If I want an electrician, a plumber or even a pizza, isn’t it much more likely I am going to want one in my area than on the other side of the country? ‘local search’ is the solution and in the US and Canada it has taken off, and will soon be available in the UK.

Local search will allows search engine users to search for things within a selected area, and in some cases will automatically display results based their distance from you.  Search criteria will be based on parts of an address and other contact details, and will be matched against the service you are searching for.

Analysts at The Kelsey Group suggest that around a quarter of all Web searches are attempts to find local information, so as you can imagine the potential is huge

I think one of the great things local search will improve, is the ability of smaller companies or sole traders to utilise search engines to attract relevant local business. Optimising, or ensuring that your site is listed within the local search is crucial; it can provide a gateway for obtaining top results and more customers.

For example on the primary search engine results page (SERP) at present it can be quite hard to compete with bigger businesses that dominate more generic search terms, because their websites are bigger and more popular; also many search engine users themselves are not sophisticated enough to use details such as postcode or addresses in their searches. This can lead to a disparity between what users are searching for and the search engines ability to provide the most relevant results, local search overcomes this.

The 3 major search engines, support local searches.

• http://local.google.com
• http://local.yahoo.com/
• http://local.msn.com/

All three produce similar looking results, comprising of Company Name, keywords, Address, Map and distance from the original search area.

However all three have different variations, for example with MSN local search you can display results in order of “best of” “distance” “alphabetical” and “Top Results” whereas Google local search by default displays results distance from order only.

Due to all 3 being similar, we shall study the Google Local search in more depth. In the examples within this document we are demonstrating the experience of a US user on their version of local search. If the past is anything to go by expect the UK interface and options to be almost identical.

Google Local Search

Image 1

Image 1 demonstrates how you can search locally by entering what you are looking for and where. The more specific you are with an address the more accurate the results will be. On US searches we found postal codes very effective.

Google’s technology is capable of searching for postcodes, telephone numbers and address details within your site to cross referencing this with Yellow Pages and other directory listings. Users can conduct local searches either from its main web query or from its Google Local site.

Local Search Results

Image 2

References

When Google matches your details in more than one location it displays these as references.

Map

The map displays results by distance from the specified location.

Standard SERP Results

Image 3

The screenshot above of the normal Google SERP shows that Google is promoting its new local search by providing links above the organic search results, again sorted by distance.

NB: This only seems to work when postal codes or the City name are entered, not by street name.

This image also clearly shows the three opportunities advertisers have to utilise in order to try and capture relevant business.

1. Local search
2. Traditional algorithmic result
3. Pay Per Click

How to Get My Site Listed In Local Search?

The easiest way is to sign up and submit your details.
https://www.google.com/local/add/login

Submitting your site to other directory sites will also have a positive effect, Google shows “References” which is basically all the directories they found your site on.

Image 5

Pay Per Click

Sponsored ads are included at the top of the local search results page, they are also dependent on the city or area location. Therefore a localised Pay Per Click campaign could bring good coverage if you want to target a slightly larger area, IE the whole of London, rather than just a Borough. 

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• Use specific locations in your keyphrases : “plumber in stoke on trent”
• Utilise Googles advanced location targeting options.
• Include the keyword and area within the Pay Per Click description, as the keywords will show in bold and could attract a click.

Onsite optimisation checklist: What should you do to your website?

• List Contact details in the website text, do not encode them in an image.
• Make sure the text also clearly describes the service offered – ideally in the page <title>
• For Meta Keywords concentrate on your location and service.
• Within the Meta Description, insert your address and contact details.

Offsite optimisation checklist: What else should you do?

• Utilise Googles own service to add your details to their local search tool.

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• List yourself in as many business directories (Yell, Thompson etc) as possible and make sure you are in the correct section.
• Double check your contact details are presented in a consistent format on your website, print and online directories and other websites.
• Consider your location, most people are going to type the city name, Google ranks in order of distance, so the closer you are to what Google considers the centre of the city the higher you will rank.

Conclusion

It is too early to make comments on where local search will go, but with all 3 major search engines developing their own local search it is not something you can afford to miss out on.

Edward Cowell
Technical Director
Neutralize (*\*)
Search Engine Marketing Services