Newsletters > Volume 2, Issue 4

The 10 Things You Need to Know About Local Search

Fifteen to 20 years ago, a lot of companies that served a local market relied on the Yellow Pages as a key source of leads. Since their products or services could only be delivered within a specific region, it didn’t make much sense to advertise in magazines or trade publications.  

Many of these companies still advertise in the Yellow Pages, but think back how many times in the last year you’ve sought after that big book for a phone number.  

Want to order a pizza? Google Papa John’s and find the number for your local restaurant. 

Forgot the number of your insurance agent? Do a search on Yahoo for the insurance company and you’re sure to be no more than a couple seconds and clicks away from your agent’s number.

 

    Many experts believe that search engines will evolve into online yellow pages in the next two years. Additionally, there are already a variety of vendors offering private-label paid search products, such as Local.com, MIVA Media, YelowPages.com, Quigo, and Verizon’s SuperPages.com.  

 

The heavyweights, Google, Yahoo and MSN have been continually increasing the features and functionality of their local search including moving maps and customer reviews. Unless you’re a 100% pure play ecommerce company with no facilities for local pick-up, you definitely should be taking advantage of the free local opportunities and investigating the paid listings. Both Google and Yahoo offer free and paid listings.

Many marketers overlook (or do not know) about the rapidly growing use and importance of exposure in both the large and private-label search engines. In fact, a recent study by comScore showed that the combined share of the largest Internet Yellow Page sites totaled 37% of the lookups, compared with 39% controlled by Yahoo and Google sites.

       Here’s what you need to know about local search:

  1. Many listings are free – doing a little research can really pay off.
  2. Get listed free in Yahoo first – Yahoo local drew over 4 times as many visitors as Google local.
  3. When possible, create a separate page for your local searchers to land on, where you recognize that they're from the area.
  4. Searchers use phone directory listings in two ways: to find the phone number, address, or driving directions to a business they already know; or to search for a business based on a category or keyword.
  5. Include the name of your city and your region in the title tag of your web pages – your listing will likely appear higher.
  6. Also Include your full postal address in your web pages so that search engines can assign your web site to a specific locale.
  7. Include the name of your city in your copy.
  8. Google local is free, and gives you full control over listing. Your site is ranked by their search algorithm. Besides showing in Google local, you’ll also be shown in their regular web results (top 3) when searchers specify a locale in their search.
  9. Yahoo offers free and enhanced/paid listings at $9.95/month. Note that customers can submit a review about your company and those reviews will affect your placement.
  10. MSN local is ranked by distance to the locale the searcher typed into the search box.  

 

Local search is perhaps one of the fastest growing segments of Internet Marketing. Since studies show a significant percentage of online research drives offline sales, it’s important now more than ever to make sure you're listed with the local engines.

Here's the bottom line – ignoring the potential of local search is leaving money on the table. Research the best local search engines for your market and reap the benefits of experiencing the growth in your business you’ve been dreaming about.

 

Cheers, and hoping you Realize Your Market PotentialTM.

 

Brian Lewis

Viper Internet Marketing, Inc.

dba Solutions Insight Interactive

www.solutions-insight.com

1611A South Melrose Dr., St 241

Vista, CA   92081

760 207.3101

 

P.S.  Not sure how to get started? No problem, give me a call at 760 207.3101 and I’ll show you how quickly your sales and profits can grow by getting local search to work for you!

 

© 2006 Viper Internet Marketing, Inc., All Rights Reserved

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Article by Brian Lewis of www.solutions-insight.com, Proven results in driving traffic and sales to your site.

 

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©2006 Viper Internet Marketing, Inc.