Local Search Bellingham Washington

By Pat Smith

Local search Bellingham Washington is an excellent online marketing strategy which is used to attract new business. Local search is relatively new, but offers opportunities to attract customers, obtain consumer reviews, improve search engine rankings, and build subscriber lists.

Local search Bellingham Washington helps businesses reach out to 23 unique communities located within the city limits of this unique Northwest state. Bellingham is a mecca for outdoor enthusiasts, photographers, adventurists, and enthusiasts of cultural arts, culinary events, and shopping.

Located in Whatcom County, Bellingham is the 12th largest city in the state and was deemed one of the top retirement cities in the state by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. Perhaps, most known for its activism, Bellingham is home to the longest running peace vigil in the U.S. and has strong chapters of Food Not Bombs, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace, and Code Pink: Women for Peace.

Bellingham is also home to several educational institutions including Charter College, Western Washington University, Woodring College of Education, Fairhaven College, Northwest Indiana College, and Whatcom Community College.

Due to the expansive number of college students, local listings should be a top priority within online marketing plans. Today's students are techno-savvy and use computers and cell phones for everything from locating local businesses to conducting research for thesis papers.

Local listings involve publishing company contact information via listing directories. This marketing strategy not only helps customers locate local businesses, but also improves search engine rankings.

The process for submitting to local listing directories is not difficult, but can be cumbersome. Hundreds of business listing directories exists and it's smart to publish at as many as possible. Reason being, each listing provides an inbound link which can boost overall search rankings.

To fully capitalize on this online marketing strategy requires at least one fulltime employee. In addition to publishing information at each directory, listings must be checked for accuracy upon publication, updated when changes are made, and followed when the option of receiving customer reviews is offered.

Customer reviews are not available through all local listing directories. However, numerous local social listing sites encourage unsolicited customer reviews. Once published, these reviews can be shared through social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook. This is an excellent strategy for building brand awareness, but must be carefully monitored.

Many companies outsource the task of publishing local listings to online advertising companies. This can be particularly advantageous for small business owners with limited resources. It is recommended to work with freelancers or advertising agencies skilled in this niche.

Local search is a powerful tool as long as companies use it to the fullest extent. Publishing only at major listing directories limits link building online capabilities and reduces opportunity for search engine indexing.

At Online Marketing DNA we offer comprehensive local search programs to help Bellingham based businesses reach their fullest potential. When this strategy is combined with other online marketing strategies, businesses have opportunity to dominate their niche.

Our unique marketing programs are custom designed to ensure each client incorporates marketing campaigns that yield a good return on investment while minimizing time required developing and implementing powerful ad campaigns.

If you are curious about how local search Bellingham Washington can improve online visibility we would be happy to talk with you. We are available from 8am to 5pm weekdays or can be reached via the "Contact Us" form during off-hours. In the meantime, feel free to review available marketing services to obtain better understanding of our distinctive programs.