Over the past few weeks, most of the attention that Google has been getting has been in regards to their new privacy policy. Google has taken a lot of heat for the changes that they made to their privacy policy and in the meantime, some very important Google algorithm updates have gone unnoticed by some. If you haven’t heard about these Google updates, there are dozens of them; some of which will help businesses better promote themselves online. Rather than focus on all of the changes that Google has made, let’s instead focus on 2 ways that Google’s new updates can help you promote your business online better.
Both changes center around local online marketing. Google has seemed to realise that it’s very important for businesses to be able to reach local customers. Most businesses aren’t large national or international companies that market around the world; many online businesses are small and are just coming online in order to reach out to their local audience better. Since Google has realised how important it is for businesses to be able to reach people in their local towns and regions, they’ve made updates that help business owners promote themselves locally. Here’s two ways that these updates can help you:
AdWords
If you use pay per click ads (AdWords) in Google to help promote your business, the latest round of updates will help local PPC ads show up when a user from your area searches for keywords related to your business. Now of course there are numerous factors that are taken into account in regards to what PPC ads show up in Google’s search results. Therefore, there’s no guarantee that your ads will show up to local customers, but being able to target people in your local area is one element that’s trying to be improved upon by Google.
YouTube
Another improvement that Google has recently made is improving the local results returned when people search for YouTube videos. For example, if you’re selling a certain product locally and a user searches on YouTube for that product and they’re in your local area, the improvement is supposed to allow a better chance for local videos on the subject matter to show up. If you use YouTube to market your products and services, this improvement will help you reach your local area easier.
If you’re not worried about people in your local market, then these updates probably don’t mean much to you, but if you place an emphasis on local customers, these updates can really help you promote your business online better. If local people are able to find your business, products and services more easily in the search engine and on YouTube, it’s going to help expose your business on the local level.
