When we used Google several years ago, if we were looking for a local men’s hairdresser, we’d have to enter something like “men’s hairdressers London”. A sporadic list of London based mens hairdressers would be displayed, seemingly in no particular order, and it would be the user’s task, much like using books, to trawl through the index until you find a suitable match. But things have come a long way since then.
Now with the integration of Geographical data into Google we find a far more easy to navigate system, which automatically picks up your location, and gathers those hairdressers within say a 5 mile radius of your location, and places them all onto an interactive map that you can play around on.
This makes for an all round better experience for the user, but it also means big things for businesses. While this applies to all businesses, it means something particularly special for businesses which trade specifically in their local area. Whether you run a hairdresser, taxi service, printing service, fishmonger, or pretty much any type of walk-in store, this applies to your business too.
In the past, ranking anywhere near the first page on Google with your small business would probably be more or less impossible unless the user was very particular, or already knew your business name or web-address. Now though just by implementing some simple local internet marketing, any user who lives nearby you will automatically be directed to your website, address, contact info, as well as reviews and more.
What this means is that, finally, having a top-notch website for your small business can be effective, and can consistently pull in traffic and sales for your business. This is in large part since you will now be the first thing many users see when they search for your service or product.
