Local SEO

Rest in peace, yellow pages. Your days of glory are gone. Online search engines have seized the scepter, and not to kick the proverbial man while he is down - but are they better!

The world is irrevocably tossing phonebooks and flyers in favor of wireless routers and keyboards. 58.4% of Europeans use the internet, 77.4% of North Americans are online fanatics, and nearly 29% of the entire world is moving en masse online.

As such, traditional media is being shut in a dark, lonely room. Bill Gates says that advertisers are shifting to new and better venues, leaving the yellow pages and newspaper advertisements in the dust. Some experts say 80% of all information searches occur online. In the UK, newspapers lost 9-11% of their circulation between 2002 and 2006.

But most savvy businesspersons already know about this upheaval, and have chucked $5,000 at a web designer and paid SEO (search engine optimisation) experts a few more thousand to rocket their websites to the top of search engine listings.


But what if that's all worthless?


It does not matter whether 100 or 10,000 viewers visit a website. What matters is lead conversion (the ratio of visitors to purchasing customers). Lead conversion is boosted by specificity: how pertinent a website is to a searcher's requirements.

According to Google, applicable means local. After all, they say, nearly 30% of mobile searches are locally related. That is why some of Google's most recent search changes and most important projects - Google Maps, Google Places and Google Local - localise search results. Yahoo and Bing are also introducing similar initiatives. Not surfing this wave is liable to send an online business crashing under it.

Marketing experts agree that the top search listings monetise the board, capturing the vast majority of searcher's clicks. Cornell University estimates that the first three search listings account for nearly 80% of all clicks.


And at the top of those local search results is just where your website needs to be.


Ranking high in local search results is imperative for neighborhood businesses. Customers are more likely to send an inquiring e-mail or make a phone call. Local listings give neighboring customers vital contact or store hours information. Most simply - but most importantly - a local search result is an irrefutable scream that says, "I exist!"

Capturing a geographic market also skyrockets a company's advertising ROI (return on investment). Paying PPC and PPV ad providers for every single click is an expensive investment, compounded if visitors fail to take any action. But as local visitors are more likely to call, visit, or purchase, advertising costs are much more efficient.

How to climb this mountain? It's not simple - it takes the proper gear and preparation. Without guidance and knowledge, a business may find itself stuck in a deep drift.

Optimising keywords for local searches is the first step. A company specialising in window installation will do much better adding long-tail keywords (four plus words) and keywords relevant to their geographic area, as it makes not a wit of difference to a Londoner if a Lancastrian glass company has installation half off.

Adding a website to local search directories, including Bing Local and Google Places, is another essential step. As these sites are ranked mostly according to popularity, it is also imperative to mount social media campaigns to fill them with positive customer reviews, social media content, and new and informative text.

Some say that local searches are the new yellow pages, but that isn't true. Local searches far surpass yellow pages of the past. Care to ride the wave?

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