Customer Acquisition: Charming Charlie Goes Local to Improve Search Rankings

Charming Charlie, a Houston-based fashion, jewelry and accessories retailer, launched a local search marketing program late last year that helped its local first-page Google search rankings nearly double on average in the more than 240 cities where the retailer has store locations.

Charming Charlie used a local search solutions platform from software technology provider Rio SEO for the program. At the end of November, one month after implementing the Rio SEO Local Search Solutions software suite, consumers in those 240 cities using Google to search for "fashion accessories" found their local Charming Charlie store on the first search engine results page (SERP) more than 99 percent of the time. When searching Yahoo and Bing, consumers found their local Charming Charlie store on the first SERP 95 percent and 72 percent of the time, respectively.

In addition, by using locally optimized keywords, Charming Charlie realized one-month gains in the number of times local store information appeared, on average, on the first SERP for the following search engines: Google (3.7 times), Yahoo (1.8 times) and Bing (1.5 times).

While Charming Charlie couldn't share information about whether the program increased in-store traffic and/or local store sales, Kim LaFleur, vice president of e-commerce at the retailer, said in a press release from Rio SEO that the program has not only increased its local store visibility on the major search engines, "but we've also seen a lift in consumer clicks for driving directions, social check-ins (e.g., Facebook 'Likes') and click-to-call activity."