It’s amazing to me the number of businesses that I patronize locally that don’t show up when I search for them locally using local.google.com or local.yahoo.com or just thai restaurant 80227. Even if they have a web site many sites fail to register locally for the simple reason that they don’t do a good job of populating their sites with the geo tags (ie, zip code, city, etc.) that a search engine uses to assign you to a particular geographical area.
To find out if you’re registering locally, just enter your key search terms into your favorite search engine and include your zip code – if you aren’t showing up in the listings that follow, you have some work to do.
Here’s what I find when I enter the terms “internet marketing services” and my zip code of 80227…
Now being found locally may not be as big a deal to someone like me who really only needs a phone, pc and an internet connection to connect with my customers but it is VERY IMPORTANT if you offer products or services that depend on local trade. Here’s an example of what happens when I try to find my favorite pizza parlor locally…
Yep, the lights are on (for all of their local competitors) but nobody’s home (for them).
So what do you do to insure you show up when potential customers are trying to find you locally? Well to start look at your web site and determine if…
- your address & phone number are prominently displayed in search engine readable text, not embedded in a graphic or flash module.
- you use geo tags to modify your key words and phrases. Pizza delivery in Lakewood, CO rather than just Pizza delivery.
If the above are missing or lacking then fix them. I guarantee that you’ll be pleased when you start drawing customers locally because they found you locally on google, yahoo or aol. I don’t have any hard numbers but a significant number of web browsers are just like me; they eschew the yellow pages (even online) for the simplicity of typing in ‘service’ or ‘product’ and ‘location’ to their favorite search engine. Believe me, you don’t want your business to be the missing tag on the local google map. Do you?
