Search is constantly evolving, from general web search such as the old giants Yahoo, AltaVista and Excite through to the current day of Google.
Not only has search grown out, it has also grown up. Vertical search engines are becoming more and more popular i.e. Expedia - a travel search engine, great for finding travel deals and accommodation and Bizrate.com – a shopping search engine perfect for comparing prices and chasing a bargain.
Another type of search is local search. Local search is generally driven by a geographical query and the service required e.g. Starbucks, Los Angeles. Businesses that benefit most from this form of search are local based business that have a physical presence e.g. a shop, garage, restaurant or surgery, that are looking for ways of driving foot traffic through the door, as well as capitalizing on internet traffic.
Local business listings have become even more attractive since they are now being returned in the general search results within Google and Yahoo! Thus, a greater chance of driving search traffic to your website!
The red box identifies the Google Maps/Local business listings within natural search results.
Other than having your business submitted and optimized in the local search of Google Yahoo and MSN there are some other optimization elements you can apply to your WebPages to help increase your presence.
- Include your contact details, city name, state and zip/post code in the footer of every page.
- Hyper link the city name, state and zip/post code to the contact us page on your site.
- Include local city information in your contact us page (perhaps a brief bio on your local city / town).
Add geographical qualifiers, such as city and state name, to the body of your content. Link the qualifier text through to your contact us page.
Targeted to the correct business types, local business search can be a very cost effective and powerful advertising and promotional tool. Driving more foot traffic through your door and click traffic to your website.
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