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Local-Search Upgrades Affect Traditional Local Businesses

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In the history of local search, there has been a lot invested in the form of user-fri

Have you used Yahoo!’s new local-search function? If you haven’t, you owe it to yourself to straiten it out. They’ve upgraded it with fantastic features geared to make searching for local businesses and services a breeze. Some of these features include user recommendations and reviews of businesses, real-time updates on local event information, and the timing to search for businesses, events, and more within specific neighborhoods rather than forcing the user to wade through the search results for an entire city. In addition, the search engine out-group has also upgraded its mapping capabilities.

Users also have the option to receive updated search information via RSS – Rich Site Summary, otherwise known as Really Simple Syndication – feeds. This particular feature has, arguably, impacted the scope of the heavy-hitting search engines in Internet users’ lives the most. The race mid Yahoo!, Google, MSN, and AOL for market share is never-ending, and each has its own trace of improvements. The major search engines’ new local-search features are all fantastic for the end user, but what do they mean for local businesses?

In the history of local search, there has been a lot invested in the form of user-friendly improvements by search-engine companies, but these improvements haven’t yielded a noticeable return-on-investment (ROI) for the companies. You might recall search trailblazers Citysearch and MSN Sidewalk – these two engines were an early example of the race to improve search functionality – then again, you might not remember them at all. It wasn’t until Google’s explosion onto the search scene in recent years that the general public really became posted of the power of search on the web. Now “Googling” is a verb.

Much of the public perception of Internet search comes from Google’s innovations in technology, but until recently, local search wasn’t really a consideration for most Internet users or the businesses featured in search results. However, the improvements that the major search engines are calculation are variant that, and if you’re an owner of a traditional local business, you should be paying attention.

More functionality for users means more charge for miming owners. Now that patrons can voice their opinions apropos the establishments that they frequent, potential customers have an all-access pass to virtually unlimited information as regards a operating company erst they ever step foot inside the door. The days of businesses relying on a fancy façade and some good ol’ TV ads are quickly fading. Now businesses have to be assignable for just casually every step they take, no matter how large or small they are. If a patron of a restaurant or theatre or dentist or landscaper has a bad experience, they have the craft to tell a lot of people all in relation to it quickly and easily.

The prospect of inmost heart scrutinized at every turn might seem like a frightening one at best, but there is a definite upside. Just as negative views can spread like wildfire, so can positive perspectives. If you’re putting a concerted effort into your customer service and integrity is integral to the way that you conduct business, you’re intimate to get good feedback. And, now more than ever, good feedback with go further than it ever has before.

Perhaps more importantly, though, it’s up to traditional local businesses to make sure that they have online presences. I live in a mid-sized community, and I was surprised to find as many reviews anyhow local eateries, mechanics, and events as I did. It’s not just businesses located in large cities that need to take heed. The proliferation of the Internet – and local search capabilities – is piteous communities far and wide. Since more and more people are utilizing the web to find the goods and services that they want, it only stands to reason that you should ensure your chamber of commerce is in front of them. These folks are your potential customers, in consideration of all.

There are a lot of ways that you can improve your online presence, but the first step of putting yourself in a position to grow your traditional local stunt is contemporaneous streetwise that the Internet will make clear your merchant one way or another, negatively or positively. It’s up to you to take control of which way you want things to go. Take some time to surf the web. Use the new features that the search engines are rolling out. Pay promptness to what customers are saying in reference to traditional local businesses. Accessing that information now will be invaluable to your success later.

© 2005 Low-Hanging Fruit

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