If you remember about 10 years ago or even just 5 for that matter when you wanted to find a business in your area you simply looked in the yellowpages. But let’s face it, the yellow pages offer you a tiny ad with sometimes just a phone number and company name. That is hardly the information you want when selecting a doctor, attorney, or dentist. You are basically left to chance and have no way of knowing anything else about a particular business other than their name. But now we have the internet!
With the internet you can often find all the information you need when selecting a local business. For example many companies these days have a website and on their site offer a wealth of information about their company and their products and/or services. You just can’t beat a full brochure online about a business with a company name and phone number. The internet if also interactive and most sites offer other options for contacting them such as email. So the better source of information is clearly the internet, but why doesn’t everyone then search for local information on the web?
The truth is it is just a matter of time before everyone and their brother starts using the internet for local information. It is simply too powerful a medium compared with traditional forms of gathering local information. But many people believe it or not and especially the older generation still don’t have computers. Many of these same people are so accustomed to picking up the local Yellow Pages and habits can be hard to break. Computers are also expensive and in a slow economy not everyone has $500 for a new laptop. So while not everyone is yet using the internet for local information, that will soon change as the awareness increases of how useful the internet is and as computers continue to drop in price. Soon just like everyone has a TV, everyone will soon have a computer.
So what does this mean to you as a business owner? It means you want to do everything you can to position your website so it’s easily found on the internet when people are searching for local information. If you’re an attorney in Philadelphia, you want your site showing up on Google, Yahoo, and MSN for the keyword phrases ‘philadelphia attorney’ and ‘philadelphia lawyer’. By getting on top now you will be positioning yourself very nicely for some great qualified traffic and for capitalizing on the growth of local search which will continue to grow for a long time to come!