The #4 Reason – You Won’t Believe This! People Don’t Always Use Google When Searching for Businesses
In this next article in our series, the 5 Scary and Exciting Reasons Why Local Listings Are Changing the Way People See Search Engine Results!, we will be discussing the fact that Google is not as ubiquitous in the world of search as one might automatically think. Other search engines are growing in market share. And other local listing sites are finding creative methods of connecting consumers with businesses, making them appealing places for people to search for companies.
People Find You When They Look Up Businesses in Other Search Engines
Although Google is by far the #1 place that people go-to for looking for information, it’s not the only place. There are other search engines, like Bing and Yahoo. Google’s contract with Apple as their default search engine for their browser, Safari, is expiring and will be replaced by Bing or another search engine soon. And Firefox, a popular browser used by lots of computer users, recently switched to Yahoo as their default search engine.
Many computer users are not savvy enough to know how to change their default settings and so they will start using these other search engines simply because that’s what’s offered, not realizing the difference between them.
Growing Privacy Issues With Google
Many people are growing increasingly concerned over the dominance of Google, and the security and privacy issues related to its authority. Because of this, some consumers are actually seeking out search engines that offer them more privacy options like DuckDuckGo.com.
Google likes to give you information that is customized to your previous search history, but this requires them to know your search history, and this can be unsettling for some users, preferring that their search engine not be paying quite so much attention to every site they’ve looked at and every link they’ve clicked on EVER!
Searching on Listing Sites
More and more consumers are figuring out that they don’t need to look for businesses through a search engine like Google or Bing. They can actually go to websites like Yelp or Merchant Circle for help in finding a business to work with, with user reviews from a community that they are involved with that they trust.
Phone Book Sites—Old Habits Die Hard
Many people are still trained to look up businesses in the phone book, but they know that everything is online, so rather than opening up an actual big heavy yellow book, they know to go to YellowPages.com or Dexknows.com on their computer or phone. These are still very important and popular sites that users go-to for searching for companies to do business with. And these online options have the added advantage of online reviews.
Individual business listings on these sites very often show up in search results on Google searches, so it makes sense to add very good information about your company on these sites, with lots of great content about your company with pictures and company biography. And you always want to make sure that you’re listed on all of these sites with the correct categories, a vital rule in local listing.
Industry-Specific Directories
As I mentioned earlier, we have a lawyer as a client who gets a lot of business being listed on Avvo.com, a site where people review their experience working with lawyers. And the construction and interior design world have been taken by storm by Houzz.com, a site that dominates the home and remodeling industries. Being in either of those businesses absolutely requires being involved on either of those sites.
It’s important to find the dominant site or sites for your industry and become listed on that web real estate. Consult with a specialist to find out the industry-specific sites that you should be found on for your business.
Advertising on Yelp
Searching for a Restaurant on Yelp
Yelp has become a big player in the world of search advertising in recent years. People who use Yelp are very devoted users. They leave reviews and they search for businesses to patronize on the site.
Advertising on Yelp can be an effective strategy for some businesses, for one very simple and logical reason—you want Yelp users as clients. Why? Because they’re likely to give you Yelp reviews, which will increase your likelihood to show up in Yelp searches.
But this is also important for another important reason. Google ranks companies that score highly on Yelp as well, showing those listings in Google search results. So it’s a double whammy! Your listing will show up in both Yelp and Google searches. Can you see why listing on Yelp can be so valuable, and why perhaps advertising on Yelp might be important?
New Sites Like Thumbtack.com
Thumbtack.com is a new site to come out recently that strives to cut through the clutter of search and give its users a very targeted experience. It suggests that the businesses that list there provide background checks and offer very detailed answers to an elaborate series of questions. For example:
“Are there any exciting things coming in the next few years or decades that will change your line of business?“
These businesses that have been willing to subject themselves to Thumbtack’s (what some might consider intrusive) methods of examination are then given the opportunity to pay to be promoted to get leads.
For certain types of businesses who use Thumbtack.com effectively, this can be a very interesting method of generating clients.
Merging of Social Media and Local Listing
We also see a trend towards the expansion of social media. Many local listing sites, like Yelp, have a social media component. One of the most important sites to have your business listed on is Facebook. LinkedIn also is a very important site for many business-to-business companies to have a listing. Most sites either are social media sites in and of themselves or they’re heavily connected to other sites like Facebook and LinkedIn.
So this makes a local listing campaign a little bit complicated. It now must be coordinated with a social media campaign, which makes consulting with a local marketing expert like Holistic Web Presence crucial.
New Methods for Search
There will likely be more sites like Thumbtack.com in the coming years that try to find unique and creative ways to connect businesses with consumers, bypassing Google as the sole source for search. Those that are successful, like Yelp, who find a niche and do it right, will be very valuable places to list. And we will see the continued merging of listing sites and social media.
It will likely be very inexpensive to put content on these sites compared with traditional advertising as we think of it, and far more effective. We at Holistic try to keep our thumb on the pulse of these shifts, giving our clients the best possible advice to take advantage of these market opportunities when they show up.
See next week’s final 5th Reason to Consider a Local Listing Campaign.
Wade Mann, the author of this article, is an Internet Marketer at Holistic Web Presence.
Connect with Wade at BuzzAuthor
