http://www.davidmihm.com/blog/google/real-problem-with-local-search/
There is a big big problem in the universe called "local". How do local companies compete against global competitors and paradoxically.....How do global companies compete locally?
Some interesting quotes from this blog:
"The engines are not stupid. They KNOW that the big marketing dollars come in from the Fortune 500 chains with regional or local brick-and-mortar stores. Mom & Pop will never be able to compete in the $5.00/click world of PPC, yet users EXPECT to see local stores they recognize in their search results."
"They ALSO know users don't want to sort through Google's search results only to be directed five OTHER companies' OWN Local search results (like Yelp, InsiderPages, CitySearch, or sadly, Judy's Book). It's simply not in the engines' own interest to take people away from their OWN PPC ads and into someone else's set. That's lost revenue, and a poor user experience to boot."(I love the above quote because so much attention is being paid to creating new 'destination' sites like directories or social networks....80% of all web vistits begin with a search)
"Local Search is the Second most popular online activity after email"
"60% of all local business searches now happen online (33% happen in print yellow pages)"
"Out of the 130 million monthly unique users of Yahoo last year, 116 million of them came to Yahoo with local intent."
"THE REAL PROBLEM WITH LOCAL SEARCH IS THAT SEARCH ENGINES AND LOCAL LISTING SITES AREN'T RETURNING RESULTS THAT USERS WANT TO SEE."
Anyway, good stuff, and great news for Small Business Bloggers. Our studies show that 95% of local blogs rank in the top 10 Google search results. The key for the Small Business Blogging best practice is to leverage the keywords that drive your business and always add that local qualifier...your town, your region etc....
And of course Blogging for search engine optimization begins with easy to use blogging software.
Posted by: Jared Bieberich on Sunday, January 20, 2008
It amazes me how many small business owners and employees follow in the footsteps of the much larger businesses and corporations by creating a bland template based site with some information, the usual PR bs, and contact information. Smaller businesses have the ability to change their culture with much less resistance, and become closer to their customers by interacting on-line. Not to mention (and more closely related to your point) that Google and all of the other search engines create their biggest leads, and blogs can really increase the number of ways that the business or service can be located through these global or local searches
Posted by: Jared Bieberich on Monday, January 21, 2008
"Word of Mouth" marketing is the quickest way to make or break a sale - and it's also a very local concept. It used to occur face to face (slowest to spread), then over the phone (faster), and now in IM sessions, text messages, forums, social networking sites, and of course, blogs (fastest). Communicating the possible positive effect of blogs to your prospects and skeptics seems like it would be your biggest challenge. How do you convey to them that this is a new communication medium that will be as powerful - if not more powerful than email?
Posted by: Chris Baggott on Monday, January 21, 2008
Brilliant Jared! What's funny is that the small local guy actually has the advantage in this brave new world. The big guys need to struggle to ACT more 'Local'. The local guys ARE 'Local'. What Business Blogs or Corporate Blogging Software does is give them the opportunity to tell their story. Sponsor a Soccer team or the Little League? Tell us about it. Go to some special training to improve your skills? Tell us about it.