Your business is local, so why should you care about Google and Yahoo? Web designer Jonathan Denwood, owner of Digital Delirium, explains the importance of search engine optimization to tap into your local customer base.In the good old days, new clients and customers found our businesses by “letting their fingers do the walking” through the phone book. Those days are long gone. We all still have big, thick, paper phone books, but do we use them? And even more to the point, do our customers use them?
Statistics say, “Not much.” Our customers are letting their fingers do the walking over their keyboards. If they’re looking for a good shoe store in town, they Google “shoe store”. For a local accountant? Again, they Google. What this means to you is that even if your customer base is completely local, you still need a Website, and your business needs to show up on Google and Yahoo searches. Search engines are our new phone books. Fortunately, the major search engines have responded to this need, and they’ve created local search sectors. Get Your Business to Appear in Local SearchesIt has been estimated that some 50 percent of Internet searches being performed these days are local in nature. It stands to reason that if your business’s success depends on local customers, you need to be found where these people are searching. Local search results are a hybrid of search engines’ organic (unpaid) systems. For example, if you were looking for a florist in Reno, you would probably do a search on “florist Reno Nevada”. Google and other search engines will display a list of local florists that meet your multiple keyword search.
On Google, your local search should bring up the Google Local Map entity: This is a powerful marketing opportunity for your company. This search result pinpoints your business location on a map, provides directions and contact info, and it gives you a chance to insert additional “profile” information about your company. It also allows for customer reviews, another very powerful marketing tool. If you are wondering if you want your business to appear on this list, the answer is yes. Emphatically so. Your customers are looking for you there. SEO Out of Your Control?There are a few problems, however, with this new system of local search engine results. In the more traditional phone book advertising systems, you can control where your advertising is placed. Spend more money and you get a bigger the ad and better placement in the phone book. This works on the many directory Websites that mimic the old phone book, too.
However, with organic local searches on Google, Yahoo and other search engines, you don’t control the algorithms used to select where your company gets placed on the list of customer search results.
What you do control is your Website. Have it built by a local Web designer, and make sure it’s search engine optimized. Your site’s SEO is your foundation as well as your first step to garnering good placement on local searches.
|
