When most companies think about localized SEO, their first thoughts are turned to optimizing their map listings in the major search engines. The truth is optimizing and ranking well in the 7 and 10 pack map listings is not only great for local seo and driving traffic to websites, but great for mobile search and generating phone calls and driving foot traffic to your storefront.
When you really take a moment to think about it… most people these days are opting for smart phones such as a Blackberry, an iPhone, or an Android phone to help keep them connected. In addition to staying connected, they are often times performing quick information searches while on the go. These searches are most often localized search queries to help them find quick information such as a phone number to a business or a good place to eat. If you don’t have your business set up in Google, Yahoo, and Bing maps, you might be losing many thousands of dollars of business that you might otherwise be attracting through mobile search.
For example, last weekend, I was in Park City, UT for my anniversary. When trying to find a place to get dinner, I did a quick search while driving around for Mexican restaurants in Park City, Utah.
After calling the first two restaurants and finding that they each had at least a thirty minute wait, Baja Cantina (the third result) had no wait at all… and boy was their food amazing! Had they not been 7 pack, they wouldn’t have gotten my business. Sad, but true!
Another way that people are using mobile search is by using their smart phones as a phone book. I mean, who uses the yellow pages anymore? It is often times faster to whip out your mobile and do a quick search for the local Home Depot than to go to the desk and pull out the phone book. Can you imagine what would happen if the local Home Depot didn’t have a map listing in one of the major engines? Chances are that the searcher would end up doing another quick search for the local Lowes instead of trying to navigate HomeDepot.com to find a number for their nearest location.
The truth is… mobile and localized SEO is getting too important to overlook anymore. These days, you have to be everywhere in search or risk losing loads of revenue to even the smallest competitors. It is advised that every business with a store front, regardless of if they have a website or not, should have their map listings set up and optimized properly. Doing so will help you be everywhere so when your potential customers come a knockin’ that they have the greatest chance of finding you and giving you their money.