Doing SEO & Internet Marketing for local businesses in Hawaii these past years has taught me that, like everything else, it’s different here than on the Mainland.<\/p>\n
Here’s a few things that I’ve found to need a different approach due to our special place in the world, both geographically and culturally.<\/p>\n
1. For most businesses, their targeted audience is VERY local. This is obvious from the fact that we’re a string of Islands in the middle of the Pacific, but it still takes some conscious thought as you work.<\/p>\n
The ocean surrounding our home means no competition just outside the city limits or over the state line. It also means the competition is very concentrated for many industries.<\/p>\n
Your SEO has to take in these conditions and emphasize that local-ness even more than you’d probably have to elsewhere.<\/p>\n
2. For a lot of other businesses, their market is VERY long-distance. The top industry here in Tourism and, though you want to reach tourists after they arrive, most, like hotels & vacation rentals, need to get in front of people long before they board the plane to get here.<\/p>\n
Therefore your website has to say ‘I’m here in Hawaii’, but also outrank the competition on a national level to truly succeed.<\/p>\n
3. Local businesses are often still in the learning stages of the worth of SEO & marketing online.<\/p>\n
Honolulu’s newspapers and yellow pages were still effective long after they declined in the rest of the US. Not so anymore, though.<\/p>\n
Locals turn more and more to Yelp and Google to search and research. With the growing population the basic bonds aren’t as strong as they used to be on Oahu.<\/p>\n
We still have a ‘small Island’ in many ways, but the influx of people not born here has altered things forever – and it’s causing many to realize they need to finally get going on the web or be out of business. It’s a new world for a lot of them.<\/p>\n
4.\u00a0 Trust is harder to earn here, which is why companies often make it a priority to deal with local SEOs like myself. This is part of Hawaii culture, the importance of face-to-face and personal relationships to the conducting of business.<\/p>\n
So many have told me that they want to work with someone locally right off the bat.<\/p>\n
These are just observations, not judgements one way or another by any means.<\/p>\n
When you realized you live in a wonderfully unique and special place like Hawaii, you want to be able to step back and look at things.<\/p>\n
It makes you realize just how luck you are to live Hawaii.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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