Archive for May, 2009
Google Or Yellowpages For Your Homepage
There’s no way of knowing what the real numbers are but I would have a guess and say that the majority of people who use a search engine for their homepage would use Google followed by a minority who bookmark Yahoo then still a smaller number would use Microsoft Live and the rest are running for last place.
I wouldn’t be far off the mark in stating, few or non at all, use Yellowpages as their homepage.
This leads to a very good reason why Google local search rules and will do so for a long time to come. As the awareness of Google local search grows it will become second nature for people to use Google when searching for information about businesses in the local area.
People mostly want fast results when it comes to search so why would anyone who have Google has their homepage surf over to Yellowpages to search for local business when Google can provide accurate search results in a fraction of the time.
Perform a test for your self, assume that you have a leaking pipe in your home and need an emergency plumber fast. Visit www.google.com.au and perform a search for “plumbers canberra” and in less than a second you will have ten plumbers from Canberra listed at the top of the search results.
Now visit www.yellowpages.com.au and perform the same search. The first thing you’ll notice is that Yellowpages was slower to load than Google and the search was slower to complete.
But the speed of performace is secondary, the results that Yellowpages produce are really no more relevant than Google so why would you bother surfing to Yellowpages if you were already on the Google search page.
There is the rub for Yellowpages, they are doomed, and as the top search engines become the tool of choice for local search Yellowpages will slide into oblivion.
It also highlights why it is very important for local businesses to embrace local search especially Google and make sure their listings are highly optimised to produce the best results.
Claim Your Google Local Search Listing
Initially Google populates it’s local search or Google Maps index from listings that appear in Yellowpages and other reputable business directories.
These initial listings provide minimal information about a business and usually only locality is provided.
You can take your business listing to a higher level and include overviews, comprehensive information and even provide video’s and photos of your business. Providing this kind of information to prospects who are using local search would be priceless for you and shove you ahead of your competitors who are lagging in their knowledge of Google local search.
Before you can submit more details to google to be included in your listing you must first claim your listing and veify that you are actually the owner or are acting on behalf of the business.
To claim your listing, search for your business on Google Maps and then click the “Edit” link followed by the “Claim your business link”
You are invited to watch this short video which demonstrates the difference between a claimed and an unclaimed listing.
Google Maps - Local Search
Major search engines and directories are now presenting searches with an emphasise on local search results. Google the largest player in search is splitting search results into Local Search Results or Google Maps Results followed by their Generic Search Results.
Generic search results would be what you are probably used to seeing when you perform a search at Google. But times are changing and more people now realise that Google present local search results if an area is appended to the search.
For example a search on “plumbers canberra” performed at www.google.com.au will produce the following results.
You can see it is very important to have your business listed in the Local Search section of the Google search results.
It’s going to become more important has time goes on as people start to use local search extensively on both their home PC’s, laptops and smart phones to locate local businesses.
Listing To Higher Ranking In Local Search
Investigations are showing that higher rankings in Google’s local search results can be assisted by having a business listed on other directories that Google judges to be credible. A directories credibilty can be raised if a directory validates it’s listings in a similar way that Google local search or Google Maps do.
Google local search or Google Maps uses one of three methods to authenticate a listing.
- Snail mail to the address of the business.
- A phone call to the phone number entered in the listing. This phone call will deliver a PIN number to be used to authenticate the listing.
- SMS sent to the mobile number entered in the listing. The SMS will contain a PIN number to be used to authenticate a listing.
If a business lists on a business directory that uses similar authentication methods that Google use it’s probably safe to assume Google’s local search algorithm will award some points to the listing if the business details listed match the details listed in Google Maps.
The king of directories that Google would rank highly would be a paid listing in YellowPages, after all if a business pays to be listed (especially at YP rates) there is an excellent chance Google rates them with some high level of credibilty.
So if you want to give your listing a leg up in the rankings look to listing your business in directories that use some form of validation. That’s not to say you shouldn’t list your business in directories that do not validate listings, but it seems logical to assume that Google would judge validated listings as more credible.
Is Your Business Listed on Google Local Search
Due to the implementation of local search Google has changed the way they produce search results. When anyone uses Google to search for a local business, for example “plumbers canberra” by appending canberra to their search words, the searcher is informing Google they are seeking information only on plumbers located in the Canberra area.