So you’re curious about geo-targeting and how it can help your business. For small and medium businesses, or even national businesses with many stores in varying locations, geo-targeting is one of the most cost-effective ways to find local customers who are likely to convert into leads for your business. Geo-targeting allows you to focus your online marketing efforts on a very specific group of people within a geographic location. You can choose to target people within a specific country, province, city, region, or even a certain neighbourhood.

When done properly Geo-targeting can be very effective in building your company’s reputation with local people in your community and can help you find new customers who live near your business. Ultimately you need to choose what your best geo-target area would be and focus on attracting inbound visitors from those geo-locations. Read on to learn more about how you can geo-target online successfully.

Different Forms Of Geo-Targeting

Now that you have the answer to ‘what is geo-targeting’, here are some of the different ways you can integrate geo-targeting into your website and online marketing.

1. Traditional Geo-Targeting
Geo-targeting isn’t new. Older forms of geo-targeting, which are still used today, include advertising via local newspapers, billboards, radio stations and direct mail. These ads can have a specific message geared toward the local market you are trying to reach. For example, a newspaper ad in the Toronto Star might read “Hey Toronto, come get half off our selection of rubber ducky figurines.”

While traditional forms of local advertising may be effective they can also be very costly.

In the age of the Internet and smartphones, online is where geo-targeting is most effective. You can be very precise with your online marketing, thus making it more personal and relevant to your customers. This method is called content localization and it can be done at the smallest level with the right tools and methods.

2. Specific Geo-Domains and Social Media
If you have a website you can buy a specific domain for your country such as ‘.ca’ for Canada or ‘.au’ for Australia. This is effective if you’re targeting a specific country.
Using social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ will also help with geo-targeting. For example, if you own a business in Toronto, your Facebook page can be focused on writing about content for Torontonians, and promoting sales and events specific to the city.

3. Google Places
Google Places is a big part of local search. As the most visited search engine in North America, Google plays an important role in geo-targeting. Creating a Google Places account puts your business on Google’s digital map of your city. So when people search for keywords related to your business in your neighbourhood, your location pops up on Google’s local map.

The more information you add to your Google places account, such as photos, links, contact info, the more it helps with geo-targeting and your search rankings. Customer reviews are also important on Google Places, so encourage your customers to leave a review about their experience with your business on your Google Places listing.

4. Combining Keywords with Geo-Targeting
Another effective method is using keywords in your online content. With Google Keyword Planner you can type in keywords such as “Toronto plumbers” or “North York Property Inspectors” and see how many searches are done for those terms in a month. Your website can be filled with content localization terms that can help you geo-target your website’s content to draw in local customers through search engines. The more localized keyword terms you put into your online content, the higher chances that Google and other search engines will associate your content with a geo-location and thus increase your rankings for key word searches associated with those locations.

Read this article to find some tips for effective SEO writing.

5. Local PPC
PPC or pay per click advertising is a type of search advertising that serves your text advertisements to people searching for keywords related to your business. One of the best ways to reach a specific target through PPC is to use geo-targeting.

Through Google or another PPC service provider, you can segment your PPC campaigns to be shown only for searches done within a specific city or region, and then create PPC ads that speak directly to your localized target. For instance, you can advertise a sale for a specific local store within the region you are targeting. This allows you to hone in on a more relevant target audience that is more likely to convert into a real leads and sales.

6. Going Mobile
Mobile is one of the fastest growing sectors for targeting local customers. Ensuring your website is mobile-friendly is the first step. This allows local customers to easily find your business when they search on their phones.

Mobile couponing and using mobile devices to send out advertisements can be extremely effective for targeting local customers. Mobile phones are always connected and many people have their phones set up to display their location at any time. You can target your customers on the move by placing mobile banner ads on their web browsers to promote sale items every time they enter in a specified geographical zone. Mobile couponing is perhaps the most tech savvy way to get in touch with your customers and many companies are beginning to see the advantages of mobile marketing.

Our Take On Geo-Targeting

At Eden Advertising & Interactive, we believe geo-targeting is an effective tool for reaching your optimal customers at a local level, whether that be a neighbourhood, city, province or country. Ultimately it helps people who would want to interact with businesses that are local find you more easily. Focusing on geo-targeting online is very effective in easily reaching and converting the right local target market for your business.

Eden Advertising and Interactive Agency specializes in online marketing, SEO, PPC, and social media. We dig deep to understand your business and goals so that we can develop customized marketing solutions to help you reach your growth objectives.

If you have any questions about geo-targeting and how it can help you, please give us a call at 1-800-844-0106 or fill out our online inquiry form. EDEN is your friendly neighbourhood advertising agency in Toronto (see, that’s a little geo-targeting right there) and we’re ready and waiting to help you promote your brand locally and draw in new leads for your business.

If you have any other geo-targeting tips that have worked for your business, please share them on our blog.