Local search may be new to many small business owners. But its roots date back to the first sale in prehistoric time. At the heart of any sale is the “match”. A customer has a problem: a business has a solution. When the match happens, a sale is made.
You don’t need to any fancier description of local search marketing than it’s today’s business match. The secret to business matches and sales has always been “Give the customer what they want, when they want it and how they want it”.
Let me give you a five year perspective on why local search marketing has emerged as today’s best matching strategy for local small business owners.
Five Years Ago and the Yellow Page Match
Five years ago, if you needed a dentist to fix your tooth ache, you opened the local yellow page book. You searched the dentist ads and listings. If your tooth hurt badly enough, you looked for a dentist closest to your home.
From the business side, you bought ads in the yellow pages. Bigger ads got more visibility. Businesses were listed alphabetical. Some even titled their business AAAA Dentist to get the first listing in the yellow pages. The customer found the business and the match was made.
The Promised Internet Matches
Along came the internet for business. Businesses created websites where you hoped customers would find you and a sale would happen. But there were problems.
Billions of websites flooded the internet. A customer typed in “dentist” and they got dentists from all over the world. Frustration! If your tooth is hurting in St. Paul, who needs a dentist is Philadelphia?
From the business side, if you were not on the first page of 10,000 dentist web pages, no one ever saw your business. Frustration! No match could happen.
Local Search Marketing Matches
That brings us to 2011. 50% of today’s customers look for local businesses. You type “dentist in St. Paul” into your computer or mobile phone. Even without a city location, sophistication search engines technology knows you are looking for local businesses. The search engines provide a local Map with 5-7 businesses to match your problem.
From the business side a local website presence means your business is no longer a billboard in the world wide dessert. When you optimize your local listings for both customers and search engines, your business is a billboard exactly where customers search. A match and sale can happens.
Conclusion
Business is about matching your customer problem with your business solution. Make the match and you have a sale. Local search marketing uses the internet to make local matches in the blink of an eye. This is how customers do business today. The rule of business still applies-give people what they want, when they want it and how they want.
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Tags: local businesses, local search, small business owners
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