Marketing has become increasingly competitive. Online visibility allows every business to reach customers across the globe. However, for Driving Instructors, the most desirable target audience isn’t global; it’s local.
A successful digital marketing strategy for driving instructors should focus on reaching local customers and on appearing for local search queries. This will enable people who are either in the local area already or searching for driving instructor services in the local area to find you quickly and easily.
What is Local Search?
Local search or local SEO is the modern-day version of the Yellow Pages. 20 years ago, if you wanted to find your local driving instructor you opened the Yellow Pages and looked under driving instructors, probably calling ‘AAA Driving School’ because that’s what got to you the top of the page.
However fast forward 20 years, to find your local instructors you’ll head to Google and search ‘Driving Instructors near me’. But the results aren’t sorted A-Z; there are several different factors that affect the way the results are sorted.
In this article, we will look at what you should focus on to help with Local SEO.
How does it work?
Local SEO works the same way that normal Google search does.
When a search happens, Google scans through its index to provide the best results for that query.
What makes Local SEO unique is that Google uses a different set of factors to rank the local search results these include.
- The location that the person is searching from.
- NAP citations (Name, Address, and Phone Number)
- Presence of Google My Business listing
- Keywords
- Online reviews
- Phrases/keywords used in online reviews.
- Number of “check-ins” at that location
Here are 3 ways that Driving Instructors can improve their online visibility and win more business locally…
Create an online presence
90% of local searches happen online, and 76% of those result in an action within 24 hours. So why not create an online presence? In most cases, it’s free to create, free to manage, and even free to optimise. Head over to Google and set up a Google MyBusiness, but don’t just focus on Google. There are over 50 platforms where you can be found online; places like Apple Maps, Bing, and Facebook, to name a few.
Update your business information
With online search, first impressions count. Displaying the wrong information online can damage the number of customer queries and prevent further online visits from potential customers and even worse, result in a lower search engine result ranking.
Request Reviews
Finally, make sure that you request reviews from your customers.
85% of customers rely on online reviews as much as personal recommendations. But getting your customers to write glowing reviews for you doesn’t just encourage more local customers to contact you; it also optimises your online presence.
When search engines are trying to figure out what the best results might be for a certain search enquiry, they’re going to look at the number of reviews you have. The more reviews that you have, the higher you’ll rank.
Final Thoughts
Using a tool like Web Listings will help optimise your business for local search. Web Listings is a single dashboard where you can enter your contact information, opening hours and areas served into a single dashboard, Web Listings will then publish that information across 50+ online search engines, directories, and navigational platforms.
The average small business received an increase of 30% in website visits in 2022 from using Listings.
Get in touch now.