by Adelard Gasana
Google and Yahoo both have local search services but many businesses are unaware of this and their potential benefits. Many people do not know that they are free to register and can have huge positive results for their businesses. Once you get your business listed in local services, you will start showing up on their map features like Google Maps and Yahoo Maps.
Recently I took a trip to New York City and got lost a couple of times looking for landmarks which were talked about on a tour bus I had taken a day earlier. I spent a good part of the day walking the length and width of Central Park trying to find the Whole Foods Store under the Time Warner building and it was no cakewalk. Dazed, confused and with my feet sore, I realized that my new iPhone 2.0 had Google Maps right on it. I pulled out Google Maps and did a satellite view of the park. Then I realized that I had walked about 2 1/2 miles in the opposite direction! I ended up taking the bus and finally got to the Whole Foods Store.
In a real life scenario, I realized how important it is to quickly find landmarks, hotels, restaurants and general places you want to visit. I never got lost again in the city.
Now imagine that you are driving around the city and looking for a good seafood restaurant and you use Google Maps, which is usually the default on new Smart-Phones like the new iPhone 2.0. Instantaneously, businesses registered with Google Local are found for your choosing. Yahoo Maps, MapQuest and other mapping features use their free registration for functionalities that benefit their end users.
The future of the Internet is to make people’s lives easier and that’s what technology is supposed to do. By allowing me to never ever get lost ever again in life, Local Online Services makes my life a whole lot simpler.
It is one thing to get directions to a place printed out from MapQuest, it’s a whole different scenario to get instantaneous directions from where you are standing to the place you need to go, in the palm of your hands. The only down fall is that if a great destination is not registered with Google Local, Yahoo Local, or the other equivalent; it’s doesn’t appear on their maps unless you have the correct address.
Registering with Google and Yahoo Local is free, but there are several other local services that you can register your business with, which are niche website, niche directories or niche search engines that deal with your industry specifically. Find these niches as well and register your business/website with them and you will be visible to potential clients/customers.
Local Search has the power to increase your business customers several fold simply by registering your business with these services. Local Search should be apart of your search engine optimization campaign. Finding a company that gets you great presence locally for your top keywords is also very important.
I work at Optimum7, where we specialize in visibility and increasing online traffic for businesses. Contact Us Today to learn more.
October 11, 2008
