Frequently Asked Questions

Local Search is using the web to find local businesses - in much the same way people have been using the Yellow Pages for decades. Yellow Page usage is declining because more and more people are turning to search engines and online yellow pages to find local business info.

At one time people only turned to search engines like Google to find information on websites. This is not the case anymore. Google (and the rest of the major search engines) now list local businesses, regardless if they have a website or not. Go search for your industry in your local community (ex. barbers in Manchester NH) and you will find something that looks like this.

Learn more about local search at Wikipedia.

The good news is that you probably are already listed. But if you're not showing up in the top results very little people are actually finding you.

There is no guaranteed way to get listed in the top results (if someone does guarantee you top position beware - Google's own guidelines say no company can guarantee results). But there are ways to increase your chances of showing up.

It all come back to information. The more info about your business online the better chance the search engines think you are more important than your competition. Our Web Presence packages are designed to maximize the content about your business so you are there when your customers come looking.

No one knows exactly what they are because it is closely guarded secrets of the search engines. But there are many factors that help businesses rank better in local results including:

• How many other sites refer to your business
• Is your address and phone number the same at them all
• Do you have a website
• How your site ranks compared to competitors
• Are your customers reviewing you business
• Are the reviews positive
• Have you verified your business info
• Have you classified what industries you're in
• Do you have coupons listed
• Have you wrote quality descriptions of your business

You can pay to advertise on the first page, but that is different than appearing in the local results. See the difference between the paid locations and the the local search results.

There are many instances when paying to get onto the first page makes sense.

1. It takes a few months after you have improved your web presence before you start showing up higher in the local results. During this period you can use Pay-Per-Click advertising to appear on local searches.

2. If you are in a competitive industry and market it may be difficult to rank above your larger competitors that have significantly more customers reviewing them and sites linking to them.

3. If you do business in more than one community using local advertising to target the community you are not physically located in can be very effective