Almost every local business that I Google has usually done quite a poor job optimizing their site for search engine visibility. I would not find some of these businesses on the first page at all if it were not for the several local search directories that have a rudimentary entry for them.

Their first sin is a complete failure to implement even a modest effort to employ business blogging and an abysmal lack of the most basic search engine optimization that would leverage their actual site to the top of search results. Their second sin is not to have tended to their existing entries in the local search directories that actually do show up on the first page. Most do not even include a link to their homepage and some companies apparently have not even cared enough to respond to derogatory reviews.

Focusing on the latter sin, businesses (at least the ones in my neck of the woods) need to perhaps start considering how they appear in local search because focus is veering to developments that are now occurring in local or vertical search.

Yahoo, in fact - feeling pressure from MicroSoft and Google and also from upstarts like Yelp - has just freshened up their local search.

“…Yahoo! is really one of the incumbents in local search. It pioneered interactive mapping, advanced functionality and local filters, as well as being an early integrator of community and ratings/reviews….

It was time for a local refresh, which Yahoo!, as of this evening, has done. With a redesign partly inspired by the Yahoo! OurCity sites in India, the new Local site features a bolder graphical look that pushes community content even more front and center. There’s also better Yahoo! Groups integration and more prominent local events from Yahoo! property Upcoming. To that end, there’s a helpful “weekend guide,” that includes movies and other entertainment options. In general there appears to be broader integration
of other Yahoo! content and properties into Local.
(Source)

If you still do not think you ought to invest some time in optimizing for local search, consider that Yahoo is likely to increase the use of behaviorally targeted ads and then there is the recent TMP study that indicates “60% of consumers now use the Internet as their primary information source for local businesses lookups.”

Sphere: Related Content

Tags: business-blogging, local_search, local_site, search_engine_optimization, search_engine_visibility, search_yahoo, vertical_search

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 at 6:08 pm and is filed under Business Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.