The option to have a free Google local business listing and use it for local business marketing has been around for years but took on more significance in 2010 when Google pushed local listings to the fore.
In the past you could easily create a listing on Google Maps and be ranking without a website.
However, Google has seen the trend and has observed how over 20% of all searches are for local information.
That is a lot of people.
When you think that Google has over 2 billion searches per day (source: BBC News) that means there were approximately 400 million local searches!
Another trend is that sometime in 2013 there will be more mobile devices than desktops.
You can see that even in today’s market local search continues to grow in importance and it is up to you to grab the lions share today.
Consider an average situation
You’re in the city centre and on the spur of the moment decide you would love a Chinese meal. You are a stranger in town but Google knows where you are through the GPS in your mobile.
Google displays a local search result on your mobile.
But wait … 3 of these local restaurants are running offers so Google shows these as a priority listing.
You select one of the deals and on their mobile optimized website is a button to click through automatically to the reservation desk.
Having made the reservation you click another button on their site and you now have a map in front of you on how to get there.
The technology to do this is already available.
Local businesses need to understand that in a world that is getting faster and faster people want information now.
Each and every year Google makes changes and continually increases the performance of local search results.
It was only a couple of years ago that you had to use the town or city in the search to get the correct results.
Now, with the continued improvement in its search engine Google will now present a set of local results even when you didn’t specify a town or city.
Detecting your computer’s IP address means Google can now give relevant results based on your physical location.
As everything moves faster towards local search online your Google local business listing is no longer an option … it’s a MUST.





