What Is Hyperlocal Marketing?

• March 29th, 2022
• Branding Marketing
• Swarm Digital

Location, location, location–it’s true for business, and it’s just as true for SEO. Driven by location-based searches and fueled by Google’s ever-changing standards, search engine optimization strategy must include a thoughtful approach to hyperlocal SEO. But what is it? How does it work? What are the benefits? In this article, you’ll learn the power of hyperlocal marketing. You’ll see what it’s like when done right. You’ll learn how Swarm Digital, powered by the SwarmSEO WordPress plugin, can leverage this invaluable tool to connect you with customers and clients. Let’s dig in.

Dream along with us for a moment. You’re lost in SoHo, and your toddler’s losing it in the backseat of your minivan. The reason? You promised her a hot fudge sundae after the movie. The problem? You got turned around on the way to Morgenstern’s, and you’re not sure you could find your way out of Manhattan right now, much less locate ice cream. You shout at your iPhone, “HEY SIRI, FIND THE NEAREST HOT FUDGE SUNDAE SHOP AND DRIVE ME THERE.” Ten minutes later, you’re keeping a promise and enjoying a great time with your family.

It’s a not-uncommon problem: you need something, you need it nearby, you need it now, and you’re ready to buy. Users screamed at their smartphones for answers–which is why in the early 2010s, two words changed the course of search engine optimization: NEAR ME. Humans asked Google, “ICE CREAM NEAR ME,” “APARTMENTS FOR RENT NEAR ME,” “SEIKO WATCHES NEAR ME.” And just like that, hyperlocal marketing was born.

Location and SEO

Location-based searches are the number-one consideration for designing an online marketing strategy. Where is your business? How is it connected to your community? How can you ensure potential customers and clients find you when they need you? Whether “near me” appears in search terms or not (often it doesn’t now), web users largely expect the location to be a factor in web searches.

Hyperlocal marketing is the practice of marketing your business online with a strategy based on precise locations. If you’re an attorney in Tampa, Florida, you don’t just sell to Tampa—you’re a small fish in a big pond! You market to neighborhoods, zip codes, maybe even blocks within that area.

The Benefits of Hyperlocal Marketing

Hyperlocal SEO is deeply connected to 2022 web marketing. Because of that, a thoughtful hyperlocal approach is immensely beneficial.

Your Competitors Might Not Be Doing It

You’ve no doubt seen ads for those make-your-own-website apps; you might have even seen commercials for them on network TV. They’ve grown to be so popular that there are ‘big name’ brands built solely around users logging in and creating great sites without having to hire anyone.

Are they any good? In most cases, sure, they’re great. You can use them to create some beautiful sites. Check around. Your competitors, even the ones who you are gunning for, might be using such services. Does that mean you should, too?

Not necessarily. If you do the research, what you’re getting with those apps isn’t necessarily what you’re hoping for. Even gorgeous, well-designed sites are dead husks if SEO and marketing aren’t considered. Beauty’s only skin deep: Google and other search engines won’t find sites unless they’re designed to be seen. Search engine visibility is a fundamental consideration for web design.

The thing is, your competitors—unless they’ve paired their site design with great SEO principles–might be ignoring something you could use to your advantage with Swarm Digital.

How?

Swarm Digital designs websites to be found, by search engines, locally.

Hyperlocal.

You’ll Get Found By the Right Customers

That said, theoretically, you could throw any old website on the internet and, with enough cash, direct every screen-scanning eyeball on Earth to it. How? Well, you could buy Facebook ads globally and get thousands of ‘likes’ for about a hundred bucks. They’ll come from Nigeria, Nepal, Mauritius, basically a lot of places on our beautiful globe that have nothing to do with your business. You’d have earned a lot of attention, sure. You’d’ve done it cheaply, sure. And you will have wasted every penny.

The same would be equally valid for money spent on a website lacking a hyperlocal SEO strategy. For example, if you sell Disc Golf equipment in Schenectady, and you thread your site with keywords directing users to New York alone, you’ve got a problem. Google will overlook you, and customers will go elsewhere for their Judge Putters.

But if your strategy considers your city, connects to its wonderful smaller neighborhoods, and thoughtfully executes hyperlocal SEO, then your optimization budget has been well spent. In fact, it might pay for itself with the sound of footsteps walking to your store’s cash register.

Your Marketing Spend Will Be Better Spent

Hyperlocal marketing sets you up for success. It helps Google and other hyperlocal-focused search engines (by that, we mean almost all of them) work for you. You can hyper-locally target ads, blog posts, and other content so that the ones who search for a product like yours—and are nearby, NOW, ready to buy. The result? Instead of spending a lot of money reaching everyone, you spend less money reaching people who care.

How Swarm Makes Hyperlocal Marketing Work for You

Hyperlocal marketing is more than a trend. It’s here, it has been for years, and it’s an SEO essential. It’s also an area of opportunity: web professionals know it, but your competition might not be there yet. This essential practice is a great way to leverage the web to get paying customers to your door.

It’s also Swarm Digital’s specialty.

How does Swarm Digital do hyperlocal marketing? We take a unique and focused approach driven by powerful tools like the SwarmSEO WordPress Plugin. Essentially, it creates pages on your site for specific neighborhoods around you; each is one more opportunity for a hyperlocal search to be effective. We built it, we tested it, it works, and it can work for you. This is just one item in a toolkit we’ve built up over decades of experience building websites for satisfied customers.

At Swarm Digital, hyperlocal marketing is a fundamental part of what we do. We’re more than web designers; we’re web strategists and search engine optimization experts. Whether you want a site update with an SEO refresh, need an entirely new approach to Internet marketing, or require a partner who can come alongside and help grow your business, we’re here for you.

Ready to learn more? Reach out to Swarm Digital now at +1(855) 244-4407 or click here to set up a consult. Use Swarm Digital and the power of hyperlocal marketing to take your organization to the next level of success on the web.