subject: Why Local Search Is So Important for my Business [print this page] Why Local Search Is So Important for my Business
Using the internet to make your products and services available to potential customers is, essentially, not a new phenomenon. Yet the very manner in which the web functions as a marketing tool and as a virtual store has seen many great changes in recent years. No more are its merits exploited only by the giant corporates and MNCs, but are now much more accessible to smaller companies.
It all started about four years ago when Google implemented a major change in the way their search engine functions. The search engine started using IP address of the user computer to determine your location, and show location specific information to you.
In an ingenious move Google integrated Google maps in their first page of search results which would display business and institutes closest to your location on the basis of keywords you feed in, other search engines like Yahoo, and Bing were soon to follow suit.
A few months of adapting and improvisation and an all new form of online marketing was born, Local Search Marketing' or LSM. LSM opened up a new wave of opportunity for those small businesses and service providers who don't have the budget to launch a full scale online (or offline) marketing campaign. Every business today, irrespective of wherever it might be located, can have a decent online presence and that too for free. Businesses can register themselves on local marketing feature of search engines like Yahoo, Google, Bing etc. and on Business directory websites such as Yelp to gain online visibility. It is important to fill the business profile on such websites carefully.
How will it help your business?
Say you run a spa in Orange County California. A couple of streets away resides Anna Smith, she is new to town has very few friends. One of them suggests the neighborhood spa, but is not very sure of its location. How does Anna learn the way to your spa?
She has several options; she could ask someone, get herself a business directory of the like of yellow pages and look you up. Maybe she can even walk down the street and ask the way from every passing pedestrian, but like most of us today she happens to have a smart phone. All she needs to do then is enter the single syllable word spa' in her map application and her phone will show her way to all the spas in the vicinity.
Once you have a decent online presence, you would not only be visible on the phone applications but everywhere online. Anyone who runs a search specifying the words spa' and Orange County' will be able to find you. If you have taken the time to build your business profile properly, potential customers will be able to access you contact details and location by only a click.
Another option which the web gives us today is letting your satisfied clients and customers write positive reviews about your business online, which in turn attracts even more customers.
Having an online presence is becoming a necessity for every company which wishes to survive the competition of the modern day business world, no matter what the size of your company.
