How Important Is Local Search for Your Business?

For many small and mid-size business owners online, local search may not be that important. They may have a global audience with a product that has a broad appeal, or it may make more sense to market their product or service to a general, non-specified market. But for many others, local search is very important.

Let’s say you own a restaurant, or you are an auto mechanic or electrician. You live in Anytown, U.S.A. Local search, in your case, is a necessity.

The key to marketing is to put your message in front of the people most likely to do business with you. If you provide Gettysburg tour guides as a service, then you should make sure that your website appears in searches related to Gettysburg. You should also do everything you can to position your brand in front of tourists who are planning a trip to Gettysburg. With local search, that’s not only possible but it’s nearly a guarantee if you do it right.

Local search is about more than providing keywords for search engines to chew on. It also includes claiming your business listings on Google Places, Yelp, Yahoo and Bing Local. Beyond that even, you can obtain reviews of your product or service on sites like and many other sites where you can post content and link back to your site.

We call this creating Social Authority for your brand, and it’s key to local search.

Search and Social Strategist Caroline Melberg says, “for companies trying to reach a local target audience, local search is essential.  Creating Social Authority begins with unique content placed strategically around the web in spots likely to draw your potential customers and the search engines to your presence online. While not rocket science, it’s important to be strategic about it, or you risk missed opportunities and wasting your time.”

Contact our team of Search and Social Strategists to learn how you can put local search to work for your business today.

Published on: May 1, 2013