Warning: this is a rant - a rant to small retailers.

It’s called blog marketing people! It’s called search engine optimization! It’s called optimizing for local search!If you small retailers practiced it, finding you would not be akin to finding a needle in a haystack.

Missing in Local Search

I’m looking for unique baby gifts. I have a bevy of new grandchildren out of nowhere (so it seems). I don’t have time or patience to “go shopping”. I want to be so taken by your website and merchandise that I am motivated to jump in the car and buy what you are offering. But you don’t even care enough about online shoppers like me to show up in a Google search.

This is how it works and I dare say that I am typical.

“57% of US women use search engines before shopping offline…79% said search engines were helpful in providing valuable information prior to purchasing offline specifically…”

I search before I shop. Because I hate to shop. Because I don’t have time to waste wandering around your brick and mortar to see if you have what I need. But if you haven’t optimized your site so that I can easily find you, I am certainly not going to jump through hoops looking for you. Because you know what? Your competition has jumped through hoops to make sure that I do find them.

They’ve done their optimization homework and show up above the fold in search. Their site is aesthetically pleasing, easy to navigate, and offers a blog for additional relevant information. Even though I’d prefer to shop locally, they have made the experience easy by communicating clear shipping options and providing easy navigation.

Your Site Says A Lot About You

That tells me a lot about them as a retailer. It tells me they care enough about their customers that they have invested in the best of Web 2.0 to meet them halfway. It tells me that if they are up to speed with tech, generous with good content, that I can most likely count on efficiency and good service for the rest of my experience. And since they do have a blog, I can peruse customer comments to get an idea of how content their customers are.

Retailers can dominate their region easily by utilizing simple SEO and blog marketing strategies. Until retailers discover that in my neck of the woods, guess I’ll be spending all of my money out of town.