Search
The Cornerstone of your Online Presence
Search is not one of the cornerstones of your small business success online – it is the cornerstone. User reviews are crucial – social media is imperative – but search is still king in terms of people being able to find you and your services and products and stores online.
At Buzz Online Media we help your business with Local Search & Organic Search:
Local Search is increasingly more important with the newest advents seen in Google search results: general searches are yielding local results, showing how important it is to ‘be on top of this’. Local search includes where your local search profiles come up in search results. It’s the “Google 10 Pack” or the top three searches that show up on MSN or Yahoo. 100% of our clients show up page 1 in their respective categories.
“Organic” search is where your website shows up in the “natural” search results. We can do traditional “SEO” as well allowing your website to show up in natural search results for business and category searches related to your business.
We focus on two sub categories of search as well: One, when people search your business name, what do they find? Are these links to Yelp, Citysearch, blog posts, your website, etc? Most likely they are a combination of all of these. When people search for your name it is imperative they find useful information and its advantageous for you they find information not only relevant, but positive about your business.
Second, we concentrate on search having to do with your product categories, cuisine types, and geo locators. It’s one thing for people to find you when they search your business name – but what if they don’t know they are looking for you? 150,000 people every month look for “restaurants Seattle”. Are you there? Are you showing up when they search for “Italian Restaurant” or “clothing Bellevue, WA”? This is a key aspect of growing your business and brand online.
Interesting Facts
According to The Kelsey Group more than 70 percent of people randomly surveyed said they use the Internet to find local places to buy, shop & dine.Statistics today show a conservative estimate that somewhere between 30% and 40% of all Internet searches are made with the intention of finding a local business.
Buzz Online Media can do the following for your local business:
Help search engines drive qualified traffic to your website
Help search engines drive qualified traffic to your profile pages
Capture different types of search queries for different types of customers
Why it’s important:
About 109 million people, 63 percent of U.S. internet users, performed a local search online in July – 43 percent more than a year earlier, according to a comScore study of the size and growth of the U.S. local search market
About 41 percent of those conducting a local search searched for something in their home area rather than information on businesses in locales they intended to visit. Among those searching in their home area, 59 percent searched for a restaurant or something entertainment-related, such as a theater, theme park or an attraction for sightseeing; 52 percent searched for a specific business phone number or address.
These statistics highlight that accessible, accurate, comprehensive and relevant business listing content on local search engines is fundamental to increasing awareness and conversion for your local business.
Google and Yahoo sites accounted for the largest share of local searches in July: 70 percent and 20 percent, respectively. Microsoft sites garnered 8 percent, followed by the Time Warner network sites. “With approximately 849 million local searches conducted by Americans in July, local advertisers have a sizable market that can be reached through leading search sites,” said Jack Flanagan, EVP of comScore Media Metrix.
comScore in another study also found that performing a local search precedes consumers’ taking action: 47 percent of local searchers in 2Q06 said they visited a local merchant as a result of their search behavior; also, 41 percent made other offline contact and 37 percent made contact online as a result of conducting a local search. These numbers have surely grown significantly since these statistics were acquired.
We develop multiple paths for a searcher to find you.
Consumers are performing nearly two billion locally targeted searches each month, representing over 40% of total monthly Web searches. That number is likely to grow, given that local search is estimated to become a $25 billion dollar industry by 2017.
In the age of Universal search, search engine results pages are the online equivalent of a newsstand, only one that mixes images, video and user-generated content in with the headlines. With social media playing the role of an editorial page, and search engines providing access to this collective opinion, brands face increased challenges in managing their reputation online. Not only must they stand out in an ever-widening sea of information, but they also must put their best foot forward. Here are some ways that search can benefit you:
In order to appear in organic local search engine results (the storefront’s virtual window), businesses must optimize & organize their content both on their website and “offsite” (profile pages, directories, social media properties, etc) & with the search engines themselves on a consistent basis (month in & month out), focusing not just on your name brand but on category types, such as the cuisines, product categories and geographic areas.
About 41 percent of those conducting a local search searched for something in their home area rather than information on businesses in locales they intended to visit. Among those searching in their home area, 59 percent searched for a restaurant or something entertainment-related, such as a theater, theme park or an attraction for sightseeing; 52 percent searched for a specific business phone number or address.