As Phone Books Get Thinner, More People Find Local Businesses Through Local Online Search
Take a moment to flip through your phone book. Can’t find it? Check beneath the couch with the missing leg, there’s probably a couple propping it up.
Okay, that was a bit harsh. However, phone books do continue to get thinner as more people prefer to find local businesses and reviews online. Like organic traffic, local business profiles are a source of free traffic and an excellent opportunity to prominently display your products and services, photos and—thanks to the recent merger to Google+ Local—connect with your customers directly through reviews and posts.
These local profiles and sources of traffic and exposure can be set up through a number of channels, including:
Unfortunately, setting up and verifying local listings can be a complicated process. Beyond local listings, localized content on your site also needs to be developed and optimized. Additionally, acquiring links from locally relevant sources and businesses also contributes to ranking well for localized searches (search terms that include a regional or metro name).
Quite simply, if you serve customers or clients at a brick and mortar location, you need to be taking full advantage of the free tools and traffic sources available to you. Getting all of this set up and optimized is no small task, but it can provide a significant competitive advantage.