While I was at the SES conference, I attended a session in which the top engineers for the five most popular search engines were asked to look into the future in terms of where search would be in five years. They all demonstrated some really cool things. But the last question addressed to all five was this: "Among all the future search engine research and development what is the most current advance in search that will affect how people use search engines in the next six months?" One by one, all five experts responded with the same answer: "Local search."


I encourage you to not only be ready for this change, but to actually take initiative and show your clients the value that even a simple website will be to them with regard to local search. Give them a heads up that the money they are planning to spend this year on their Yellow Page ad won't be as valuable as it has been in previous years... I bet they would appreciate hearing you explain that to them.



Evaluating local companies - If you were using local search to look for a plumber, how would you evaluate the ten plumbers listed? Helping a local service stand out is mostly about establishing trust and confidence. Answering a potential customer's many questions is a great way to do that. A website can be extremely helpful with answering a customer's preliminary questions. A relatively robust FAQ page, sprinkled with a few positive testimonials can easily set one plumber (or design firm) above another. People can find local companies and services, as well as evaluate and compare them easily.

Converting online research into offline sales - Sometimes when we are looking to purchase items like car stereos, we'll begin with online research. But often, when it comes time to buy, we convert to offline sales. Sometimes this is because we want to get the item right away without waiting for it to ship, and sometimes because we want to get a tangible feel for the item before we buy it. In such cases, while we use the web to inform our buying decision, when it comes to actually buying, we go to the store. How do we find the closest store? You get the idea. Local search is now making the web just as important to the commerce of small local companies as it has been for large national and international corporations.

Pay-per-click and pay-per-call - There are also new advertising models arising in conjunction with the emergence of local search. One that I'm considering trying out is the pay-per-call method. Online retailers and travel sites have dominated the pay-per-click advertising world because certain products have a likelihood of clicks turning into purchases. Such transactions can be effectively measured and return-on-investment can be accurately determined. But for local services or companies that sell complex, higher-priced products, clicking and buying is either unlikely or impossible. Clicks have to result in calls for the sales process to even begin. Measuring return-on-investment on pay-per-click for these kinds of businesses is impossible, and so they tend to be disinterested in pay-per-click advertising. But what if you could advertise and only pay for actual phone calls that result from an online ad? New pay-per-call advertising services are just what the doctor ordered for local service, or complex or expensive product companies.


Up until now, you have been able to minimize web services for small to mid-size firms feasibly. Until now, your clients have allowed you to take this position by not placing much emphasis on their website. As a website development company dedicated to helping advertising agencies provide websites to their clients, we've had to be very patient, waiting for opportunities to develop slowly over years, not months. I admit that sometimes I wish our market for business was more aggressive in going after web projects. I know that after ten years of building hundreds of successful sites and establishing dozens of effective partnerships, if only our prospects were more aggressive with the web, both they and their clients would be extremely happy with the results. Alas, waiting patiently is the name of the game.

HOWEVER, I believe this recent change might speed things up. In fact, I hope this newsletter has persuaded you to look for opportunities to build websites for your local service clients. The changes and opportunities are too great to ignore.



Local search engines:
   maps.google.com
   local.yahoo.com
   localsearch.aol.com
   local.ask.com/local

Websites about local search:
   www.localsearchguide.org
   www.kelseygroup.com
   www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3487371