Local Search 101
Mary Bowling | 6 April 2006 |
Local search is any search made with the goal of finding something within a specific geographic area. This complex, ever-evolving online organism takes many forms. The most common platforms for performing local search are:
- The search engines themselves - searches are made with geographic qualifiers, like “downtown Dallas hotel”
- The Local Search areas of the big search engines - like Yahoo Local and Google Local
- Personalized search - results are returned based on the searcher’s location, like in My Yahoo
- Internet Yellow Pages - the original form for local search
- Local directories - like the websites of a Chamber of Commerce or tourism bureau
- Local-specific vertical search engines - like Local.com
- Business-specific directories when location is important to the customer - like RestaurantRow.com
Each of these platforms - and each player within them - can return very different results. Unless you’re really paying attention, you may not know where a search result came from, how it got there, who put it there or how to change or correct it. Many results for local searches do not take the searcher to the business’ website. Instead, they are shown a directory-like business listing.
The most important things you can do to make certain that your travel destination website appears for local searches are to use strategies to optimize your hospitality website for local terms, and to monitor and manage your core business information online. This maximizes your chances of appearing for any search made with local intent. Then, determine which paid directories are most important for your business to get the best return on investment.
Your placement in the local results also differs by platform. Google integrates local results in the SERPs. Yahoo Travel allows the searcher to choose how results are displayed (distance, ratings, etc). Internet Yellow Pages and other online directories usually sell enhanced listings, which get placement preference.
Local search gains in importance every day, as more and more people abandon the phone book and seek information online. Mobile devices, like cell phones and PDAs, are proliferating quickly. This it will make local search results even more powerful. To make certain that your business is found when relevant local searches are made, you must keep up with what’s going on. Then, as local search evolves, your online promotion efforts can evolve with it.
At Blizzard Internet Marketing, we’ve got you covered. We’re currently developing “local search specialists” to keep abreast of this increasingly important online niche.
Mary Bowling - Blizzard Internet Marketing, Inc.
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April 7th, 2006 at 11:33 am
An addedum from The Kelsey Group website:
“The combined value the U.S Local Search market - Internet Yellow Pages, geotargeted search and on-demand advertising on mobile devices - will reach US$6.17 billion by 2010. When online classifieds are added to that segment, the overall U.S. figure grows to US$9.9 billion.”
http://www.kelseygroup.com/visitorsearch/view-ILM-Summary.asp?DocID=1377&SFlag=No
May 31st, 2006 at 9:35 am
Good read, I was doing a search on technorati for ‘local search’ when I came across your posting.
I have been doing some research for months about local search marketing and I always find where people fail to mention how important it is to be included in the ‘yellow pages’ style of online directories or a local chamber or commerce website.
Glad to have found your info, I have some similar info available on my blog as well about local search marketing