With the advent of Google Local, a service that helps Web users
find local businesses by typing in a search term and a city
name, many questions arise concerning its impact on Natural
Optimization.
Google Local tracks down local stores and businesses by
searching billions of pages across the Web, and then
cross-checking these findings with Yellow Pages information to
locate the local resources Web users wish to access. In addition
to local business listings and related Web links, Google Local
also provides maps of the desired region and directions made
available by MapQuest. This makes Google Local convenient for
Web searchers and extremely useful for local businesses, if
their sites are optimized for local-searches. If not, some
businesses could be missing out on a tremendous increase in
local site visibility and traffic.
Case-in-point: The Home Depot, whose Web site features its own
Store Finder with zip code-accessed location listings. Type
"Home Depot" into Google Local and while a list of local stores
appears, no related local landing pages come up. In fact, none
of the related Web links even direct Web users to Home Depot's
home page. Most large sites that have retail stores have a
search feature or "enter your zip" option. Google and other
Search Engines will never be able to index this content. For
retailers looking to increase sales and traffic from their Web
sites, this could prove to be a big problem.
The Home Depot is not alone. Countless other large and small
businesses alike do not have city-oriented pages accessible
through local search sites. Many are not listed in the top 15
return results for related keywords for Google Local, despite
their location in the immediate proximity to the search
location. Google Local ranks listings based on their relevance
to the search terms the user enters, not solely by geographic
distance. This means that unless your site has a city and/or
county-oriented landing page for each location, Google will not
be able to access your contact page, no matter how relevant your
site is to a search term, or how close you are in geographic
distance.
Natural Optimization specialists never really focused on the
optimization of contact and location pages on websites, but now
it's becoming a vital tool to drive more qualified traffic to
the sites. In order to make sites local search-ready, they
should start creating sitemaps that include every store location
and then build individual landing pages for each specific
location with a brief overview of the store along with a map and
detailed directions. Without this, Google does not have a path
to index the pages and information. Doing this small step will
increase your qualified traffic as well as increase sales in
your retail store or business.
By making your keywords city-specific and including more
location-specific information on your site, Google Local can
access your contact information and, as a result, drive more
related traffic to your site.
Take Hard Rock Caf?. Their Web site is an ideal example of a
site that is perfectly optimized for local Search Engines like
Google Local. When entered in as a search term, Hard Rock Caf?'s
number one listing links to their home page's restaurant
location page. Search users can instantly access information on
Hard Rock Caf? in general, as well as learn more about location
and contacts.
Local search is one of the most hyped areas of development in
the Search industry today. Other Search engines including
Yahoo!, Ask Jeeves, MSN and CitySearch are hot on Google's tail
to perfect their own versions of local Search Engines. Soon, not
having your site optimized for local Search Engines will make
your business's site obsolete. The impact of local search is
already apparent, and it is still only in its infancy.
About the author:
Rob Young, Manager of Natural Optimization and Creative Director
of full-service interactive marketing and advertising agency
UnREAL Marketing Solutions, has been with the company since its
inception in 1999. Young oversees the Natural Optimization and
Creative departments.
