As a Waukesha business owner you may or may not know the value of local search and how it works behind the scenes to promote your business. Local search marketing benefits users across all devise platforms, including desktop PC’s, notebooks, and mobile phones. For every devise, everywhere around the globe, local search is a valuable asset that businesses cannot ignore.
Most people take for granted the privilege of living in the digital millennium where finding your favorite place around town is as easy as pulling out your smartphone and typing in a few words. Although restaurants and retail outlets are the most searched industry, businesses must realize the remarkable trends in mobile use and online search. Every day people search for first-time store shopping, or a trip to a new business or service provider. As most people know from experience, accurate navigational data is crucial.
What exactly is local search?
In essence, with local search your business has a marketing agency working for it 24/7. Local search is a variety of local based search engines that provide specific business and location data. This data is geographically centered and featured across various devices such as mobile phones and tablets. The value your business receives, however, relies upon accuracy and detailed business data. Configuring your business across the vast network of local search engines should be left to a local search expert like Liberty Web Marketing.
Can people find your business?
Have you ever used your smart phone for directions to a restaurant or store, only to find that the location is inaccurate or the business has moved to a new location? Does this send a bad message to you about the business? Whose responsibility is it to make certain that this data is accurate, the search engines? I’ll tell you the answer through a simple analogy, but you’ve probably figured it out yourself…
How Business “A” failed their customers – an analogy
Business “A” opened up their new hardware store in 2002. They made sure to have a catchy logo and sign, business cards, and a business listing at the local chamber of commerce. They even engaged in a direct mailing campaign, sending 25,000 flyers to local households so people knew that the business existed and where it is located.
It wasn’t too long before one of the large marketing agencies (like YellowPages) contacted the business to offer their directory listing services. Being persuaded that a listing in the phone book was important, Business “A” agreed to the services. This paid listing cost may have ranged anywhere from $20 per month to $145 per month, and included the phone book listing and a digital listing in their web directory.
Here is what their business listing looked like across the three platforms Business “A” was listed in within the first three months of opening:
Business card and Direct Mailing flyer:
All-Around Hardware, Inc.
1234 Anywhere Street
Waukesha, WI 53186
Phone: 123-456-7890
Local Chamber of Commerce:
All-Around Hardware
1234 Anywhere Street
Waukesha, WI 53188
Phone: 123-456-8790
Large Marketing Agency:
All-Around Hardware Co.
1234 Anywhere St
Waukesha, WI 53186
Phone: 123-456-7890
The first segment of information is 100% correct, but you will notice how the area chamber inaccurately listed the name, zip code, and phone number. The large marketing agency also listed the business name wrong and used the abbreviation “St” for Street. Already, just three short months into their new business and information is inconsistent and inaccurate. Search engines give preference to businesses that have meticulously consistent business information, so Business “A” already had two strikes against them.
Unless you’re a marketing consultant you probably don’t know that other online directories “scrape” and syndicate business information across the vast database of the World Wide Web. They want people to find information on their search engine to help promote advertises on their site. As you can imagine, the two inaccurate sources of information for Business “A” was peppered across online directory listing databases, thereby creating more inconsistency and diminished local presence.
When Business “A” moved…
As luck would have it, despite these relatively minor inconsistencies, Business “A” had tremendous growth after only two years and soon they were looking for a new location to fulfill their expansion needs. The owners ultimately found a location that was twice the size of their existing building. The new location was relatively close to their first location, but it was on a different street.
As anyone can understand, moving your business to a new location requires updating your business listings across the vast network of online directories. However, because Business “A” only advised the large marketing agency of their new location, their already polluted data became even more inconsistent and the hardware store had numerous complaints from customers who having troubles finding their location. Unfortunately, Business “A” never took a proactive approach to “fixing” the problem throughout the local search database and suffered reputation issues.
Consistent business details is the key to Local Search success
Essentially, having your business accurately listed in local search databases and search engines puts your business at an advantage over your competitors. Sadly, many businesses pay little attention to their local presence and much of the data is inaccurate and inconsistent. Search engines frown on inconsistency and listing gets pushed further down the rankings as being less trustworthy.
Clearing up inconsistencies is a burdensome and very time consuming endeavor that is best left for professionals to handle. At Liberty Web Marketing we know the value of accurate local listing presence, and we specialize in making certain that business data is accurate across all local search engines.
If your business is suffering because of inaccuracies, or even because it has little or no online directory presence, learn more about our local search services or feel free to contact us for a free consultation.