Local search is growing and the trend is rapidly reaching a point where more people will use the internet to find businesses than use paper-based products like the Yellow Pages. The chances are these days you are spending money for a paper-based directory listing that no one ever sees.

As we steadily climb out of the recession, your marketing budget (especially your Yellow Pages budget) may well be best spent on developing an online presence. Local Search is one area that should be high up on the list of ‘to do’ projects for every business.

There is a lengthy post on WebProNews that goes into a lot of detail regarding local search and some of the factors crucial to your success. The usual list of basic steps are mentioned. These are:

• Have your address listed with major data providers.
• Claim your listing at the local business center.
• Have reviews either at Google or elsewhere.
• List your business in the proper categories once it’s been claimed.

The most crucial and fifth point is to have your site linked to by local people and local businesses. This reinforces your presence locally and gives your business some authority for that regional area.

An interesting point made by noted search specialist Bruce Clay, suggest that local SEO is not cheaper than general SEO. This is a good point since local search involves work in both the local and general realm of search.

Ranking well on local search is becoming more important all the time. It appears the new version of local search results in Google search will only have five businesses listed as against the current seven. This will heighten competition even further. If you have a site that is likely to be searched using mobile technology, optimizing that area will be equally important.

Local search is growing and growing quickly. Local businesses need to act just as quickly to ensure they are found when someone enters a search term for their niche. If you’re not found, you may find your customer flow starting to dry up. Meanwhile, the money spent on paper-based directories will be going down the drain.

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 1:56 pm and is filed under Local Search. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.