The popularity of local search will lead to greater local advertising opportunities

According to BusinessWeek, 55% of consumers used a search engine to find out about a local business in 2005. That number is expected to increase significantly this year and next.

I’m not at all surprised. I’ve been saying for some time that local search will grow. And I’m serious. The writing is on the bulletin board.

As local search grows, so will local online advertising opportunities. The opportunities are already endless and they continue to grow.

These are your current options:

  • Yahoo!
  • Google
  • MSN
  • Ask for
  • Yellowpages.com
  • Superpages.com
  • Citysearch
  • Or one of several other similar brands

Do you see any commonalities? I make.

First, the top four are all search engines. All offer local search as a subset of a larger product that the Web is built on, in its current form.

The other options, however, are online versions of an older product, namely the business directory. Unlike printed directories, these online directories do not specialize in any particular geographic region. They exist to meet a need for local advertisers no matter where they are located. The downside is that these services cannot optimize your websites for local search like search engines can.

I think the next wave of local advertising will be to use local business directories for advertising purposes. Such directories, if done correctly, can offer a more affordable alternative to search engine advertising and offer more successful geographic targeting than larger directories like Superpages and Yellowpages.com. That’s how:

Since local business directories are local, search engines can optimize your pages for geographic keywords and zip codes. For example, if you go online to search for a florist in your forest area, you will likely get a search engine results page that consists primarily of florists located near you. But for you to be able to receive a single web page listing multiple florists in the same geographic region, it would have to be through a directory optimized for local geographic keywords – an unlikely prospect for a domain name that lists businesses from anywhere and everywhere. .

So while local search may be growing on search engines, small businesses likely can’t afford the high price of securing a prominent position with paid search listings and when you consider that most search engines visit. a particular website through organic searches. That makes business directories that specialize in local markets even more attractive.

Just remember, you heard it from me first.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *