Large online search providers like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Ask are working hard to insure that their users are well looked after when they go online to find local services.  This landscape is changing rapidly as these companies learn from their past mistakes and improve the experience of finding local information.  We are now at a point where these search services are doing an adequate job for most peoples' needs.  It's no longer necessary to consult specialized services like SuperPages.com YellowPages.com in order to find a local business.

Google is probably the most important source of local business information for online users, and they are getting very good at recognizing if a user query is intending to locate a regionally based service.  For most such queries, Google responds by displaying a small map with a short list of business names displayed next to it.  Let's take an example.  If we type in "lawn mower repair white plains ny", Google displays the following result:

  

Google displays two types of results, those that advertisers have paid for (circled on the graphic), and those that come from Google's own efforts to display relevant information.  In this case, the second set is indicated by a map and a list of businesses.  From a user's perspective, the most relevant information to their search is displayed in just this small piece of screen real estate.  By not appearing in this list, your business is sacraficing a very real opportunity for new customer acquisition.

We can work with you to enhance your visibility in two distinct ways.

1. Placement of paid-for advertising in the regions indicated: We work to make sure that we understand all the possible ways the people would enter keywords when they are looking for a service like your own.  In addition, we will work to make sure that ads are only displayed under these conditions.  Google penalizes ads that are irrelavent to the user's query.  Google's cost structure for these ad placements is based on the number of times users click on the ad -- known as "pay-per-click".
   
2. Prominent placement of your business name in regional search results: Perhaps more important than paid advertising with Google is the positioning of businesses within the list displayed next to the map described above.  Google does not offer this positioning for a fee, but instead relies on a multitude of factors to determine how to rank these results.  These ranking criteria are a work in progress, and we maintain up-to-the-minute knowledge of what works and doesn't work.  This allows us to employ a variety of means to boost the ranking of a result, and maintain its prominent position through continuous monitoring.

We would be happy to explain the process in more detail, and provide you with an initial consultation.  Our rates are very reasonable in comparison with those common in this new industry, and offer significant return on investment compared to conventional forms of local advertising.  Our results can be easily traced so that you can gauge the performance of this type of campaign.