Any average Googler these days has undoubtedly come across a google local listing when searching for certain queries such as professional medical services. For example, if I am searching for a medical professional in Westchester County NY, Google will return a ‘pack’ of local business listings near Westchester County. Depending on the specific query, Google will display anywhere from 1 to 10 listings directly above the standard organic listings that make up the search engine result page (SERP).

Why is this important? Total first page visibility! When there are 10 local listings adjacent to a map pushing down the standard 10 organic listings, assuming your site is on page 1 of Google, you’re click-through rate has just dropped. Now if you have both first page organic AND local presence, not only does that mathematically increase your click-through rate, it also gives users a sense of reassurance to see your website listed multiple times.  Take a look at a few local search statistics.

So how does one ensure a prominent spot in those local business listings? Well that’s where we come in. We start my claiming and verifying your business listing with Google. Next we optimize using natural, honest tactics in an effort to give Google a slightly better idea of where you’re located, what you do, and why they should return your listing to prospective searchers. From there we utilize various resources on the web, including but not limited to Google-preferred local business directories, to enhance the ‘trust’ that Google lends toward your business name and address.

What we do not do is build links to your local business listing; this is a major misconception among many SEO’s. Unlike organic rankings, Google local rankings are achieved by the local relevance of a user’s search query along with the amount of trust Google has in your business listing. Our unique specialization in medical SEO allows us to maximize the effect of your local business listing to increase your overall visibility on the web, and drive more qualified traffic to your site.

Local search engine marketing is a proven method of marketing, don’t ingore the stats!

1. 73% of activity online is in one way or another “related to local content” (Google 5/07)
2. For every one dollar U.S. consumers spend online, another five or six are going to offline purchases that are influenced by online research (MIT Technology Review, April 2005, “E-Commerce Gets Smarter“)
3. 97% of Internet users in the U.S. gather shopping information online, and of those consumers 51% explicitly characterize their behavior as “Shop Online, Purchase Offline” (NPD Group)
4. New Research by The Kelsey Group and ConStat Indicates 70% of U.S. Households Now Use the Internet When Shopping Locally for Products and Services. Findings also suggest the Internet is poised to surpass newspapers as a local shopping information resource.
5. 70 percent of online searchers will use local search to find offline businesses. The TMPDM-comScore study shows 86 percent of online users will be searching for a local business at some point in time. Research by Kelsey Group
6. 43%  of search engine users are seeking a local merchant to buy something offline.  Source: comScore Networks
7. 54%   of search users have substituted Internet/search for the phone book.  Source: comScore Networks
8. The Kelsey Group reports that 74 percent of Internet users perform local searches.
9. There are approximately 300 million searches per day for information on the Internet (Nielsen/NetRatings 2005)
10. 60% of activity online is one way or another “related to local content” (Google 5/03)- For every one dollar U.S. consumers spend online, another five or six are going to offline purchases that are influenced by online research (MIT Technology Review, April 2005, “E-Commerce Gets Smarter“)
11. 97% of Internet users in the U.S. gather shopping information online, and of those consumers 51% explicitly characterize their behavior as “Shop Online, Purchase Offline” (NPD Group)
12. 117 million Internet users accounted for over 3.7 billion searches conducted on the Internet in the month of August 2004 (comscore qsearch, 01/2004-4/2004)
13. 25% of ALL commercial Internet searches are conducted by users looking for local merchants (Kelsey-Bizrate 2004)
14. 35% of ALL searches are “local” (DM News)