What is "Local Search" and Who is it For? |

What is “Local Search” and Who is it For?

Local Search is for you, if your products or service are purchased by clients and customers in your geographical area.

“Local search” is a term that represents the use of Internet search engines in combination with geographically constrained search parameters. Typical local search queries include not only information about “what” the site visitor is searching for (such as keywords, a business category, or the name of a consumer product) but also “where” information, such as a street address, city name and/or zip code.

Local Search: Implicit and Explicit

A search that includes a geographic parameter, such as “London,” “Upstate NY”, or “State Street in Santa Barbara, CA,” is an explicit local search. A search that references a product or service that is typically consumed locally, such as “pizza” or “haircut” or “catering,” is an implicit local search.

In terms of implicit local search, the search engines themselves do their best to match the location of the searcher’s computer to the location of the business the searcher is looking for.

Regardless of whether local search queries are implicit or explicit, it behooves a local business owner/marketer to ensure their business is visible for such searchers by making it as easy as possible for the search engines to identify their business to local consumers.

Local Search Engine Optimization and Geo Targeting

Search engine optimization professionals who provide such services to businesses, make it a point to ensure their clients are prominent in local search results.

A few ways to make business listing information available to the various online entities that can promote it, is to publish the info to electronic Yellow Pages aggregators, as well as vertical search engines and specialized regional search directories, and within local business or community directories, etc.

Some search engines will pick up on web pages that contain regular street addresses displayed in machine-readable text (rather than a picture of text, which is more difficult to interpret). Web pages can also use geo-tagging techniques (adding geographical identification to content such as photographs, video, as well as the web pages themselves) to further elevate their local profile.

A more sophisticated local search strategy is to geo target local information to searchers depending upon where they are located. For example, if someone from Germany searches for “Los Angeles Hotels,” a geo-targeting strategy would be to supply information about your LA hotel using the German language.

Local PPC

Promoting your business by pay-per-click advertising on the search engines themselves, is a very direct way to get your name in front of potential local customers and clients.

You may choose to show your PPC ads only to people within an area you specify (example: show ads only to searchers whose computers are located in Chicago) and/or you may bid on terms to target areas within your zone (example: show ads to searchers who are looking for hotels in Atlanta, regardless of where in the world the searchers computer is located). In either case, the ads will appear in front of searchers looking for your goods or services within the area from which you have a reasonable expectation of drawing customers.

The key to local advertising is to find out where the people within range of your business are searching for what you sell. Then, advertise to them!

Tags: definitions, geo-target, Google, local search, Pay Per Click, PPC, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Video Marketing

Marketing Definitions | GA | July 2, 2009 1:00 pm