| If the success of your business depends in whole or in | | | | |
| part on local customers - people either have to visit | | | | 1. 9,900 searches for "dentist Vancouver" |
| your place of business or you or your staff have to | | | | 2. 2,900 searches for "Vancouver dental" |
| visit them at theirs' - then you need to make sure that | | | | 3. 2,900 searches for "dentists Vancouver" |
| your business has a solid footprint on the Internet | | | | 4. 1,600 searches for "dentist in Vancouver" |
| because that's where the vast majority of people go | | | | 5. 660 searches for "dentists in Vancouver" |
| to find local businesses like yours to buy from. | | | | That's a total of 23,360 monthly searches for six |
| A quick glance at some the numbers from many | | | | search terms (the five from the list above, plus the one |
| different sources bears out the importance of the | | | | from the previous list). |
| Internet to the success of local business: | | | | You'll find similar results for many, many other search |
| | | | terms. |
| 1. 70% of US households use the Internet as an | | | | Big Rewards for "Early" Adopters |
| information source when shopping locally for products | | | | Ironically, in spite of all of the online activity aimed at |
| and services, according to a study by the Kelsey | | | | finding local businesses, the vast majority of local |
| Group | | | | businesses get failing grades when it comes to the |
| 2. 63% of people who use search engines research | | | | Internet and its role in their business' marketing strategy: |
| online but buy offline, according to a Google-sponsored, | | | | - Many do not have a website and, therefore, cannot |
| study | | | | even be found by the thousands of people who are |
| 3. 20% of all Google searches have a local intent (that | | | | searching for businesses like theirs' |
| number climbs to about 33% for Google searches via | | | | - Many businesses that do have websites have put |
| the mobile web) | | | | little or no effort into promoting them and they are, as |
| A quick search in Google's Keyword Selection Tool - | | | | a result, as good as invisible to the search engines and, |
| which, among other things, reports on global and local | | | | in turn, to the people who use search engines |
| monthly search volumes for the search terms people | | | | - Many businesses haven't claimed the free local |
| use - for ten randomly selected "geo-targeted" search | | | | business listings that already exist for their businesses |
| terms in May 2010 returned the following results: | | | | in Google,Yahoo, Bing and other major search engines; |
| | | | in fact, many of them are not even aware that such |
| 1. 60,000 searches for "Vancouver jobs" | | | | free local business listings exist |
| 2. 40,500 searches for "Vancouver real estate" | | | | - Many businesses that have claimed their free local |
| 3. 22,200 searches for "Vancouver restaurant" | | | | business listings have put little or no effort into "pimping |
| 4. 5,400 searches for "Vancouver dentist" | | | | out" their listing and, as a result, languish in the search |
| 5. 4,500 searches for "Vancouver lawyer" | | | | engine cellars |
| 6. 4,400 searches for "Vancouver movers" | | | | Of course, because so many local businesses do little |
| 7. 3,600 searches for "Vancouver storage" | | | | or nothing in the way of marketing their businesses |
| 8. 3,600 searches for "Vancouver sushi" | | | | effectively on the Internet, there is a huge opportunity |
| 9. 3,600 searches for "Vancouver tours" | | | | for any local businesses that dive into Internet |
| 10. 2,900 searches for "Vancouver vacations" | | | | marketing, before other businesses inevitably wake up |
| Remember: those are just ten search terms that | | | | to what they're missing out on. |
| contain the city name "Vancouver." There are literally | | | | So even though the game is in play, and has been for |
| thousands. And if you look at just a few of the | | | | some time, it's still early enough that you can reap |
| possible variations on one of the above-listed search | | | | some huge rewards for your business by making the |
| terms - e.g., "Vancouver dentist" - you'll see that there | | | | Internet a key part of your business' broader overall |
| are far more than "just" 5,400 searches going on | | | | marketing strategy. |
| every month: | | | | |
