Search Tip – Local Search

One of main challenges for search engines at the moment is being able to
pinpoint businesses in a certain location easily. This remains a major barrier
to small businesses that are geographically constrained, for example
hairdressers or plumbers. Until recently these businesses have relied heavily on
the Yellow Pages and other local directories to advertise to their region.

Experienced searchers who use town names and local area phone codes to search
for businesses are in the minority, and less experienced searchers who just type
in ‘plumber’ will usually miss out.

Search engines are aware of this opportunity and have been working to
integrate localisation within search results. In the US you can now use href=”http://local.google.com”>Google Local to search for services in a
specific area. For example, searching for href=”http://local.google.com/local?sc=1&q=car+hire&near=miami&btnG=Google+Search”>‘car
hire Miami’ returns a list from the Yellow Pages, a detailed map of
locations and relevant search results taken from the main Google index.

Google also allows US AdWords advertisers to select where their adverts are
served to, based on location. This is done by checking the physical location of
the user’s IP address, although this system is still not perfect as the user may
be in a completely different location to their ISP.

UK businesses can expect to take advantage of features similar to this in the
near future, but how can they target local customers now through search now?

A number of our clients have experienced success by targeting town and county
names within their optimisation. These localised terms tend to be less
competitive, allowing the proportion of users who search with localised keywords
(such as ‘Swindon car hire’) to see the business listed near the top of the
rankings! This will naturally generate fewer site visits but will attract highly
targeted, relevant leads who make excellent business prospects.

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