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Local Search – Can You Afford To Live Without It?

As a small business operator, can you really afford to live without local search? It is becoming increasingly harder to survive in the offline world. Small business is often at the mercy of larger retail business given its immense buying strength and ability to survive on small margins. Shoppers have become fickle, with price often overcoming service – until a small business folds, then they complain that small businesses are not around to provide that service.

Small business has always survived by taking advantage of every small opening that comes along. At present, there appears to be a real interest from consumers to do their shopping research online and this can become a real opportunity for small businesses. The one thing an online presence can do is level the playing field somewhat. In fact, if there is a bias, it is towards small business rather than large.

To be active within local search, you really only require three steps – and each of these can be achieved at a fairly low cost. Your first step – a domain name. Your second step, a web page with hosting. This does not have to cost a lot of money. The better the quality of your web site, the more influence you can have over shoppers. However, small websites consisting of a home page, an about page and a contact page are often all that is required. The final step – register your business through the various search engine local search features.

By having a web page, domain name, and a listing through local search, small businesses often gain one serious advantage. Large retailers don’t always optimise for individual stores. Many of them optimise a central store, or head office, and use a ‘find your local store’ option on their home page. When a consumer does a local search, they either don’t see a listing for that large retailer or, if they do, the home page is central page and not a local page.

Consumers use the internet because they can find what they are looking for quickly.  If they can find your business first, then that’s half the battle. Can local businesses survive without local search? They probably can, but why would you when you can claim your business listing and create a web presence for less than the cost of a month’s advertising? Small business needs to leverage every opportunity and local search is one that is definitely worth chasing.