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We have all heard it said, “buy local”. While we all want to, sometimes it can be hard to find a local company offering the goods or services when we go to Google or large online retailers. This is where Local Search Engine Optimization (Local SEO) comes into play.

Every business, especially local businesses, needs to find the right digital marketing partner that can help them boost their visibility to their customers and clients. This is done using marketing strategies such as search engine optimization (SEO) and other content marketing techniques. In fact, according to Blue Corona, around 80% of people research a company online first before going to the small business's physical store or making a purchase with them. This just shows how important it is for businesses to have a solid digital marketing strategy.

But here's the big question: what are the things to consider when choosing the best marketing agency for your business? 

If you want to find out, don't worry! We got you covered. In this article, we'll present seven important questions you should ask a prospective digital marketing agency or an SEO company to determine whether or not they're the right fit for you:

The statistical doom and gloom of the service and construction industry’s labor market isn’t just theoretical. Many areas of the world, country, and right here in North Carolina feel the pain; talented, experienced workers are hard to find. Numerous friends, prospects, and clients in the industry have looked at me and said simply, “can you help me find people who want to work.”

Obviously, you want to find and hire employees, but how can you find the best so you can build the best team. While it may seem like all hope is lost, there is an opportunity. Like anything, it is going to take some planning and forward-thinking. With that, here are four tips to help you build the best team for service or construction business.

1. What does your perfect employee look like

Think of it like this. You wouldn’t want to do a content marketing campaign without having an audience in mind. Looking for the perfect employee should be no different. The clearer the picture you have of that person in your head, the better off you will be.

Think about what you are looking for, what qualifications do they have, if any. Do they have experience? Are they reliable and hardworking? Now take it a step further, will they fit with your companies culture? 

Once you get to the interview portion, you will want to qualify them just as you would if you were quoting or estimating a job. What are the non-negotiable skills this person will need versus what you can teach them? 

As a friend of mine used to say, there are no pie jobs in the pie factory. Just like there is not a perfect employee. What you need to think about and do is follow the advice of Peter Shutz, “Hire character. Train skill.” Most of the time, you can teach someone how to hammer a nail or sweep the floor, but you can’t teach things like disposition, loyalty, and ethics.

2. Be a magnet for talent

Today’s generations look for places that offer more than money, insurance, and typical benefits. They look at your companies culture, how you treat your employees. 

As an example, one of our clients, Action Service Company, focuses on jobs within an hour’s radius of their shop. The reason being the owner, Carl Stewart, doesn’t want his employees to go home tired and not be able to spend time with their families. 

One of the easiest ways to attract incredible talent is to be the “Cheers” in your field and area. In other words, be the place where everyone wants to be. 

3. Play the long game and plan three steps ahead

In my younger years, I loved to shoot pool. While I was never the best, I would often watch a group of older men play. They would often “run the table.” What I came to realize was they were always looking 1-3 steps ahead. They would take a shot and try to set themselves up for the next. If they couldn’t make the shot, they would try to set up their opponent for an even harder shot.

Now I am not advocating you set up your competitors for failure, but ultimately you want to set yourself up for success. Always be on the lookout for the next great hire. If you can, you want to look and think about six months ahead of when you expect to need another truck on the road or another crew. While that may seem like forever, think about this, how long does it take to find and hire an employee or crew? How long does it take to onboard them and train them in how you prefer things to be done? How long would it take you to set up a truck or van with all the equipment you need?

Now, does six months seem like that long? What about the person with 15 years of experience? They may have some bad habits that you need to work through before letting them loose.

As of this article’s writing, the home and commercial services along with the trades are booming. At the same time, it is hard to know what may happen in six months. A savvy business person will at least attempt to forecast where they may be and want to be in six months, one year, five years, and even ten years. While you still need to remain flexible, it never hurts to start having conversations with prospective employees.

4. Hire slow, fire fast

Chances are you may have heard this phrase before, “Hire slow, fire fast.” In the seasons of time where unemployment around the world is high, the idea of “hire slow, fire fast” may seem insensitive. However, for two reasons, I would say this approach is more compassionate than the alternatives.

This is your business; it will not serve you or your clients if your business becomes bloated and slowly suffocates itself. You need to keep your business healthy and growing!

