Local Search and the 10-Box I think that an even hotter button right now than Social Media, may be Local Search. If you don't agree, stay tuned then. Its my prediction and I put cash on it by buying a couple of domain names this morning. So, what is Local Search? Fact is, over 75% of searches for information on local businesses & services take place online, over 85% of those searchers contact the business in some form and of those more and 60% purchase goods or services from that business.
Now, big companies don't care as much about this. Think about it. If I want to go to Walmart, I either know where it is already or I type in www.walmart.com in the url window and hit enter. But wouldnt it be fantastic if when a potential customer is looking for your goods or services, YOU come up first in the search results? This isn't about paid advertising, ie- PPC or Sponsored Results. Thats a quick, yet costly, way to get exposure for your website. Have you heard of the 10 Box or 10 Pack? If yes, you're way ahead of the game. If not, its Googles Local Map Listing results (See Above Pic).
These are keyword and geographically pulled listings that you can position your business to show up for. Note, though, that the 10 Box is triggered to show up for certain keywords in each category and those are the ones that you will need to optimize your website and your listing for. Also note: the searcher doesn't necessarily even have to enter in a city, town or zip code with their search terms.
Google knows where they are based on their IP address (scary, I know) and is assuming that they are looking for a business or service close by. Aside from enormous amounts of exposure, there are many reasons why you want to give Local Search some serious attention: User experience - For the most part, consumers fingers are no longer doing the walking through an actual Yellow Pages book. They are, however, furiously zipping across their keyboards searching, researching and critiquing businesses before ever picking up the phone to call or stepping outside to get in their car. They to see you on the map, read a review, and perhaps even see a photo of the business. Trust me, if they can't find you to do this, they yell Next and relocate on. This is the experience of todays user and you desire to be a part of it whether you desire to or not.
Reach - The reach you get from being listed online, and in local directories as well, is enormous. Now the data collected and managed online goes even further. Not just is Mobile local search gathering momentum with the iphone and similar devices, but you can often find businesses with your GPS as well. Imagine your business showing up on peoples GPS when they enter in a request for, say a nearby restaurant or florist. How cool is that? The idea is to have your listing ready to pop up anywhere and everywhere that people may be searching for it.
Ranking - This is just the basics. The more places that you are listed online and the more references there are to your site and your business, the better for your search ranking and your bottom line. The more popular, or higher ranking, websites that link to yours, the better for your rankings as well. Listings with Local Search Directories count as having popular relevant links to your website so you are in fact getting a double benefit there. Submitting to Local Search Engines & Directories Submitting to local search engines and directories is very time consuming but its vital to note that there is some work involved before jumping into the submission process. It is important to identify your keywords and create some good copy on your website that will capture your target audience once you get them to your site. You will an analysis of which keywords will pull up Googles 10-Box in local search and a determination of which of those keywords you need to optimize for. It is recommended that you enlist the services of a professional to consult with you on this process. There are now dozens of places online to find local businesses, so knowing the best local directories for local search and how to submit to and get listed with all of these local search engines and directories is extremely vital to todays local business.
Below is a pretty comprehensive, although not complete, of local search directories:
Rank Local Directory Price Notes 1 Google Maps Free UBL Covered 2 Yahoo! Local Free UBL Covered 3 Microsoft Live Free UBL Covered 4 Canoe (Canada) Paid Fed by InfoCanada - UBL Covered 5 Yellow Pages Paid Feeds MapQuest & Others - UBL Covered 6 AOL Local Search Free UBL Covered 7 AskCity Free UBL Covered 8 SuperPages Paid Feeds 411.com, WhitePages.com & Others- UBL Covered 9 MapQuest Free Feed by InfoUSA. Getting more Local - UBL Covered 10 Yelp Free Getting more popular - Feeds Yelp.ca - UBL Covered 11 Citysearch Free Can't submit, but can review - UBL Covered 12 Local.com Free 13 Dex Paid includes DexKnows.com - UBL Covered 14 ZoomInfo Free 15 InfoSpace Free Getting less popular - UBL Covered 16 MatchPoint.com Free Now Allows You to Claim Your Business. 17 Insiderpages.com Free UBL Covered 18 GetFave.com Free Getting more popular. 19 YellowBot Free Feeds WebLocal.ca in Canada. 20 Merchant Circle Free Fed By YP. Getting more Popular - UBL Covered 21 Hot Frog Free Getting more Popular 22 Kudzu Free UBL Covered 23 MacRAES BLUE BOOK Free Industrial Only. Feeds YellowPages.com 24 Best of the Web Free 25 Magic Yellow Pages Free Less Popular than in the past. 26 Citysquares.com Free 27 Judys Book Free UBL Covered 28 MojoPages Free UBL Covered 29 GenieKnows Free New as of March 09 30 Tyloon Free 31 tupalo.com Free 32 Discover Our Town Free 33 Open List Free Getting less popular 34 USCity.net Free Getting less popular 35 Yellow Page City Paid Fed By YP - UBL Covered 36 MetroBot Free 37 TrueLocal Free UBL Covered 38 Go Toll Free Free List your business 1800 # online. Data Suppliers 1 Universal Business Listing Paid Worth every penny considering reach & time saved. 2 Info USA Paid Feeds Web, GPS & 411 as well as InfoCanada - UBL Covered & Faster. 3 iBegin.com Free UBL Covered 4 The Local Data Company (U.K.) Free Feeds Big Search Engines in UK. 5 Localeze Free Feeds Big 3? & Yellow Pages as well as click2connect.com and others - UBL Covered As you can see UBL, Universal Business Listings, actually covers a lot of these so if you decide to undertake this yourself, they are a suggested service. For $30, you can have your listing included in many free and several paid local search directories but, keep in mind, it is an annual fee. Its still worth it to have the peace of mind and uniformity across all of the directories.
Today well over 10 BILLION unique searches are done monthly online - Only in the U.S.! Both Google and Yahoo have made some dramatic shifts in the past year in how they return search results and trends are geared toward Local Searches. Mobile search is only now taking off and that has a huge local component to it as well. If you're a small to medium-sized business searching to make your footprint online, theres no better time than now to get started. In fact, things are moving so fast, that if you wait too long you may very well get left behind. Don't let that happen.
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