The Fight is On For Local Search Results and Traffic
As most of you now know, Google Local Maps have become the latest place local businesses need to be if they want to take advantage of the vast amount of traffic out there searching for their products and services. Here is a snapshot of what they look like:
By rolling out these listings, Google has given the power back to the businesses themselves and significantly hurt local directories that were too dependent upon its search results for traffic. Many of the sites out there like Citysearch and Superpages (seen above) have seen significant dips in traffic. Once you get below the fold of the page, the remaining organic traffic represents a very small percentage of overall click throughs.
Yelp on the other hand hasn’t seen a drop at all…in fact their traffic has risen due to good marketing, seo, a Facebook Connect implementation, and a host of other positives. It’s no coincidence that Google made a $500 million offer to acquire Yelp shortly after rolling out the Google Local Business Center because of its stranglehold on the local business review market. Yelp is also doing some innovative things such as stepping into the geolocation space by introducing their “check in” feature to compete with the likes of Foursquare and Gowalla, something that ultimately could be an avenue for coupons and loyalty programs if they can figure out the host of difficulties in that market.
The great news is that Google is now fully in the game. Sometimes it’s easier not to root for the 800 lb gorilla in the room, but competition is good and the local marketing space is rich with it. Now you have a “free” option. Google’s dedication to providing relevant search results independent of ads has made SEO a viable marketing option for local business again, allowing these companies that represent such a huge portion of our economy to benefit from the great ROI it provides. Local business never really had a chance against the directories…until now. In addition to the map, local businesses are also showing up in the organic results under the maps providing potentially 3 spots on a page if you are doing Adwords.
To further make this area of marketing a compelling topic is the proliferation of mobile devices and applications. Google is doing some crazy things like speech to GPS to maps for directions, integration of ads (like billboards) into Google Street View, and bar code scanners to let visitors to your store download information about your business. Check out this video of their Nexus One
The bottom line is there are 10 spots on their Maps and every business needs to work towards getting there, especially as the integration of local business info with new technologies from Google keeps on coming. This requires equal parts SEO and point of purchase marketing. Forget the yellow pages, online directories, and all that other stuff. Until someone dethrones Google as king of the internet, the maps will be the best bang for your buck.