Secondly, if one person is dragging the rest of your team down, is it worth it? What about the risk of losing good employees to your competition because you are unwilling to let one person go. Remember, lack of courage is not equal to having compassion.

Future Employees: How and where to find them

As long as there are people on this earth, we will need people to build, repair, and clean up after each other. Therefore I want to make a bold prediction. I think we will see an influx of the next generation looking to fill these jobs. The question remains, where do you find them at and how can we educate the future generations about these careers.

Utilize inbound marketing methods for recruitment

You may be saying, how can I use inbound or content marketing to find employees? The answer is simple, you do it the same as if you were trying to sell to them, and in a sense, you are. You are trying to sell them on a career in your field and with your company.

Look to social media

Social media can be a great place to highlight your companies culture. Show the fun side of the business. Show and communicate how you care for your employees and their families if that is important to you and your future employees.

Reach out to high schools, technical and community colleges

Recruiting students while they are still in school will give you a captive audience and talent pool from which to pick from. Consider starting an apprenticeship program or having interns during your peak times. This will provide you with a chance to have a trial run with a potential employee. If they are a good fit, then for a little bit of time invested, you have already trained and onboarded them in how you want things done.

If you need help or want to learn more about how inbound marketing or social media can help with your employee recruitment, contact us, we would be happy to have a conversation!

Chances are you have already searched for something on the internet today. Everyone uses Google or other major search engines to find solutions for their problems every single day and businesses cannot forget to optimize their online presence in this day and age. BrightLocal says 46% of searches have a ‘local intent.’ ‘Plumbers near me’ or ‘plumbers in [location]’ are examples of a search with local intent. Even if the user does not include a location, Google uses the location of the searcher to show the most relevant results. 

Search engine optimization (SEO) can be intimidating to say the least, but it doesn’t need to be. Today, we will be unpacking what local SEO can do for your company.

Local SEO best serves businesses that have a brick and mortar establishment or serve a specific geographic location. Local SEO consists of customized strategies to best fit your company's needs and goals. With many different price ranges, anywhere from $450 to $3000 per month, there is a solution for every local company. 

What Is Local Seo?

Local SEO varies slightly from traditional SEO. The process focuses on getting your business a higher ranking in local search results so your business is seen by more potential customers. The impact of local SEO for a business includes increased visibility, revenue, and customers/clients-- making SEO a wise investment for any company.

WebFX explains that local SEO rankings come down to 

1. Relevance: Does this business do or sell what the searcher is looking for?
2. Proximity: Is the business close to the searcher?
3. Prominence: Is the business well-known and reputable?

Local search engine results pages (SERPs) often include a map pack. Google includes the top 3 businesses that are relevant to the search. This allows local businesses to show up twice in a Google search result, once in the organic search results and the second time in the local map pack. A map pack differs from organic results by showcasing the company’s hours, reviews and photos if available. The first step to ensure your presence in a map pack is to claim your Google My Business account. 

Google My Business

It is completely free to claim your Google My Business account. In doing so, your business will show up in Google local search results, Google Maps, and Google Search Knowledge Panel. Photos are a great way to allow the customer to get a good feel for what your unique business has to offer. 

Automated Local Seo

Automated platforms will constantly update and check that your business name, address, and phone number are correct in local searches. This is the simplest form of SEO but does not provide much lasting value. Typically, this would cost a flat rate ranging from $90-$500 per year. Something to keep in mind, once the payments end, the platform stops performing this service and leaves the company without added assistance. 

Smaller Local Seo Campaigns

This is a great option for businesses just starting off or if the business only serves one geographic location. While this service is not the super deluxe package, it will help rank your business higher on local search results and increase the business’ visibility. You can expect to pay $450-$900 per month depending on the agency.

Comprehensive Local Seo Campaigns

This plan is definitely the best long term value. Costs can range from $900-$3000 per month. Typically includes internal website maintenance, backlinks & local citations maintenance, blog & content management, and review management. Let’s break these down a little further: 

Internal Website Maintenance

Maintaining your company’s website is a key factor in ranking on search engines. This maintenance entails fixing dead links, creating SEO-friendly URLs, optimizing the website’s title tags and meta descriptions, adding, removing, and editing content. All of these seemingly small changes add up to make a big impact on your company’s website ranking in local search results and ultimately impacts your business’ revenue. 

