A recent report on Local Search Usage: Bridging the Caps, From Search to Sales provides small business owners with insightful information that is important to their business for maintaining a successful local marketing strategy. TMP Directional Marketing and 15 Miles commissioned comScore to conduct research on consumer trends in selecting a local business for locally available products and services. This resulting report specifically focuses on the continuing shifts in consumer behavior, opinions and marketing media selection within the framework of local search and was conducted by observing both online behavior and through a comprehensive survey of more than 4,000 local business owners.

So, as a small business owner, what are the key points that you should take note of from this report? Here are a few key points”

The majority of consumers go online first to search for a local business. More than 70% of consumers look to the Internet to find those local products and services. Furthermore, more than half of local business searchers spend the majority of their time on searching online.

SMB Key fact: 7 out of every 10 opportunities the small business owner has to sell is through the Internet.

Consumers continue to use Search Engines but other media sources are quickly gaining popularity and making an impact on buying decisions. Search Engines still have the majority of searches with greater than a 60% online search share, however non-search engine interaction (social media, mobile marketing, online directories, etc.) are growing at a rate 3 times as fast as search engine usage.

SMB Key fact: It is time to start thinking how to effectively engage not only on the search engines, but in the “new media” that is gaining use and effectiveness.

Those who do “local search” are more apt to buy. A greater percentage of sales happen among local searchers looking for nearby businesses. Generally these searchers are more likely to transition from searcher to buyer than the general searcher.

SMB Key fact: Someone who is looking online locally is more likely to take action and buy local shortly after his or her search.

An incomplete search presence will stop that sale.  Consumers tend to be savvy searchers, and as such tend to be less tolerant of businesses that do not have a comprehensive search presence. In fact, 1 in 3 searchers abandon their searches because of incomplete information by local businesses.

SMB Key fact:  It is CRITICAL that the local business develop and maintain a complete search presence. This includes more than simply the search engines and needs to be comprehensive in terms of online directories, social media and mobile marketing.

Even though the Internet dominates, print is still an important part of marketing. Traditional Yellow Pages are still a good secondary source of information,.

SMB Key fact: Local Yellow Pages advertising can still be of value, but should be a secondary strategy.

The bottomline; local businesses must develop a search presence across various platforms, from general search to social media. Failure to do so could result in missing a major segment of your target market.

In October Google introduced a brand new local search strategy in addition to a new, re-vamped version of Google Places called Place Search. This new strategy may soon be felt – if it hasn’t yet impacted your local business – by any business focused on attracting local customers and in outshining their local competitors on the search engines (and what business owner isn’t focused on this goal?).  Being found by your customers on Google is now a new ballgame and re-visiting your local search strategy is something your company should add to your digital marketing To-Do list.

What changed in Google Place local search?

First off, the local search 7 box is being eliminated and the search results now blend local and organic results together. Consequently, this might affect many small and medium sized businesses that initially were ranking in the top 10 on the 1^st results page and now might find themselves pushed to the 2^nd results page.

Google’s is now predicting your location and generating local results even when the searcher does not include a city name or location in their query; this feature that may be convenient, but may also correspondingly affect your business’ ranking on the search engine results page. Then Google has moved the local results map to the right hand side of the results page and has allowed the map to scroll down over the right hand Adword sponsored listings.

So how do you get ranked with the new Google Places Page

With these new changes from Google (and we can expect to see more testing of different variations over the next 3 to 6 months), it might seem harder for businesses to achieve a good ranking even if you do have a properly-implemented Google Places Page. This is precisely why WSI has called upon our Internet Specialists to assess the possible effects this may cause for businesses of all industries. The digital world is never at a stand-still; it’s endlessly evolving and it’s our goal to ensure your business is growing along with it. It is – after all – critical to your business’ online presence that you claim, optimize and participate on your Google Places Page!

With the recent launch of Place Search by Google, businesses that market to a specific and local geographic base are now more than ever having to pay attention to how and what they do on the Internet for marketing. This change by Google provides a variation on local search results that organizes information around specific locations, with the idea of making it easier to make comparisons and decide where to go.  Because of this change it is absolutely critical that local businesses have optimized local listings with Google.

On a Google Search Results Page the local search results are now significantly more prominent on the page, pushing content that is more general down the results page.  If your business has both a strong organic and local rankings you will enjoy a competitive advantage over your competitors.  If you see a decrease in your local rankings, you should quickly take a look at your search strategies to see what needs to be updated.

What actions should you take to remain relevant? A good place to start is to follow these guidelines for your Google Places listing:

• Make sure you select relevant Place categories
• Use long and short tail keywords and avoid duplication
• Create customized fields and complete business descriptions using relevant keywords
• Integrate photos and videos into your listing
• Fill out every applicable field possible, including hours of operation, payment methods and your service area
• Use Google Places Posts to keep information current
• Encourage online customer reviews
• Respond to reviews through Google Places
• Make sure your Google Places flag is in the correct spot on the map
• Add coupons and experiment with Google Tags

After all that work has been done, it’s important to make sure you get a return from that investment, and to update your strategy from time to time based on results.  Google has a Dashboard for businesses (that you can see when you log into your account) that displays information about the number of impressions you are receiving and how often people are actually clicking on your listing for more information.

To see more about the Google Places changes, view this Local Search webinar.