Salt Canyon » Local Search

Going Places

Salt Canyon — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 04:55:16 +0000

Earlier this month, the Google Local Business Center became Google Places. This change is designed to connect Place Pages with the tool Google provides for business owners managing their Google presence.

New features include:

Service areas: show geographic areas served by your business if you travel to serve customers
Business photo shoots: in certain cities, businesses can request a free interior photo shoot
Customized QR codes: Download a QR code unique to your business from the Google Places dashboard. QR codes can be placed on marketing materials and scanned by some smartphones to take customers to the mobile version of the company’s Page Place
Real-Time updates: for sale promotions, special events, coupons, etc.

Google says that one out of five Google searches are related to location, so taking advantage of this service is an important piece of local SEO.

[Background information provided by The Official Google Blog]

Identity Crisis

Salt Canyon — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:59:48 +0000

What happens when potential customers call a business and ends up confused by what they hear on the other end? If they’re expecting a certain familiar greeting and end up hearing something different, customer’s experience and impression starts out on the wrong foot. Some may persist, others may call someone else. Consistency in a company’s identity is key, particularly for potential customers.

When a company creates a local business listing on the web, consistency continues to be a key factor. Humans can often overlook minor errors in spelling or addresses, but search engines may have a hard time if something isn’t an exact match. In order to build a consistent, strong online presence, it’s a good idea to keep a standard set of core company information. This includes the following list:

- Official company name
- Address (listed the same way it would appear on a physical letter)
- Phone number, including area code
- Website
- Contact email
- Company description

Consistency in local business listings will help build a prominent web presence. Keeping your information consistent reinforces your presence with the search engines and doesn’t diffuse your online optimization efforts.

Goodbye Yellow (Brick) Pages

Salt Canyon — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:35:04 +0000

Consider the rotary phone. It had a familiar, sturdy design. It entered service in 1919, with a demise beginning in the 1970s. Its nemesis was touch tone dialing provided by a keypad instead of a dial. Its primary legacy is that phone numbers are still “dialed”.

Now consider the phone book. Official versions date back to the 19th Century. Printed phone books, though still widely used, are now in decline. This trend has accelerated over the past few years, including a key moment in 2007 when, according to Google Trends, the path of descent for “yellow pages” was crossed by an ascending nemesis: Google Maps. Business listings in search engine results as well as improvements in local search have effectively pushed the printed phone book aside, its popularity and usage dropping like a brick.

What does this all mean? Online local business listings are becoming the de facto standard. Rather than taking time to find the cumbersome phone book, individuals will jump on Google or Bing and perform a local search on their smartphone. Businesses that focus on building an effective local listing will move to the forefront and have a prominent position in the search engine results pages.

As for the latest issue of the phone book, it’ll look just fine tucked underneath that old rotary phone.