If you are the owner of local businesses, and you are at wit’s end on how to get new customers and to keep folks coming back to your store, then I would say there are people online now looking for a business like yours in their area. They’re using a computer, a smart phone or GPS device and they’re using Google, Bing, Yahoo, Facebook, or hundreds of other sites and services. Will these potential customers find you? According to a 2010 survey, over 80% of U.S consumers use the Internet to find a local business. That’s why local search optimization is so critical for local businesses.

 What Is Local Search?

You try to find it in the Yellow Pages. Then you call a friend to see if they know. Finally you plop down at your computer and type in a search term in Google, Yahoo or Bing’s search bar. Presto! There it is, the local business your were looking for all the time. Complete with a phone number, street address and a functional website.

 

Business to business, customer to business, doesn’t matter. More and more people are using the search engines to seek out local products and services. When some one types into the search bar; plumber on call Lebanon tn, or used appliances Lebanon tn, they are using local search as the criteria to find these items or services.

 

In the age of the Internet, utilizing “Citation-centric” business listing portals is essential to the success of your offline business. Searching for your business online is how potential new customers find you and how passed customers keep you in mind. Notice just who is searching for you:

 

PUT BULLETED DATA HERE

 

Together Google, Yahoo and Bing offer 95% + of all search results in the United States. With Google taking about a 70% share of the pie.

 

The question becomes: “what is the information that people are looking for when searching in their local market?”

Well, they are really looking for a citation or active business information.

 

Bullets here for name,address,phone,store hours,a map,driving directions,.

 

If a business thinks that people in the neighborhood will just type in their web address and “POP” comes up a company website they are seriously in denial. Just is not the way it works. Folks are looking for an idea, a theme, a notion. They don’t know your specific website address. Customers search related keywords or phases coupled with the city they live in to pull up the most relevant information. This is in fact how Google at least ranks all websites and portal entries. By relevance first.

Brightlocal Consumer Review Survey (November 2010)

Nielsen & Webvisible research via Marketing Charts (January 2009)

comScore Explicit Core Search Report, Total U.S. Home/Work/University Locations (May 2011)