Posts from — July 2009

July, 1st 2009

Haircut near Boston MA. Sushi near Cambridge MA. Dry cleaner near Lexington MA. Sound familiar? Well, for millions of Americans these concise search terms have entirely displaced the need for the dusty old phone book. However, this evolution of search for local business has gone far beyond a phone number and an address.

I believe it to be a fairly safe argument that the vast majority of my generation now expects to see any worthy local business, large or small, appear on the Internet. And this doesn’t just mean appear with a name and a phone number but with photos, reviews, prices, hours, directions, nearby parking info, etc.

When I perform a search in Google maps, I have come to expect the following:
1. Photos of the business, the more the better
2. At least a few user ratings, yes this may be a false sense of security, but if there are no user reviews or ratings, I’m most likely moving on
3. A business web site, I don’t care if it looks like a 13 year-old made it, as long as it contains the appropriate information
4. Street view of the location, this is not a deal breaker as local businesses have no control over where the Google street view car travels

Adding to the importance of web presence is the increasing number of smart phones on the street. The Blackberry Storm, Palm Pre, and iPhone have changed the way people get information. Many of these phones combine Google maps (or similar) and geo location to make local searches very easy to execute on the go. Say you are a few towns over from where you normally reside and are craving some great Mexican food. Pull up your iPhone’s maps feature, tap current location, type in Mexican food, and instantly you will have the names of all nearby Mexican restaurants. It’s just a matter of sorting through the results. The point of this story isn’t to sit back and say, “Wow, this is cool,” but rather stress the importance of being found in these searches.

Local business owners: if you don’t show up on an Internet search and you don’t have a website, how do you ever expect people to find you? Yes, there may be that trendy 10-table French bistro that prefers its patrons find it via word of mouth, but this boutique status is not common. Get registered with Google maps, get a website, encourage user reviews, and reap the rewards of being found.