Why Local Search Matters

Google is the undisputed king of search, I am not going to argue that! In fact it has gotten so big that it has been ingrained in our vocabulary as an action. That being said Google has 60% of the search market which leaves 40% of all searches done by sites like Yahoo, Bing, and Ask.com. Lets also bring into the mix the variety of local social search sites like citysearch, insiderpages, urbanspoon, and yelp.

Local search is designed to connect consumers with a need, to a business with a solution. Take for example Urbanspoon, it answers the age old question of what do you want to eat tonight. I can choose a cuisine, pick a price point, read a review or two and then decide based on the experience of others, whether or not I would like to dine at that particular restaurant, then based on my experience I can write a review of my experience. Studies show that 1 out of every 13 searches done online is a local search, which means it makes sense for a business owner to optimize their presence on theses sites.

Ironically when a local search is done on Google, Google pulls that content from the sites like Citysearch which is now part of the CityGrid Media network.The CityGrid media network is made up of over 250 local sites which just so happens to be the largest local content add network second only to Google. With that being said local search gives advertisers a more interactive way to market their business while making it a more personal experienced for the user. Users can now interact with a potential business through video, reviews, owner messaging, special offers and other trackable activity at the exact moment they are searching for a product or service. It also proves to be more cost effective then traditional methods of advertising combined with analytical data which are result driven.

According to CityGrid Media:

• 90% of people that search use a search site when researching a product or service in their local area like Google, Yahoo, and Bing
• 38% of people that search use a social networking site like Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace
• 24% of people use local search sites like Local.com, Merchant Circle, and Citysearch
• 19% of searches done on mobile phones are for local products and services

If the stats above aren’t enough to get you to start thinking seriously about local search think about this, the average mobile user is between the age of 35 and 50 with a household income of over 50K per year. Another thing I would like to point out is that most of these sites are free to register and also allow you to customize your page to a point. I think however the more important point is that each site that you register your business on actually links back to your site and that my friends helps build your site engine page ranking.