As a local organization, you have a lot of choices of ways to reach out to people and bring new people to your website and thus your organization. You can do social marketing, Adwords, mobile marketing, email blasts, and, of course, local search engine optimization (SEO). So, which do most organizations tend to find most effective?
Survey Says!?
A group called BrightLocal did a survey recently where they asked 288 SEOs and small/medium sized businesses (SMBs) which they found to be most effective at bringing in traffic to their websites and converting visitors into members/customers. Though they only spoke with 288 people, those 288 people have worked with over 7000 locations.
So, what did they find?
Local SEO (organic search) gives the most traffic with Google+ Local coming in second and Bing/Yahoo local coming in a little further down the list.
Here at OurChurch.Com, when we do local SEO for an organization, we include working with organic search, Google+ Local and Bing/Yahoo local, making it even more effective for an even greater return on investment.
People Converting Left and Right
It’s also not just more traffic where local SEO beats the competition. The surveyed group also indicated that the majority of their conversions (sales or new members) also comes from local SEO.
Not Just True for Businesses
This isn’t just the case for businesses. Churches, schools and other ministries also see similar results. The reality is that most people use the search engines for just about everything they want to find, whether looking for a product or a church.
What Are You Waiting For?
These are real world results. They show that local SEO is the most effective way for local organizations to get more traffic to their site and have more conversions. If you haven’t thought about doing local SEO for your organization or you just haven’t gotten around to it, let this be a wake up call for you. It’s time to start working on it. If you can’t find the time or you just don’t like doing SEO work, let us know here at OurChurch.Com and we’d be happy to help you out.
Tell Us Your Story:
- What have you found to be the best way to bring traffic to your website?
- What source have you found to be the best converting (have the best ROI)?
OurChurch.Com Director of Marketing Services
Kurt serves as OurChurch.Com’s Director of Marketing Services, bringing over 20 years of expertise in search marketing, and has developed numerous marketing services and served hundreds of churches, schools, ministries, and businesses.
He has authored more than 500 articles on the subject, contributing to platforms like the Christian SEO Guys blog and Church Marketing University, and is an active participant on LocalSearchForum.com.
In addition to his professional accomplishments, Kurt is an ordained minister, serving as pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Wesley Chapel, FL, demonstrating his commitment to both faith and community. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s Degree from Georgia Southern University. He also holds a Specific Ministry Pastor Certificate and a General Pastor Certificate from Concordia Seminary.
6 Comments
Describe, in detail, exactly what Local SEO is, and exactly how to apply it to any website. And include the costs involved.
Bob, unfortunately, due to the complexity of what you are asking and how much is customized for the specific organization, I can't really answer your question to the requested level of detail in this blog comment. If you'd like to get more detailed information, I'd encourage you to request a free consultation for our local SEO services (https://marketing.ourchurch.com/marketing-consultation.php).
A more simplified answer is that local SEO includes keyword research, on-page SEO, link building, creating citations, creating local listings, creating content, tracking rankings, tracking traffic, and a good bit more. How it is applied to a site depends on the site and how it's built, what the goal of the organization is, what the budget of the organization is, etc. The cost involved are also not fixed, but rather dependent on what you decide to do, how much you do on your own vs having a professional doing it, etc.
I hope this is somewhat helpful. As I mentioned, though, you would really need to do a consultation so we can have a discussion with you about your organization, goals, etc. to be able to answer you question in more detail.
Excellent Tips. Though I am familiar to the most of the tips and also had used some of the tips. Thanks for sharing this information.
I'm glad you found it helpful.
Thanks for sharing this information kurt. For many business, they prefer organic search approach because it gives business credibility and evergreen search results .However, organic search is just not as easy at it sound.
Hi,
well written post and nice tips. I like the part where you say frequent and regular posting helps build traffic.All these ways are true ways to build real traffic.
Regards,
OVAIS MIRZA