LocalBizBits Local Search Marketing Information and Resources
Been doing a lot of reading and thinking about local search, small business marketing, online marketing etc. but not much writing. Seem to always be running late and tired, and a little of writer’s block. They say one way to overcome writer’s block is to simply write…so I decided to pull together a summary of my thoughts on why local search marketing is worth the effort.
1. It is an affordable way for your business to increase its visibility. Getting one’s business info into the various directories/verticals is relatively easy and not super expensive. This is a service I have done for many clients. Please contact me if you would like me to help you. 😉
2. Online local marketing is growing very rapidly and producing results:
a. Greg Sterling posted Local ROI Trumps National ROI where he quoted: “Local auto dealers in the aggregate thus spent somewhat less than auto OEMs and got a better return, about 3.5X better. One conclusion to draw here is that the local ad spend is more efficient..”
b. Jupiter Local Online Advertising Will Be Worth $8.9 Billion In 2012: Recently Borrell Associates put out a new local forecast that offers very impressive local numbers. The company said that “local online advertising,” defined as search, “local banners” and video (classifieds are also in there) would reach $12.6 billion in 2008 with “local search” contributing roughly $5 billion to that total.
3. The Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) are growing New Research Shows Overall Yellow Pages Usage Growing — 17.2 Billion Searches in 2007: Average number of monthly IYP searchers up 16 percent: 73 million IYP searchers per month in 2007, compared to 63.1 million IYP searchers per month in 2006.
4. The search engine industry is spending a lot of time on the subject via:
a. Blogging. There are a huge number of blogs (other than mine 🙂 ) out there talking about local search marketing. For some of the better ones, refer to my blogroll.
b. More meetings, either dedicated entirely to local search, such as SMX Local & Mobile (which just happened) and ILM08. For some great highlights to the meeting, see Andrew Shotland’s LocalSEOGuide. Finally, Matt McGee has and will again this year talk about local search at the Small Business Marketing Unleashed meeting.
5. New local related sites are popping up or existing sites are adding new local components:
a. Recently YouTube recently add a new geographic search feature on its site.
b. BOTW started its own local business directory.
c. Dex’s online local search site, now features city-specific pages, each with a wealth of local information.
6. Recession proof marketing(?) I am not going to debate if we are in a recession or not but with gas prices increasing, more folks will be doing more on-line searching, research for products and services.
7. The Millennials or technology savvy folks are going to dominate the marketplace very, very soon. See this video from CBS 60 minutes. It is very enlightening about today’s young people…With more and more folks becoming more techno savvy-they will be on-line more and more.
Ok these are just some of the things that stand out to me, there are plenty more examples if you look. The writing is on the wall, small business need to see that and prepare. Local search is only going to grow.
So what do you think of my list? Did I forget anything?
The future of local business search is video and we at Jippidy.com plan to lead the charge.
I am one of those new local search directories.. with video and photo galleries. I am hoping it will take off… I am excited. I believe local search will keep getting bigger and bigger.
Great article! And I do think local search has a lot of merit. But it really depends on the business. For most small biz owners, their market is local, and they need to find new ways to reach folks.
One way we hope to help them is via our Video Business Directory at Listasaurus.com. We are the first online classifieds and auction site to pay users for listing their ads…and the traffic from that side of our site is a great complement to the Business Directory.
We offer video in all of our formats–classifieds, auctions, and Business Directories…and though it’s taking a while for the small biz owner to realize the value in video, I believe it’s something that will eventually become more the norm. Sort of like how websites in themselves took a while to make sense to everyone.
So..will local search continue to grow? Sure! Especially on those sites where the community shares their opinions and reviews…and as local search grows, there needs to be a way to stand out. Video classifieds will pave the way!