When a company advertises on the Internet, only a small fraction of the people who see the message will typically click on it. In turn, only a fraction of those will actually buy a product or service during that visit. This means there are a large number of people interested enough to take a closer look, but aren’t quite ready to take action. This is the group an online advertising technique known as retargeting attempts to attract.

Tracking Visits

Most online advertising done by a local seo company is handled through large advertising networks. This is a very useful arrangement, whether you’re focused on local seo or promoting a site more broadly. It makes it possible to contract with a single provider and potentially have advertising appear in many different places. The trick, then, is for the advertising management company to figure out which of the messages in its selection it should display to a given individual.

This is handled with a tool called a tracking cookie. Cookies are basically small files stored by a web browser to retain some information about sites that have been visited. They’re the reason a web browser can immediately open a site and already be logged in, even if the browser has been closed or the computer has been shut down. By placing an element on a page that takes up a single pixel, it’s possible to cause a browser to store a cookie that remembers visiting a particular site. When that same computer visits other sites, the advertising company can recognize the presence of the file, see this is a person that was at a specific website in the past, and advertise accordingly.

Focusing on the Right People

This technique allows local seo services to produce a lot of value for their clients because it allows them to focus more specifically on people who have already proven to be interested in an offering. It allows companies to put more of their local seo marketing dollars toward the individuals who are definitely thinking about a specific product or service, and who just need an extra nudge at the right time to convert them into paying customers. To make things even better, once the customer does convert, the system recognizes that fact. Then, it stops the advertising so no money is wasted advertising to someone who’s already purchased.