For as long as I can remember, “location, location, location” has long been the potential success mantra for physical locations (personal and commercial). As it turns out, the same holds true for digital marketing success as well. Most of you know, for example, that the top three organic Google listings get as many as 75% of the clicks for searchers.

When it comes to success for local digital marketing, we’ve been talking about amplifying our “location” (ability to be found) by maximizing our Google My Business listing.

Let’s review some foundational thoughts.

• We’re talking about capturing those potential door and window customers who don’t know anything about you or your business.

• Of those folks, they’ll do 60% or more of their research, before ever reaching out to a provider, so when they’re ready, they’re ready.

• When they start looking for potential providers, they’ll often resort to using businesses that are closest to them, in order to make it convenient to do business.

• Among searches for local businesses, 60% or more come from mobile devices.

Last time we talked about expanding our opportunity to be found in the local “three-pack” (the listings that include a map that appear above organic Google listings), with the understanding that more local searchers click on the local pack than organic and PPC results combined.

Today, let’s talk about three things you can do to increase your ability to show up in that important “location.”

• Consistency is the key. One of the biggest mistakes is inconsistency across listing sites surrounding the big three: name, address, phone number (NAP).

• Put yourself in their shoes. All of us are searchers ourselves. Think about what a potential customer might search for if they were looking for your products and services. We’ll talk about how to use these in an upcoming post.

• Performance trumps everything. When it comes to mobile, many websites today are called responsive, which means that they’ll look great whether they are on a desktop or a cellphone. But it doesn’t always work that way. Your mobile site’s performance is one of the ultimate determinants of “location” success.

Next time we’ll start unpacking each of these and talk about how to magnify locational success.