Internet Yellow Page Usage Continues to Rise

Hello.

Anyone reading this blog knows that I talk a lot about optimizing your website for your local customers.

Well, another headline speaks the facts once again that more people are using the internet to find local businesses.

I quote:

“The number of searches conducted on Internet Yellow Page (IYP) sites increased by 27 percent in 2006 over the previous year.”

I am currently working with a client right now that has been having trouble getting his website listed higher in Google’s local search results. This is very important because his whole business relies on local customers. The main problem is that his website is not “showing up in Google’s Local One Box.

To solve this problem, I can’t just go to Google and tell them to place his website first. I must look into many different scenarios into why his website is not listed higher.

1. First I need to check his listing on Google Local. Are there any errors in the listing? Is there information missing?
2. Second, I need to study the local competition and find out why they’re getting preferential treatment?

There are a number of factors that go into how Google displays local businesses, so it’s up to us, the search engine optimizers, to try each fix individually and not expect a one fits all solution…because there isn’t one.

“They” say SEO (search engine optimization) is an art not a science and I would have to agree with “them” completely. There are a few things everyone can do, but it’s always a work in progress after that.