Small business is often local business covering a 50-mile radius. The global connection of e-commerce makes sense for Internet companies taking orders over a wide area. But for small business the Internet age has meant creating a brochure format website and forgetting the power of search engines. The majority of small businesses have left search engine marketing out of the web marketing mix.
Your Customers Are Searching Locally
Today, the change in search engine marketing and consumer behavior has created a great opportunity for small business to connect with customers locally. This local focus means the Internet is a viable method to market to local prospects.
Local search is defined as consumers using search engines such as Yahoo or Google to research and find goods and services in their local markets.
Just how many consumers search locally? A recent comScore Networks study found over 849 million searches were performed in the U.S.
during one month in the summer. The Kelsey Group estimates over 30 billion local searches annually will be conducted by 2009. Even more significant is almost 50% of local searchers visited a local business as a result of a search.
The Value of Local Search
How much can a local search be worth? In Dallas, local search in one month revealed by Overture resulted in 1250 local searches for the keyword Dallas flowers. With over half of local searchers visiting stores, the Dallas market for flowers (at an average sale of $50) would be worth over $30,000 per month in business.
5 Tips to Catch the Local Search Wave
Learn the Basics: Before embarking on a local search engine marketing campaign spend sometime becoming familiar with search. There are many sites and books to learn more. Your new understanding will go a long way whether you do it yourself or hire a professional to handle your search marketing.
Master the Big Three: The big three search engine players; Google, Yahoo, and MSN command over 70% of the local search market. Visit the local search section of these sites and submit your businesses to the add a business area.
Use the Little Guy: With the big three as the best place to focus your local search engine marketing efforts, smaller local search players can be a viable alternative. If you're competing in a competitive keyword field, the small local search engines can provide better search ranking and lower costs per clicks. Smaller local providers include Local.com and Truelocal.com.
It's All Yellow: Local search is more than just search engines. During pre-Internet days, we heavily relied on the Yellow Pages directory. Although, print usage has declined, web-based yellow pages have seen an increase in use. Include in your local search marketing campaign the added listing to YellowPages.com and Superpages.com.
Be Address Friendly: When the search engines go scouting the Internet for local websites, they scan pages featuring local addresses. Beyond just adding an address to your contact page, include your business address in key areas throughout your website.
The Internet is an ever changing medium. Any local small business can't afford to be left behind. Make sure your small business is on the local search engine wave.
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