Local Search: Benefits for B2B, B2C, Even Manufacturers
First, let’s clarify what Local Search is and is not: Local Search is where your business is listed on a directory by location, or listed in “local” results on search engines – like when someone searches for “web design company in warsaw, indiana“. Local Search is not the same as natural search engine rankings or Pay-Per-Click advertising.
What are the benefits of being listed?
- Being “everywhere” contributes to your website’s credibility in the eyes of Google and other regular search engines. Thus, it tends to improve your natural search engine rankings over the next 6 months (roughly). So even if you don’t want local customers or you’re a manufacturer, if your natural rankings are important for you, this is one of the easiest ways to contribute to that. (This is not an end-all SEO method – not even close, but it is one of the few “one-time” things that does help).
- You’ll get some level of traffic you wouldn’t of had otherwise. And because your listing is usually by someone searching for particular services/products, there’s a good chance you’ll get decent prospective customers to your site looking to buy.
Which Local Search websites should I list with?
There are dozens of Local Search websites and directories. The most popular are: Google Places (Maps), Yelp, Bing, Yahoo, and Best of the Web.
How much traffic can I expect to get my local listings?
The number of visitors you’ll receive depends a number of things:
- Population of your city and how far you are from the center of the city
- How well you titled and presented your business listing
- If you are B2B or B2C. B2C will generally get more traffic.
- The level of credibility your website has in Google’s eyes (helps ranking in Google Places)
Roughly speaking, you may get anywhere from 1 person a month to a couple thousand, depending on the factors above. With all these factors, the only way to really know is to try it.
How much time does it take?
If you go to each of the five directories mentioned above, and reuse the text you submitted for each, it may take around 3 hours.
As an alternative, Effect offers a Local Search Listing Distribution service. (This is not natural search engine optimization. This is creating “local” listings and/or taking control of them). Effect distributes your business listing information to these five directories plus 135 others. This option takes about 15 minutes to 45 minutes of your time to prepare your business listing information and send it to us.
How much does it cost?
Doing it yourself costs nothing to get regular, free listings. Many directories do have advertising options that may be worth investigating. If you’re interested in this, I recommend looking into advertising with Google Adwords, and niche directories.
Effect’s Local Search Listing Distribution service costs $125 / year. You can update your listing when things change and we’ll redistribute it for you anytime. Just contact us if you’d like us to help you with this.
To Sum It Up:
If natural rankings are important or you want more local customers, this is one of the most inexpensive ways to to do both. In most cases, Local Search should only be complementary to your other online marketing.
