The trouble with local search

Everyone cares.  No one really understands (except maybe these guys). It’s a chance for everyone to get more business from the web.

Local search – the great equalizer of the search engine battle field.  While the war for quality links and organic rankings is carried out by SEO’s everywhere, corporations and small businesses owners alike are taking up the responsibility of trying to capitalize on one of the most obnoxiously ambiguous marketing tools ever to live and breathe on the internet.

Local search is everywhere, it’s shaping our lives, and it has created the largest online marketing headache the world has ever known.

Although there are plenty of people who claim to have the answer, this technology is still far too fluid to be thoroughly  mastered. The Google LBL system is evolving faster than we’d like to think, and ultimately, it will replace all forms of yellow pages and local directories.

Why look up a number or address anywhere else when its only one search away (even from your phone)? And no advertising to boot…unless of course…you’re the small business or national franchise who needs to make sure clients, customers, and consumers can find you.

IMHO, Danny Sullivan, in all his oppositional yet pragmatically honorable glory, eloquently captured the heart of the local search canundrum in one simple slide bullet:

“Local apps, products, projects, devices offer great usefulness…but local may need to be easier.”