Schewanick Computer Services

You've got your website, your business cards, your listing in the Yellow Pages, your SEO, but what are you doing for Local Search optimization?



Local and Mobile Local Search evolved because they were market driven. It's how most people search these days. Now you can narrow your online search by location - specific city, zip code, country - whether or not you intend to get in the car and go there.



Local Search is the modern equivalent to the Yellow Pages. I don't know about you, but I haven't picked up the Yellow Pages in 5 years. For a while I stored them in my office to gather dust. Last year's one I threw in the trash immediately. I'm a computer person.



70% of consumers search for local services and products ONLINE. Over 25% of all searches on the engines are looking for local results.



In doing research for this article, I read what others had to say. One article said that people looked online for information "even if they intend[ed] to spend money locally." Excuse me, EVEN IF? It doesn't matter to me WHERE I intend to buy, I look online ALWAYS.



Now this search method is available on mobile phones.



I consult in offices and I see what the executives and lawyers go through with their hectic schedules, trying to find out where they're supposed to be literally on the way out the door, with the phone ringing.



A good secretary has a packet prepared (what a luxury) but most of the time the boss is yelling on the way out the door, "Which court? Where is it" or "Where's her office? Get me a map!"



Lawyers are big spenders. They also spend more time in a car than you might think. Courts are located where they're located, and sometimes it's easier to drive a couple of hours than hassle a plane trip. Many use that time to get on the phone, and also to get back to their personal lives. I think some opt for driving because of the possibility of peace and quiet. The only time I talk on the phone with a friend of mine who's a busy attorney is when she's driving to "the Valley" (3 hours) for a deposition. Texas has long stretches of open highway.



And what else do we do in the car? We muse. We get back to our personal lives. I drive monthly several hours to Dallas to see my grandkids. It's me, the long drive, the radio and the cell phone. I do a lot of thinking, including books I meant to buy, the need for a decent audio-book for these tiring trips, a sweet remembrance for my honey, and that great Arbonne anti-aging cream I heard about.



I buy everything but groceries on line. I have a packed schedule and keep a tight calendar. Probably like you, I'm highly organized, but also highly-busy, so I deal with things on a now-needed basis. I don't even keep a Rolodex any more, or addresses and phone numbers in a daytimer. I grab the address and phone number online, if I need it, and then get a map.



So someone connected the dots, and you can now get local (or beyond) results on your cell phone with services such as Google's Local Mobile Search, available in most US cities. If your mobile or device supports XHTML (WAP 2.0), you're equipped.



Let's say you're driving along, as I was the other day, finding myself in Austin (60 miles from home) and remembering that the next time I was in Austin, I wanted to pick up some Wagyu (Kobe) beef. But what the heck was the name of that store? I'm 2 seconds away from the information with a cell phone at hand. I pull off the road and enter "Kobe" and "Austin" and there it is! The Meat Shop on Peyton Gin Road. Where the heck is Peyton Gin Road? I don't live in this town. That's a click away too. (Please pull off the road to do this, folks!)



HERE'S HOW YOU DO IT ON YOUR CELL PHONE:



1. Type in http://mobile.google.com/local 2. In the "what" box enter the query and in the "where" box enter the location 3. Select and hit the "Google Search" button 4. Scroll through the results 5. Find the location, driving directions, "click to call" if you need it.



Or go to the Google home page on the phone's web browse.



SO CAN I FIND YOUR BUSINESS THERE?



Check to see how you're doing on the search engines:

Google: http://www.local.google.com Yahoo and Overture: http://maps.yahoo.com Mapquest: http://www.mapquest.com

Verizon: http://www.superpages.com



You don't want to miss this venue for your business. How do you optimize your website for "local"?



1. Do your keyword research. Get a free keyword research guide here: http://www.wordtracker.com/keyword-research-guide.html

2. Check out Overture Keyword Selector Tool, http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch/?mkt=us and Wordtracker, http://www.wordtracker.com

3. List physical address of your business on your web page, near the top

4. Include city and state in your meta and title tags, i.e., < meta name="title" content="Coaching San Antonio"

5. Add location information in site content - body text and links

6. Get a GeoURL tag free: http://geourl.com m including longitude and latitude. Here's what mine looks like:

7. Add geosensitive metatags, i.e., meta name="zipcode" content= "78232, 78234"; meta name="city" content="San Antonio, Austin, New Braunfels", on for state, county, country.

8. Submit events: http://www.aboutcitysearch.com/submit_event.html



Use this strategy in your marketing. In fact, if you're the kind of person who likes to make money from a business, you can follow the bread-crumb trail backward.



If you sell clothes, when do people buy new clothes? When you've lost weight, had a baby, or are having an affair.



What do you do when you have a life crisis, like a heart attack? You realize you need to change your lifestyle. You need help and you're willing to pay for it. You also need a LOCAL professional.



In addition to Internet marketing consulting, I'm an EQ coach. I sell products and services related to changing emotional lifestyle, i.e., emotional intelligence. One time when people realize they need to change their emotional lifestyle is after a heart attack. The good cardiologist will tell them it's correlated with Type A personalities, i.e., hostility, chronic anger, poor anger management.



Checking wordtracker I find that most people google "cardiologist" but around 85% use a string including the name of the city where they live, i.e., "cardiologist San Antonio."



Something else I found. I sell emotional intelligence (EQ) assessment tools. (You need to know where you are to get where you want to be.) Now in the field of psychology, it's extremely important that these are "assessment" not "tests" so I carefully did my metatags with "assessments."



Not! People who are looking for this instrument call it "emotional intelligence test." I changed my keywords and traffic and sales went up.



When you're doing your market plan, don't forget to optimize your business for local search.

About the author:

Susan Dunn, Internet marketing consultant, http://www.webstrategies.cc , mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc . Consulting, services and products to make your business a success. Susan is the author of "Marketing with EQ" and other ebooks for your personal and professional success. Need to find out about an employee? TheCloser can help.