Local Search - the next big player in SEM

To many people Local Search means connecting with a smaller market. The image is of a small business connecting with customers down the street or perhaps tourists passing through. A law firm finding prospects in their area or a furniture store hoping to bring customers into their store. Yet, Local Search is also about big business.

Local search is still in its infancy, but it soon could be a major component for search engine optimization. Some estimate that as many as one in three searches are for local business. For it connects with a more targeted market, one actively looking for services and products. And it impacts effects Fortune 500 companies’ as much as small mom and pop stores.

ReMax is a real estate agency with offices in 63 countries. Yet, how does it benefit from being ranked in the top 10 for the term real estate? More likely it would benefit from being highly ranked for phrases such as Denver Real Estate or San Diego Real Estate agent. After all it’s in the local markets that people are looking for homes or real estate agents.

The same goes for restaurant chains. Appearing in the top 10 for restaurant will not likely bring patrons into the Olive Garden. But ranking in the top 10 for Des Moines, IA restaurant could bring in customers. After all, the person performing this search is either hungry or looking to go out.

The phone book now seems like a relic. How often do people misplace their phone book in their homes? Or when a traveler arrives in a city their not familiar with, how helpful is a local listing. There are no directions to the location. Exactly where is Delhi Street. Or Lincoln Boulevard. Even the major phone books recognize their limitations and are spending millions to advertise their websites.

Improving your local search placement.

The advice for people interested in local search engine optimization is always the same. Put your location in a title tag and make sure you have your address is on every page. Granted this may impact a listing, but it isn’t nearly enough. For example the city in which I work has over 20 beauty salons which have web sites. Yet, in the top 30 listings on Google for beauty salons, the only site ranked is one of my clients. And this client has only had a site for 3 months. Why don’t more sites rank? Most likely it’s because they haven’t developed links for their sites or conducted the proper keyword research.

Local links begin with the local Chamber of Commerce. What is surprising is so many businesses that are chamber members fail to have their sites listed. I’ve contacted a number of businesses because they didn’t’ seem to have a site. They had no link on their Chamber site, even though they were members. And when you typed in their business name, and location, on Google, they didn’t appear in the top 30. If you can’t rank on the top 30 for your company’s name in your community, you might as well not have a site.

Even if your client isn’t a Chamber member, there are often local search engines. What about your community’s website? Often in addition to tourism information, they have links to local businesses.

There are often other possibilities, as well. Type in a communities name on Google and scroll down at least the top 30 listings. Often found among these first three pages are websites that offer links for local businesses. This makes sense, as these same businesses link back to this site, increasing its ranking on Google.

Keyword research is as important for local businesses as it is for companies that are looking to rank nationally for a product or service. Are prospects typing in chiropractic or chiropractor more often? Restaurant may be too vague for many searchers. Instead they might be typing in Italian restaurant. And if you’re a beauty salon, what phrases are they using in addition to this. Think about attaching pedicure, manicure, or perhaps spa to your location. And develop landing pages for each of these services to ensure higher rankings.

Local Search and the Big Four

Google

The major search engines are still grappling with local search. Google Local is by the best tool, as it allows businesses to post information on their business including hours, a description, and a link to the company’s website. Then it verifies information by sending out a postcard or making a phone call.

The benefit to Google Local is that it also seems to impact your chance to get listed. If you’re an existing business, you can often have your business indexed within two to three months. Sometimes sooner. One site I set up had only been up for one week before it appeared on Google. There were no links to the site, and in fact no one even knew the site was up except for the client and I, as it was still a work in progress. Yet, two days after I submitted the information to Google Local, the site was indexed.

There are flaws in the system, however. Type in Des Moines IA restaurant and the first ten businesses listed on Google Maps are hotels. This is why having your site ranked in the organic listings is key to your success.

Yahoo!

Yahoo allows businesses to submit their own information. There is no safe guard to the service, so hypothetically a competitor could submit misleading information. Yahoo offers businesses a free web site and checks the listing in three days.

MSN

MSN has local search, but it’s seriously flawed. When you type in Advertising 52001 (my location), it comes up with only four listings. One is a manufacturing company, another is an audio company, and a third is a hazardous material company. The fourth is American Customer Care. What does it say when the dozen ad agencies in the community aren’t even listed. When you click on submitting a business for MSN Live, they provide a form to fill out. Unfortunately, they admit it can take 30-60 days for a listing to appear.

Ask

Ask.com allows you to submit an email to get listed on AskCity and takes approximately a month.

In addition to the major search engines, there are a number of sites which focus exclusively on local results. Many of these are the sites connected with the phone companies, such as yellowpages.com and yellowbook.com.

Who benefits more, local companies or a national chain?

So who has an advantage with local search, the business that only has one location, or a national chain that has the greater marketing budget. In fact, both may be working on a level playing field. At least for the moment.

A small business owner has only one business to focus his attention on. And they’re familiar with the community. They still have to perform keyword research and develop the links, however. Often, their budget is limited, so if their current site isn’t search engine friendly there could be further difficulties.

As for a national company, money could be a factor for them, as well. They could invest in a pay per click campaign that would have them appear when customers look in a specific location in which they have an office. These keywords are much cheaper then competing for national phrases. But if there are a number of locations, these cheaper keywords can rapidly add up.

Instead, it might be more cost effective to develop landing pages for each community. This will be time consuming and involve expenses. It will also involve monitoring the various landing pages to see where they rank. Yet, as the numbers of local searches continue to expand, and as people use other technology, for searches, this will be money well spent.