ElementsDaily

Over this last weekend Google engineers rolled out a new “OneBox” search result format.  A OneBox appears any time a Google search includes enough information about a local business for Google to determine that one business in particular is the result that searcher is looking for.  Prior to this last weekend, the OneBox result was listed at the very top of the Google result screen with a map on the left and a link to the businesses’ website on the right.  See the image to the right:

A OneBox result is a prize listing that most SEO experts shoot for as it highlights one specific listing above all others.  This latest change to the OneBox makes that listing stand out even more as the business website listing for the OneBox now appears above the local map.

Now you might be wondering why merely changing the location of the resulting map and link to the businesses’ website would make any impact at all.  Well, there are a couple of reasons.  The first is that prior to the change only Google Places information appeared below the business link including the standard fare of the address, the phone number, hours of operation and links to the Google Places reviews should there be any.  Now inside of the OneBox just below the URL to the company’s website Google is displaying the description meta-tag for the company which is normally stuffed with calls to action to entice users to click through.

The other benefit for listings in the new OneBox format is that Google has now redefined the fold of the page.  When a surfer looks at any website, the top half of the screen is what will catch their eye and entice them into action.  Links above the fold will draw far more attention and clicks than anything below the fold where the surfer is required to scroll down to get to the content below.  It is reported that links above the fold receive 80% of the surfer’s clicks.  So by pushing the company’s website link & meta-description above the map, Google has helped push more links below the visible page and arguably created a new visual fold line at the bottom of the graphical map.  In doing so, Google is inferring that there is only one link on the result page that should matter.

Ok, but that’s only affecting the OneBox results which are very specific searches, correct?  Indeed, but over the July 4^th weekend Google rolled out a test of a re-designed 7-Pack (7 local listings to the left of a map in a general search result) in which the map was moved to the right margin and Google listed the website’s meta description below the URL.  What does this mean?  It means the 7-Pack visually becomes a 3-pack as lower results are forced off of the bottom of the page (image courtesy of: Linda Buquet http://www.catalystemarketing.com/ ).  No one outside of Google knows if this new 7-Pack will become a permanent feature in Google or when it will be put in place.  What we do know is that obtaining high placements in Google’s local search results is becoming more and more critical to a website’s success.

More often than not, people want to ‘buy local’ if they can find local. Customers might want to support their local stores just to keep money in their community, support businesses that help out the local community, get their hands on a product immediately and sometimes people just don’t want to pay for shipping. But in order for potential customers to ‘buy local’ they first need to know about your business and that’s where a strongly branded local website can work wonders.

Below you’ll find seven strategies that ELEMENTS has implemented to bring local traffic to local websites with great success. This list is a basic primer of best practices for local online strategies that both small and medium sized businesses can use to jump start their own local campaigns.

Build Your Website

Obviously you need a website. What’s not obvious to first time business owners is how to build a website that users will want to come back to once they have found your site the first time.

Simple is Ok. There’s no reason to create a mega-site with more pages than you have content. Start with just a handful of pages that include important information about your business like hours, location, types of services or products and be sure to include a bit of personality in your pages to give a potential customer a glimpse of your company’s culture. Get a good designer to make a website that is easy to navigate, has good typography and exhibits optimal image placement as all of these are vital to keeping web surfers on your site once they have found it.

Optimize for Your City

Search engines like Google are putting greater emphasis on local results. That means if a surfer types in the word “haircut” the search engine determines the surfer’s geographic location and then displays a result of businesses relatively close to where that surfer currently is that give haircuts. Those local results are your target so let’s make sure the search engines know where your site is located.

There are two ways to best optimize your website for local results. The first is something a lot of people do without even thinking of the benefits, which is including your physical location on each and every page of your website. Another very valuable way to achieve good local search engine results is to include the name of your city actually in the domain itself (i.e. denvercomfortinn.com).

Get Listed

Getting your physical address added to online directories is a step many local businesses tend to skip because they are worried about it being difficult. It’s not that bad. To get your site listed in Google Places just go to http://google.com/local/add/ and click the word “add”. See that wasn’t that bad. Now go do the same exact thing to Yahoo! Local & Yellowpages.com. Now, your phone number and address will appear on their maps and business listings.

Add a Google Map

One of the main goals behind your local online strategy is to get customers to your store. So why not make it easy for them to do so by adding a Google map with directions on how to get to your location right on your website. Your website designer should be able to integrate this into your existing website and as it’s really not that difficult it shouldn’t take them very long.

Interact With Your Customers

Social media is the latest buzz in online marketing, but there’s a reason for that, it works. Interactive tools like Facebook and company blogs allow you to interact directly with your customers to provide customer service, expose your company’s culture and offer up incentives to bring customers back in. Having a slow business day? Use Twitter to tweet out some immediate incentives to drive customers back to your door immediately. Keeping up with customers does take some effort, but your business will be better for it because people like to buy from businesses they trust.

Watch Your Stats

Even if you aren’t running a local campaign, watching your traffic statistics is critically important. From your stats you will get information on how visitors are finding your website and what they are doing once they get there which will allow you to make data driven decisions about your website. Is there a specific native dialect near your location and are you using it effectively? What keywords & phrases are working and which ones need to be pruned? These are questions that only your traffic statistics answer.

Go Offline

This is probably the best advice anyone can give you about your online local business strategy, get out there and be part of the community. Mingle with customers, join service organizations or support a local athletic team. These kinds of efforts don’t go unnoticed. You will gain contacts who can offer referrals to your website, turn contacts into followers of your social media campaigns and when you receive recognition for being a good citizen your website’s domain name can sit right there below your physical address.

These tips will drive more local customers to your website which is good because people want to ‘buy local’ if they can find local.