The internet is a great tool for research and commerce as long as you can find what it is you’re looking for. Yahoo pioneered the way and others have come and gone, each adding a bit more to the world of online search. Like any new, shiny, tool the glam where’s off quickly when the limitations become apparent.

The Need For Local Search

Search for ‘Pizza’ and you get pages of search engine results (SERPS). Problem is if you live in Dallas and the pizza is in Chicago you had better hope they deliver, and they’re good at it. Hence, the need for localized search. What’s needed is a focus applied to the broader search to narrow the results to one’s locale but there have been a number of tactical, technical problems associated with that advance that have kept it from taking center-stage for the end-user:

• the directories where the information is actually stored have to structure things properly so the search engines can find them. No small feat of re-engineering when your original architecture is not designed for local.
• the search engines themselves must re-configure their own algorithms to optimize their spidering activities.
• business-owners must understand the internet and how it works, the myriad of “local search” options available, and be willing to participate.
• surfers must understand what local search is and develop a bias for it.

That third item in the list has been the hang-up. Fortunately, the tide is turning and as the business-owner community becomes younger and more internet-savvy, the interest and participation in wringing value from local search is on the up-tick.

Local Search Options?

As mentioned, there are quite a few businesses marketing local search and most of them are a variation of the following:

For a fee, you can place your “ad” in the online version of the (pick your favorite color) pages. You get just about what you got in the paper version of the same; a small, static ad and maybe a map. If you’re lucky the ad will link to your website—usually the home page rather than any page of real relevance on your site.

Most of the search engines—Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask!— now offer a free business listing and these tend to produce fairly well although neither of these options allow you any real opportunity to provide additional or on-going content of value to your prospects, which is, after all, what the search engines want you to provide.

Here’s How Our Local Search Solution Works

First, we don’t touch your web site. No face-lift, no overhaul required. Our practice is not search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is a practice that’s administered to your website, involves keywords and phrases and typically takes 3-6 months or more to show positive results.

Second, we produce a steady stream of content about your business, it’s services and related topics. We do this for you so you don’t have to. The content takes various forms to keep things interesting for both the consumer and the spiders. Each content piece is it’s own, stand-alone, web-page and contains the right mix of keyword phrases, and external links to sites of relevance. Each page links numerous times back to your main website which ultimately helps raise the pagerank of your site, improving it’s own performance in the SERPS.

Then, we optimize that material for the search engines and maintain it in our own private directory. Our own directory helps the process along by allowing us to catalog the material in a spider-friendly methodology. Because we utilize the “Best Practices” recommended by the search engines themselves in concert with other proven practices and technology we place very, very well and very quickly, in the search engine results.

Is Local Search Cost-Effective?

Since “cost-effective” is a term that means “will I get back a multiple of times more money than I put in”, that answer is one of pure math. If what you conservatively expect to sell satisfactorily more than offsets the cost then the answer is, “yes”. If you’d like to find out if local search will have a positive impact on your revenue, call us at 214-213-7445. We’ll be happy to show you how things work and let you talk with clients using this service.

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Phillip Crum is the Chief Idea Officer of MarketingMeasure located at 2414 Arbuckle Court Dallas, TX 75229, and is committed to the idea of helping small business owners do a better job of finding their next customer or client. He and his two sons,Tyler and Preston, also own a Sir Speedy Printing franchise and employ those additional capabilities in the overall marketing services menu of offerings. Phillip can be reached at 214-213-7445, or pcrum@MarketingMeasure.com.