Ads Next™ Local Internet Advertising, Annapolis, Maryland, Internet Advertising Solutions, Search Engine Optimization, Website Design and Integration, Social Media Marketing

When users are searching for a product or service they want to find a local company that provides that product or service.  However local companies aren’t anywhere to be found in the top of the search results.  Companies are not optimizing their websites locally.   When I do a search for “Annapolis pizza” I do not see any local restaurants in Google’s natural results.  I see only one in the local results that are listed on the top of the page.

Submitting your local business listing to the Google Business Center is a must.  Google now displays local listings in their search results.  It is a part of their “Universal Search”. Universal search is the process of integrating verticals into the search results.  Some of these include local listings, images, videos, news and many others.  This is a great way to give users options and also deliver the most relevant results.  A lot of local business are not taking advantage of this feature and are missing out on potential customers.

This will help your business rank in the top of the search results for local searches. Below are several tips that will help you get started.

• The title should be as descriptive as you can make it.  It doesn’t necessarily have to be the name of your business.  You can list a title that you think people may try to find you with.
• Make sure to enter your business web address.
• List all phone numbers that are associated with your business.  Make it easy for customers to reach you.
• Choose the categories that best fit your business
• Google allows you to upload 10 photos.  Add as many as you can.

Once you have completed the submission you will need to request a phone call or a postcard to verify your listing.  Once the verification process has been completed you listing will be active. 

Google maps now allow you to add business reviews.  People can add reviews to the professional ones already featured on the site by clicking the “Write a Review” link on a business listing.  I have noticed that the more reviews a business may have the higher they will appear in the local results.  However it is important to have real reviews that clients have stated about your products or services.  Ask you customers to write reviews for you so you can improve your search results.

Google Maps is a cheap, fast and effective way to start marketing your business locally online.

Ads Next™, providers of local internet advertising solutions with tracking and conversion tools, has signed a joint marketing partnership with What’s Up? Inc. Magazines, the Anne Arundel County and greater Chesapeake region leader for local information and events.  Both companies are based in Annapolis, Maryland.

The goal for this partnership is to offer a combined local print and internet advertising solution to local businesses.  “What’s Up?, Inc. has a long standing relationship with local businesses, now they can offer an online advertising component with their local print ads, says Brian Burns, President of Ads Next™”. 

Local Internet Advertising is growing, below are some facts:

• 63% of Internet Users use local search

• 20-25% of ALL monthly online searches (more than 1 billion searches) are local and commerce driven

• 46% of online users searched for local vendor in last 90 days.

As part of the partnership Ads Next™ will develop a new website for What’s Up?, Inc. using leading web 2.0 techniques.  The features include Blogs, polls, interactive events, a geography targeted business directory, advanced banner tracking, and more.  These new features will appeal better to What’s Up? Inc.’s audience and increase online revenue opportunities.

Danny Sullivan visited SEOmoz last Friday for a white board discussion on Facebook Revolution and Search 3.0. 

Danny Sullivan discussed Facebook Ads vs. Search Ads.  In his opinion Search Ads are the revolution.  He mentioned that traditional advertisers are always desperately looking for new ways to advertise, for example on Facebook even if they don’t understand the new concept. 

The idea behind Facebook’s model is that when you purchase a product or service online it will display on your page and catch your friend’s attention, hopefully creating a word of mouth buzz.  However there are still many improvements that need to be made to this advertising model.  One that was mentioned in the discussion is that when you try to target your ads by choosing keywords related to your business your reach decreases tremendously and you are only being seen by very few users.

Danny feels that there is still huge growth in Search and advertisers should be taking advantage of this.  Search is still a cheap way to advertise compared to traditional advertising and your ROI is usually much higher than other forms of advertising. With search advertising you aren’t interrupting users, they are searching for you. Danny also discusses that when advertisers do try search ads they realize the benefits of search and want to keep it their own little secret in order to prevent competition in that space.

I agree with Danny about search still being the revolution.  There are a lot of missed opportunities in this space especially for local advertisers. When users perform searches they typically want to see results from local businesses they trust. Most local businesses are missing out on potential revenue.  Another thing that these local advertisers do not realize is that in general search is a very cost efficient way to advertise your business and the more specific you get with a location the less money you will spend.  Education is the key to convince local businesses to use Search Ads.  I am anxious to see how long it takes advertisers to realize they must move some of their traditional ad spend over to search advertising.

Danny Sullivan also discussed the evolution of search and predicts where it is headed. First there was Search 1.0 and this was based strictly on content and location and frequency of keywords.  As you can imagine this was taken advantage of and led to Search 2.0. 

Search 2.0 or off page SEO was based on click through rate and link building.  This is still a huge part of SEO today. 

Search 3.0 is happening now.  It is the process of blending verticals into the search results.  A great example of this would be local search.  Instead of displaying your typical search results at the top of the page they are replaced by the first three local results for that search query. 

Eventually vertical data will take over the search results and lead to Search 4.0.  Search results in 4.0 will be based on personalization.  The query results will take into consideration your past query history, personal data, and social data.  The results will be rewritten based on you or people you know.

Danny’s predication of Search 5.0 will include live answers and human interaction.  If a user is having trouble finding what they are looking for there will be an option for them to get help from a human.  Yahoo Answers is an example of this.