Fact is, over 75% of searches for information on local businesses & services occur 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 wouldn’t 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”. That’s 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, it’s Google’s 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, however, that the “10 Box” is only triggered to show up for certain keywords in each category and those are the ones that you will want to optimize your site 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 massive amounts of exposure, there are many reasons why you want to give Local Search some serious attention:

User experience – For the most part, consumer’s 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 want to see you on the map, read a review, and maybe even see a photo of the business. Trust me, if they can’t find you to do this, they yell “Next” and move on. This is the experience of today’s user and you need to be a part of it whether you want to or not.

Reach – The reach you get from being listed online, and then in local directories as well, is enormous. Now the data collected and managed online goes even further. Not only 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 people’s 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 looking 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, sites 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 really getting a double benefit there.

Submitting to Local Search Engines & Directories
Submitting to local search engines and directories is very time consuming but it’s important to note that there is some work involved before jumping into the submission process. It is crucial 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 want an analysis of which keywords will pull up Google’s 10-Box in local search and then a determination of which of those keywords you want 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 important to today’s local business.  Below is a pretty comprehensive, although not complete, of local search directories:

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 recommended service.  For just $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.  It’s 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  – Just 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 just now taking off and that has a huge local component to it as well.  If you’re a small to medium-sized business looking to make your footprint online, there’s 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.