marketing case studies that prove that local SEO works.
Five Marketing Case Studies
We chose these case studies based on their variety. Local SEO is a complicated subject. It's also very specified.
Everybody knows that their town or city is unique. But they forget that every town and city is unique, in its own way. And these unique features impact what people search for and what businesses need.
Because no two marketing case studies are alike, we've decided to give you a look at a few different studies from across the web.
HGB Construction And The Power of Maps
You can have the most well-designed website on the planet. But with all of the beautiful websites out there today, you need to make sure you're dominating the competition before they even click on your website.
That means making sure that people can find you when they search for you.
Such is the story of HGB Construction. Along with wanting to be a top result for its keyword, the Alberta-based purveyor of Handyman services had a huge problem.
They weren't showing up on Google Maps.
This is beyond an inconvenience for your customers. Google Maps is how people know who you are and where to find you.
Without a Google Maps presence, companies don't have anything connecting their online and offline presence.
Luckily, after being given a correct mapped presence, the company did far better.
But the changes made to HGB construction's digital presence didn't stop with maps. All marketing case studies are multifaceted, and that includes this one.
They were given a stellar website redesign. That redesign was matched with one of the most important things you can give a website: a sustained content creation strategy that went hand-in-hand with professional keyword research.
On top of this, they made their information more prominently available online. The name of the business, address, and contact information made them easier to find and customers easier to attract.
Over all, the strategies employed by HGB construction made their digital presence better. This, in turn, has improved their business. And while all changes made were important, the most prominent change was getting them on Google maps.
The lesson learned from this case study is: to be visited, you need to be seen.
Hauser-Ross Eye Institute And Surgicenter: Geotargeting's Advantages
Hauser-Ross is an eye care center located in Sycamore, just outside of Chicago. And while they thought the windy city would blow some web traffic their way, they found a few problems.
Ultimately, they needed to increase inbound queries for "cosmetic," "cataract," optical," and "Lasik."
These goals were admirable but misguided. That's because these are one word and heavily used keywords.
In layman's terms: have you ever noticed how some races contain hundreds of runners? And how, in these races, people are sometimes proud to finish in thirtieth or fortieth place?
This is similar. But unlike the example of a race, there's nothing to be proud of when people don't click on your website. And if you're the number 40 ranking for "Lasik" in your area, people aren't going to click on your website.
So like all good marketing case studies, this story begins with people realizing the things they were doing weren't working.
Yes, Hauser Ross needed a change. Most of all, they needed to change their keywords. The field they were competing in was far too crowded for them to make any money.
The answer was all around them. Literally.
Hauser Ross was near Chicago, but they were not in Chicago. People living in the city proper or a different nearby town would likely find an eye care center that was more local for them.
So there were a few things Hauser Ross needed to do. The first was aesthetic: the eye care provider needed a better website. After improving that element of their digital presence, their goal became changing their keyword strategy.
What makes this one of the best local SEO marketing case studies is the way they did it. They found that by attempting to rank for these keywords while including either the name of the town ("Sycamore") or the town's name plus the state ("Sycamore IL" or "Sycamore Illinois") they improved their keyword ranking significantly.
This is called geotargeting, and it's pretty essential to any functioning local SEO strategy. In the case of Hauser Ross, they were able to rock geo-targeting all the way to the bank.
That makes this one of the great marketing case studies focused on geotargeting.
Local SEO Guide's Citation Clean-Up Experiment
Local SEO Guide is one of the most respected names in the industry. They've also taken the sort of experimental and results-oriented approach that has come to define SEO.
While this case involves a chain larger than any other mentioned in these marketing case studies, it also used local SEO methods.
In the case of one 1,300 store chain they worked with (the company has decided to keep the company anonymous,) they found a number of problems in local SEO.
The reason were citations. The web is a place that can be rife with misinformation. Oftentimes, the problem comes from honest mistakes made on databases.
If there's misinformation out there about a company, it can be disastrous. That's because citation errors can include statements that a store has closed down, the wrong address, or misinformation about a store's hours.
Simply put: imagine you're applying for a job. The day you apply for a job, somebody with the same name as you commits a crime. Local news searches for that person's face and, due to an error, puts your face on television.
Your interview the next morning will not go nearly as well as you had hoped.
This is obviously a contrived example. But it also indicates what a company goes through when they find themselves the victims of bad citations.
The results of Local SEO Guide's experiment speak for themselves. Across over 60,000 keywords they improved the company's rankings by an average of 23%.
Sometimes, the most important thing you can do is make sure the people around you know the truth.
Sterling Rose LLC And The Importance of Reviews
A lot of people are skeptical of local SEO and SEO as a whole. For people who see digital marketing (and sometimes all marketing,) as nothing more than a bunch of smoke-and-mirrors, this view makes sense.
The truth will always be simple: the best marketing is a good product or service. While marketing can help you get the word out there that you're great, it can't make you great.
So when we talk about this next company having boosted their presence through reviews, it's really important to note that the reviews they got were genuine.
Fake reviews are common, but they can also come back to bite you. You don't see a lot of marketing case studies about why fake reviews work because fake reviews are illegal, and can result in serious fines.
Any marketing case studies about fake reviews would focus on how they can bankrupt a company.
Sterling Rose LLC, a New Jersey IT firm, succeeded because they were able to get genuinely positive reviews available online. Like many marketing case studies, this one starts with an organization that was already doing a great job.
But it ends with them getting the word out there.
Nova Junk Removal and Negative Phrases
Nova Junk Removal thought they were doing everything right. This is common in marketing case studies, but in the case of Nova, they were making a crucial mistake.
While the company was spending a fortune on keyword research, they were not including negative phrases. That meant that a lot of results that could have been coming from people searching for what they offer were being replaced by results for people searching for what they didn't.
To make matters worse, they were having the same problem with searches outside of the areas they served.
Luckily, the company had its problem solved when some brilliant ad-experts added negative keywords to their SEO strategy.
The lesson here is that it's important to let people know what you don't do.
Reach The Next Level
Marketing case studies have shown, time and time again, that you need a sustained commitment to SEO.
If you want somebody who can help you rock your local strategy, you've come to the right place. We offer the perfect combination of creativity and strategy to help you drive traffic and, ultimately, conversions.
Don't just read about people succeeding in local SEO. You can do so much more than that.
So instead of being an onlooker to success, make real money today!