Local Search For Local Businesses
Search Engines have billions of web pages indexed from websites all over the world.
People have been using the web for locating information and it didn’t matter where that information was actually stored.
As more and more people join the net, and get used to using search engines to find what they want, more and more of them will be using search engines to locate local products and services.
If you are in Broseley UK and are looking for a French restaurant it is no use if the search engine finds you one in Paris Texas or even Paris France… You want one in Broseley itself or within a short distance from it.
Local search is being rolled out by all of the major search engines and will become more and more popular as more and more local businesses are added to the search engines indexes.
All of the three major engines offer free listing for local businesses integrated with Maps, and you don’t need to have a website to get listed. Currently (Nov 2007) these local listings don’t seem to be integrated into the standard search results.
Google recently unveiled Universal search which was intended to combine search results from across their different search properties like blogs, images, video and Yahoo and MSN (live search) have done the same.
However searches at all three search engines currently don’t include the local business entries into the standard search results.
For example I have added my company to the Google local businesses and I also have a website (the one you’re reading). If I go to Google and do a search for “seo Ironbridge Uk” I get the website and not the business listing in Google Maps/Google Local.
To get the business listing I have to do the search from Google Maps.
Here is the search using the standard Google search
Here is the search using Google maps uk.
Adding Your Business to Local Search
Google is the only one that currently allows non USA businesses to add themselves.
In the UK MSN live current get their local listings from the Thompson directory. You can add your business to this directory here.
Yahoo Uk use infoserve. You can add your business to the Infoserve directory here
Related Article,Posts and Resources:
Here is page with a list of local search engines, yellow pages and guide that You may also find useful: http://www.locallytype.com/pages/submit.htm
