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When I tell people that I work on the Internet the most common response I get is "good time to be selling on the Internet with prices skyrocketing and everything". This is true but not for the reasons most people think. A vast majority of people don’t actually buy on the Internet because they don’t trust it yet. Just because you can get a better price is not going to be a justification for them to fork over their hard earned dollars to someone on the other side of the computer. I still believe that now is the most important time to be on the Internet and dominating local searches. Let me explain why.
I am going to use my parents as an example. They live in rural Wisconsin and still have dial up, so when they are going to buy something they come here to do so. I get to monitor their online habits as they want to use my high speed. What they used to do was put in a term they wanted and searched for information. They would do a general search like cars and get the detailed information. From their they would look up car dealers and take off to visit them. They would drive from dealership to dealership and check prices etc. The process generally took a day and they seem to be like a lot of people with their shopping habits. Now fast forward to last week.
They decided to buy a new couch when they got into town. They looked up the generic couches to do some research of the different brands and get some reviews. Once they had a brand of couch narrowed down they decided to do a local search for Milwaukee furniture stores. They then went the extra step of searching and shopping online till they found what they felt was the best store. It was at this point they drove to the store and shopped till they decided exactly which one and bought it. Where did they find the store? Local search! People are not as willing to drive around anymore with gas prices as high as they are. They also did two layers of search first comparing brands then comparing stores locally. It is the true buyer that does the second step and also the most qualified. As a small business what type of buyer do you want? The answer is simple and that is why local search engine optimization is crucial to finding the local buyer. You may miss some shoppers by narrowing your focus but you will gain actual real buying customers cash in hand.
I really believe that local stores that know how to rank highly in organic search are going to reap the benefits of that knowledge in the next few years. Customers are looking more and more toward local search when they are ready to purchase an item. The question is will they find you?
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