Defining your SEO & PPC Service Area
No matter how big your business is or what industry it services, allocating your digital marketing budget plan always starts with establishing who and where you want to market your company toward. That’s where defining your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) strategy begins. Determining your target audience and appropriately optimizing your website to align with what they’re searching on Google for is imperative to any successful digital marketing campaign.
So how do you define your SEO and PPC targeting strategy? This week’s ‘___ Near Me’ local marketing podcast episode focuses on how to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to local SEO and PPC solutions. To make the most of your limited digital marketing budget plan, check out these factors that can dictate how you can maximize the potential and efficiency of your organic and paid digital marketing strategy.
Define Your Service Area
Reaching as many eyes on relevant Google searches is essentially the goal of any digital marketing plan, but what good is reaching that audience if your services are not geographically applicable to them? This is why it’s crucial to initiate your SEO and PPC strategy by defining your service area.
Defining your ‘service area’ generally means geographically listing and marketing your business based on the cities, zip codes, or other adjacent regions that your company can provide service for. You can focus on one or two specific markets or anywhere up to twenty service areas, but how you define your service areas will have a significant impact on how much you’ll wind up spending for your digital marketing budget.
Answering any of these questions will help you specify your service areas, as well as narrow down your SEO marketing budget:
- Does your business cater toward a bigger, metropolitan area?
- Would you rather spread your business out equally across a multitude of neighborhoods, suburbs, or regions, or zero-in on a set few locations?
- How far are you willing to travel to provide a service, or how far do you think potential customers would be willing to travel to enlist your services?
- What markets or regions do your competitors market themselves toward, and is it worth marketing your business in those service areas?
- What is your company’s current visibility on Google Maps, or how optimized is your current Google My Business listing?
The more you’re able to define which service areas are applicable for your target audience, the better you’ll be able to evaluate how much you want to spend on marketing to those various regions and demographics.
Spreading Out Means Spending More
The biggest rule of thumb when it comes to assessing your digital marketing budget plan is that the more service areas you want to market toward, the more money you’re going to wind up spending. This might be an obvious revelation, however, it pertains specifically toward your SEO and PPC strategies because the more service areas you’re trying to reach, the more web pages you’ll have to create and optimize to cater to that region.
Let’s say you’re trying to reel in potential customers from five separate surrounding suburban areas. That’s five times more content you’ll need to produce than you’re already creating, which can refer to everything from landing pages, to paid ads, to social media marketing, etc. You also need to take your specific products or services into account when defining your service areas.
People may be willing to seek out certain services, such as roofers or plumbers, from areas farther away from their homes if they appeal to your unique value propositions and feel it’s worth their investment (affordable pricing, outstanding online reviews, etc.). However, for businesses such as accountants or chiropractors, travel and convenience are primary factors that play a role in enticing potential customers to visit your location, which means narrowing your service areas is probably in your best interest.
The bottom line: the more you’re able to shrink and focus on which service areas you want to market toward, the less money you’re going to spend on SEO and paid ads in the long run.
Perfect Your SEO Strategies With Triton Commerce
In the end, every business has their own needs and expectations when it comes to determining how much you’re willing to spend on digital marketing efforts. At Triton Commerce, we approach every SEO marketing strategy on a case-by-case basis, assessing your specific marketing goals and budgets to create the best marketing strategy that pertains directly to your needs.
When you’re ready to see what professional SEO services can do for enhancing your online visibility, contact Triton Commerce today to get started on your free Digital Marketing Plan, and be sure to listen to our weekly podcast for all the latest tips and information on efficient digital marketing!