WilfBarnes-LocalSearch

In the early days of ecommerce, buying online was heralded as the next big thing. Online stores began cropping up left and right, selling everything from gourmet food to furniture to pet supplies. But the dot‐com bust proved that buying offline still has its place, and is in fact preferred by most consumers. Local businesses breathed a collective sigh of relief when they realized that they didn’t have to worry about being put out of business by companies that sold online. Many also believed that they didn’t have to bother with creating an online presence for their businesses. But it’s becoming more and more apparent that having your business online is imperative if you want to remain competitive, even if your target market is in close proximity.

You see, more and more people are turning to the Internet instead of the Yellow Pages to find the information they need. It’s often much quicker and easier to find businesses online, and you can find out a lot more about them than you could through a Yellow Page ad. Consumers can get reviews, directions from their front door to the business site, and often listings of products and services offered. And while phone books are only updated once a year, online listings can be updated any time a business's information changes, making them more accurate. It’s easy to see why searching online is the method of choice for many shoppers. Local search takes on several different forms. In this report, you will learn about all the types of local search and how to best take advantage of them.