You know it’s really funny that as a webmaster you spend alot of your time (maybe?) optimizing your pages to rank well in the search engines to bring in good targeted traffic. Your goal, for the most part, is to be paid in full by a nice position on the first page of most search engines.

You know there are more search engines out there besides Google, but let’s face it – it’s the biggest, so you hope to catch it’s attention in any way you can as a webmaster.  All other search engines are just cherries on top of the Ice Cream Sunday (or cake if you prefer). Plenty of us think in this manner.

Well… while I was working hard on a backlink campaign for one of my clients tonight it hit me.  This Google Local Business Listing  thing is really going to have to be included as a marketing strategy for my clients. I mean to say that as of right now there are businesses out there that know absolutely nothing about Search Engine Optimization, and yet they are given a top “A through E” rank on Google maps for local search terms.  Of course we all know that the top 3 listings tend to get most of the clickthroughs. Most of these listings aren’t even put together very well, but they rank incredibly high nonetheless.

Since I tend to deal with more local business websites anyway this has now become a major goal of mine.  I want my clients to be FIRST in that directory for the given local search term that we deem profitable.  Think about it. When is the last time you asked yourself…. “Now where did I put that Yellow Pages Phone Book?”.

Bottom line… Google Local Business Listings IS the new “phone book directory”. What is more powerful is the fact that if one were to optimize their business listing correctly they would have the opportunity to dominate any major city without even needing as much effort as you would need if you were going for say a #1 Position building thousands of backlinks (in some cases – not all).

Not saying we should ditch our SEO efforts to only focus on local search terms, but we should certainly not overlook its potential for highly targeted visitors either.

The “Rank A Listing” is our new “#1 Position” to shoot for if you are a website that offers local services.

Just my thoughts.

=D

Evan Obijiofor is the webmaster of www.helpmysmallbusinesswebsite.com which offers small business website help.  Atlanta Website Design solutions don’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Contact him and get the help you need today.

Atlanta Website Design Advice, google, google local business results, link strategies