Backlinks & Local Citations Maintenance

Backlinks are created when one website links to another. This is another important factor that Google and other major search engines use to rank your business’s website. Backlinks show the search engines that your website can be trusted and show that your company is the expert in that field. 

Local citations are listings of your business’ name, address, phone number, and website URL. Local citations are similar to backlinks in that you want your business consistently listed across all relevant online directories such as Yelp, Angie’s List, Nextdoor, etc. If your business does not appear in many different directories, your competition will have a higher chance to snag your potential customers and the revenue that follows.

Blog & Content Management

Fresh, original content plays a huge role in your SERPs ranking. This shows the search engines that your company is active and relevant to its users. Creating content provides a great opportunity to share your company’s services, products, and specials in more detail. Another benefit is a more personal connection you are able to achieve with potential and returning customers. If writing content for a blog, at least 1,800 words is preferred for optimal exposure. 

Review Management

Reviews can say alot about your business. They are real testimonies from other customers that humanize the company. Potential customers feel that they can trust the reviews because they are coming from an unbiased source. With review management, your company is able to send out SMS or email review requests and gain important new reviews. New reviews boosts your ranking on SERPs and positive reviews give your company a leg up on the competition. On the other side, if a negative review comes in, your company will receive a notification, allowing an instant response from your company, ensuring your customer that you are aware of the problem and that you value their feedback. 

Why Is Local SEO So Important

Local SEO differs from traditional SEO because Google uses separate algorithms for local rankings and the map pack. As Google continues to improve their algorithms, the way the search results display changes. Marketing Analytics company Moz releases a Local SEO Industry Report annually. The report is a great tool to see which factors influence local search results the most for that year. In 2020, Google My Business elements came in first, followed by Google Reviews, and in 3rd is proximity of the searcher to the place of business. This shows how crucial utilizing your Google My Business account is and how interaction with your customers plays a huge role in gaining new customers and increasing revenue.

Moz tells us that local queries account for almost half of Google’s two trillion searches per year. Moving up in the rankings, even just one spot, can seriously affect how much traffic your company’s website receives.

BrightLocal provides some powerful statistics to take into consideration.

• 96% of PC owners conduct local searches
• 64% of local customers use search engines and directories as their main way to find local businesses
• 50% of local mobile searchers look for business information (company address or phone number) 
• A whopping 78% of local mobile searches result in an offline purchase

When someone starts a local search, the number one reason is to find a local business and the second reason is to find a product or service. Many start their search without an individual company in mind, which allows for more potential leads that turn into paying customers. 

2020 has been a challenging year for all of us. With the outbreak of COVID-19, less consumers have been visiting brick and mortar establishments. It is pertinent that your company’s website is easily found, user-friendly, and up to date with the correct information. Local SEO is more important than ever because the majority of potential customers will be researching for information online vs in person than ever before.

Budgeting For Local SEO

Certains factors play into how much your company should budget for local SEO services. When your company is in a highly competitive industry, it will require more resources, time, and money to set your brand apart from the pack. Another factor that affects budget is if your company has multiple locations, because each location will have to be optimized for maximum engagement. If your company provides multiple services or products, separate web pages will need to be added to target the individual services or products your company provides. 

The Value Of Local SEO

The different services that local SEO provides, prove to be invaluable for your company. The internet is overtaking old school media more and more rapidly by the day. Potential customers turn to Google and other major search engines to find the solutions to their everyday problems. Harnessing the power of local SEO increases traffic, customers, and revenue for your company. Important to note, effective SEO is an ongoing process, it can take anywhere from 4 to 9 months to see results. But trusting the process is well worth the long haul. 

Cube Creative is an inbound marketing agency that helps small businesses grow by managing your online presence, including but not limited to your website, website content, social media, online reviews, and online advertising. We are based in Asheville, NC with an additional office in Wilkesboro, NC. 

We work with you to create a targeted strategy to use your most profitable keywords and make continuous updates both on and off your website in accordance with Google’s guidelines. No one can guarantee your company the top rankings of any search engine, unless they are talking about paid advertising. Cube Creative uses techniques that are recommended and considered safe for achieving long-term gains, without risk of being penalized or banned by a search engine.

We let your website work for you. Don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions, we are here to help!

Check out our services and connect with us for a custom local SEO plan that works for you.