Is local search the best kept secret on the Internet?

There is nothing more satisfying than seeing your company in first position on Google’s search engine results. It’s even more satisfying if you are a smaller business and larger competitors that are household names appear on the results below you, especially when your business details and location are even clarified on a map showing exactly where motivated customers ready to buy your goods and services can find you.

But that’s actually a reality now for more and more small businesses of every description, every day, 24/7. Local search is a whole new battlefield for the major search engines who are all falling over themselves to create an environment where florists, restaurants, garden centres and every other business type inbetween can benefits from the web and springboard into a whole new pool of new customers.

Forward thinking companies will realise there is a major opportunity here, but like all opportunities, as word gets out the whole sector will become more competitive.

So what is holding small businesses back? Ah, say the experts, that’s because Yellow Pages has the local market sewn up. For years small businesses have become resigned to signing up yet again for their annual entry in Yellow Pages and that’s a hard habit to beak.

Dedicated armies of Yellow Pages reps and call centres are on a mission to paint a dire picture of business drying up if that entry is reduced in size, or God forbid, the booking modified so that it doesn’t appear in the ever increasing number of sub-categories that appear to spring up every year.

Still, no amount of selling can alter the fact that more and more merchants are seeing a dwindling response from their Yellow Pages advertising. Many more are wondering about the possibility of maybe reducing their spend and freeing up some budget to “try something else…”

Could there be something in an Internet Retail Group (IMRG) Survey of 3,900 UK Internet users that found that 90% researched goods online before buying them offline?

And if those buyers are looking to buy from shops rather than a website, wouldn’t it be more likely that they would buy locally?

Another reason that is often put forward for smaller businesses not making the most of the Internet is lack of time. Local businesses just don’t have enough hours in the day to build a website, let alone maintain a presence in the search engines, or deal with sales enquiries that are emailed.

But doesn’t this rather patronise local traders? You don’t have to be running MegaCorp to realise that your skills as a trader are best utilized in running your business and that for some important aspects you are better off using an expert in their particular field?

After all, most businesses will require the services of a professional such as an accountant or a solicitor from time to time. And so if a search specialist like Vertical Leap is required to maximise local awareness, then obviously this is going to be more cost effective than spending the hours it would take to learn and implement the necessary requirements for a strong presence locally.

And besides, the opportunities available with local search are not restricted to email enquiries anyway; effective local search implementation will see a businesses’ phone number featuring prominently in the major search engines, but also in relevant local directories.

An all singing, all dancing website is not essential for a successful return in local search. Lack of time might be an issue, but what can be more important than generating more business for your company through more sales leads?

So given the opportunities and potential for a healthy financial return in these early days of local search, why isn’t there a torrent of small businesses clammering to boost their presence in Google and the like?

Could it be that many small businesses just haven’t been told?