By Kinnick Wheaton, Account Coordinator
As Google innovates, consumers post reviews and social media booms, marketing strategies must heed to the importance of the local search result.
It has been said that 2011 will be the year of local and mobile search. Already, local search innovations are popping up everywhere. This seems a natural progression now that mobile devices are capable of efficiently browsing the internet and new apps are created daily to facilitate local interactions. The strength of “local” in the SEM industry is indicated by Google’s local-favored search result innovations, the increasing importance of online reviews, and what local businesses are doing—or should to be doing—to keep up a vibrant online local presence. The trend of “going local” must not be ignored when managing a marketing program for any kind of business.
The most evident local innovation is the way Google organizes results for certain queries. Google posts local results before organic results and paid ads for queries it believes to be locally related. For example, when searching for weather or pizza, the initial results are that of local pizza joints or real-time weather forecasts. These results are enhanced by Google toolbar’s My Location feature, which allows users to define and alter their current location by entering a zip code or city/state location.
Similarly, Google Instant, another recent innovation, has also been a larger player in the growth of local search. With Google Instant, results change depending on whether the search is taking place on a mobile device or PC because Google assumes that users using a mobile device are more locally focused.
As local results take precedence over traditional results, it is important for businesses and marketing companies to look at how users are interacting with local results and local hubs. A large portion of this interaction takes form in customer reviews. “Part 2” of The Local Consumer Review Survey reported that local businesses need at least 6-10 reviews to be considered credible and trusted. This result varied among different age groups—older consumers put more weight on reviews than younger groups—but the survey also concluded that overall, reputation in the form of user reviews matters significantly to the credibility of a business.
As a powerful example of this trend, Yelp recently published statistics on how their users are interacting with the site. In one month alone, the site received 45 million unique visitors. Among these visitors, 3.2 million came from their mobile app and the consumers produced over 15 million reviews. The majority of these results related to the restaurant and shopping categories, and supported The Local Consumer Review Survey’s claim that 37% of consumers search locally for restaurants and cafes.
It is a known facts that Consumers turn first to peer reviews when making purchasing decisions. Interactive marketing through social media is in a unique position to take advantage of this reality—particularly on the local level. When Facebook began to create ads with friend’s “likes” and comments displayed next to them as “sponsored stories,” businesses were able to promote themselves in a way that was more personal and ultimately, more effective.
Social Media is already being integrated in search engine optimization (SEO) rankings and it is expected to also be integrated into Local SEO rankings. So how do interactive marketing companies and local businesses take advantage of this trend? Here are 90’s suggestions:
- Invest in a local SEO plan
- Claim local listings on the various local hubs (Facebook Places, Google Places, etc)
- Update those listings and fill them with pictures and information
- Monitor online reviews and be active in the conversations
- Utilize social media and encourage customers to engage with the site
- Create and utilize a mobile site in addition to keeping mobile a focus in all SEM efforts
