Search Engines, like Google, have billions of web pages indexed from websites from 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.
When searching on the web you can restrict your search to a particular geographic area by including the geographic area in the search query.
Search engines have always provided different search pages based on country. Google provides www.google.co.uk for UK searchers and www.google.com for North American searchers.
Search results for the same search query on these pages are usually different.
The searcher can also specify the Geographic location in the search query itself. In General a search can be described as:
- Global
- National
- Local
Here is an example of each of these searches:
- seo help – Global search
- SEO Help UK – National Search
- SEO help London – local search
All of these searches use the main Google database or index, and this type of search has been possible since Google began.
In order to be found for a local search it is important that your site is optimized for local search which is relatively easy as it is achieved by adding the local area names to your web page.
Here is a local search with the search engine returning results from the main database only.
Notice my site www.copeconsulting.co.uk appears because it is in the main index and is optimized for local search.
Because of the popularity of local search and in an effort to improve the quality of the local search results all of the main search engines have introduced a second database or index that only contains local businesses.
This local index is completely separate from the main index. For Google it is called Google places ( it was previously called Maps)
Here is the same search using Google Maps uk.
Notice the marker that indicates that it is a local search result. My site www.copeconsulting.co.uk appears because I have added it to Google Maps.
Therefore if you have a local business you need to make sure your site is in the main index and the local index.
Universal Search
To make it easier for the searcher Google, Yahoo and Bing provide what is called universal search.
Which means that you don’t need to remember to go to Google Maps to conduct a search of the local database as Google now combines results from different databases and blends them as part of the standard search results.
Unfortunately Google and the other search engines are constantly changing how they do this and so sometimes you see them and sometimes you don’t.
Here is another local search which shows the main results blended with local listings (2 and 3 entries- have red marker).
Adding Your Business to Local Search
Google, yahoo and Bing allow you to add your business to their local listings if you are a USA based Business. Google is the only one that currently allows non USA businesses to add themselves.
Here are the links
- www.google.com/local/add –USA
- www.google.com/local/add?hl=en_GB– uk
- http://listings.local.yahoo.com/csubmit/index.php
- https://llc.local.live.com/BusinessSearch.aspx
In the UK MSN live currently 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 guides that You may also find useful: http://www.locallytype.com/pages/submit.htm
