Local Matters' CMO offers up tips on how to improve results by going micro-local with your search marketing strategy.

When my 13-year-old needed new cleats for fall soccer, he was very specific about what he wanted: top-of-the-line Adidas Predator Absolutes, like David Beckham wears. Have you priced those lately? I hadn't. So I did a quick search online to see if I could find them locally at a price that wouldn't require a second mortgage. As I got more specific in my query I eventually found a store carrying the cleats on sale right in my neighborhood. They even offered an online coupon. I'd hit local search pay dirt!

This got me thinking not only about the importance of keywords but the entire strategy that drives a successful SEM campaign at the micro-local level.

What do I mean by micro-local? I'm referring to smaller, distinct areas of commerce, like neighborhoods or industry zones. One micro-local area might be a great shopping area, the next a light industrial manufacturing zone, the next residential. A local search may turn up shops carrying my son's cleats in a 50-mile radius; a micro-local search finds me those cleats in my six-block neighborhood.

There's an ever-increasing demand for relevant, local search results and consumers are beginning to see a greater degree of detail and specificity on the micro-local level. Marketers are getting better at identifying each of these micro-local areas by appropriate classifications and defining them with unique characteristics-- let's say there's a hospital in one area or another is served by public transportations. That means consumers are finding more ways to narrow and focus their searches. This leads to a better experience in the search process, more relevant search results and a higher likelihood of a transaction that mutually benefits both consumers and merchants.

So how do we start making these merchant/consumer connections? Here are five tips I've come up with for businesses to better understand and tap into this latest trend in micro-local search marketing.

Tip #1: Content becomes increasingly more valuable as you drive down to the micro-local level.
Saying you need good content on the web is sort of like stating you need apples to make apple pie. There's nothing surprising about that. But the fact of the matter remains-- good content is essential and becomes increasingly harder to find the deeper you drive down into search. By the time you get to the micro-local level, its usually pretty slim pickings. 

You're going to need to tap the knowledge of local experts. However, it's hard to find good local content, and when you do, purchasing content from providers with such localized expertise can be expensive. To get around this, be more creative in where you look for original local content. Unearth that hard-to-find micro-local information through contributors to community-oriented lists and user groups that offer indigenous content. This is not likely to be "polished" content, but it may be a great source for researching and validating that hard-to-find information. Leveraging the know-how of contributors to user-generated content, especially those who are ranking and notating information about micro-local goods, services and businesses, can be a powerful source of local research and give you valuable -- and economical -- stuff to work with.

Tip #2: Target the secondary and tertiary markets in your SEM campaign
The right micro-local campaign can be a highly effective way to drive store traffic. As you can see with the example of my son's cleats, this strategy can really work. Consider modifying your search marketing campaign to exploit the suburban and rural rings around a neighborhood.

Know the names of towns or areas and build off zip codes, DMAs and other marketing research to identify the names of places. In this way you can be more inventive in how you define these locations and use them in your keywords. In the end, you'll be more efficient with your keyword buys and you'll likely reach a more diverse audience. And, simply, these secondary and tertiary neighborhoods around store locations will more than likely provide keywords that are cheaper. 

Tip #3: One secret to SEO on the micro-local level is a keyword strategy that takes advantage of mashups
A mashup is a commingling of relevant content on a page. In creating mashups, it's essential to understand what people want, and what they want to bring together at the micro level. In order to understand the phrases or keywords that appropriately capture the popularity of micro-local venues you'll need to find those word combos that intuitively, socially or culturally go together. Dinner and movie, women and healthcare, men and grooming are a few easy examples; but as you build out your word combos, look for combinations that build specificity appropriate to your strategy.

Then be smart about how you embed these word combos in this mashup content. Don't bury them in deep pages or make their meaning hard to decipher. Fresh content and regular updated or minor changes to the site copy can also help with your ranking.  

And finally, pay attention to the sites that point to you. Authority-linking from sites that rank highly in your subject area not only boost SEO but also help drive the specificity of content. But you'd better make sure those folks linking to your mashup site from others are finding the content they want, or you won't convert these browsers into customers.

Tip #4: A micro-local strategy requires good analytics, patience and a shift in expectations
Micro-local and local strategies differ and you will need to alter your expectations. The results will be different and will require a different management system. If you don't already have a good analytics package to track your results, then you had better go get one. And with a micro-local strategy, you will need an automated system to manage and analyze large volumes of keywords.

As you watch clickthrough rates -- and more importantly revenue-generating conversions -- you will see that the long tail keywords have a much lower volume. You won't be seeing as many hits as you would with more mainstream words. That's why it is even more essential for you to know your conversion rates from the keywords you've bought. Tag those high conversion keywords that are performing well and then re-circulate them. And have patience. You will be dealing with lower volumes as the long tail rolls out little pockets of audience over time. It can take up to six months to see your ranking benefit. But as you build traffic, evolve the complexity of your tracking methodology and optimize your keyword strategy on those learnings.

Finally, it's also important that you get to know your competitors and the marketplace at the micro-local level. You'd better understand the types of keywords that convert and be aware of the shifts in the market that can lead to up-ticks in your ranking.

Tip #5: Tap into the power of ontology for a pronounced long tail keyword strategy that drives down to the micro-local level
By using an ontological layering on your keyword strategy -- looking not only at synonyms but also at conceptually related words -- you increase the likelihood of capturing conversions along the long tail. Reach into vertical type keywords to build an SEM campaign that targets keywords at the long tail. For example, I used both "soccer cleat" and "soccer boot" as well as "soccer sale." But I also used locale-specific language like my city, neighborhood and street names.

This mixing and matching of words offers up multiple points of contact and can drive results to the micro-local level. The key, as always, is finding those keywords that convert; but here, just as important, find the conceptually similar words that can also drive conversions.

In sum, target the micro-local for specific results
So, here it is: A micro-local strategy makes a lot of sense when targeting certain specific results. Because micro-local neighborhoods can be distinguished by their unique characteristics they can be better classified and defined. This allows for a micro-local search that offers greater specificity and ensures more relevant results. This, in turn, can lead to a higher probability of mutually beneficial financial transactions for both consumers and merchants. It was this kind of SEM dynamic that led me to a connection and transaction with a local sporting good store: they got the sale, my son got his prized Adidas "Preds," and I saved a few bucks.

I hope these tips have proven useful. But remember, they are just that: tips of the iceberg. In later articles, I'll expound on these and explore in detail how businesses can drive better results in micro-local search. The next installments will offer a deep-dive into improving SEO and micro-local targeting through better content delivery. Stay tuned. 

Jeannette McClennan is chief marketing officer and executive vice president, media services, Local Matters. Read full bio.