Getting above the Crowd of Interior Designers on Google Local Search

Ten Days ago, Karen T. called me asking if I could help her with marketing her Interior Design company, Beyond Words Design. She worked with Mechele from San Diego Kravet and Mechele referred Karen to me. We agreed that as a local business getting on the first page of Googles Local Search was job #1. If you are not familiar with the concept of Local Search, review this article before you move on.

With over 100 interior designers listed in Google Local Search for "Interior Design Encintas, CA" it looked like it may be a challenge to get on that key top 10 list. I am happy to report that within 10 days using the first Two of my Five Step process Karen was on the first page of Google. We started with the companies below coming up on the search term "Interior Design Encintas, CA".

A. Rustic Rooster
B. J W McCarter & Associates
C. Stems & Co.
D. Sensible Chic Interior Design
E. Id Studios
F. Designcorp
G. Cedros Design
H. Polinara Interiors

After these top local business were six more pages of interior designers based in the Encinitas area. Karen and I created her Blog / Business Website on Google, took control of Beyond Words Design local business listing and then researched why the Top 10 businesses on Google's Local Search were in the Top 10.

After establishing Beyond Words Design as a business on Google Local Business Center and taking ownership of that business idenity we started on moving Karen's company up that road of search pages. The next step was examinining the business that were already on the top ten list and looking at the information that Google had gathered and deamed of value for a Interior Designer from Encinitas CA.

Google and other search engines look to other business databases for information about the validity and value of each business. When prioritizing your plan for moving up the Google Local food chain, you must make sure that your business is in databases that Search Engines use to gather business listings. Google is known to use superpages.com as one of their basic sources of validating bussiness. It is always the first step on your road to the first page of Local Searches.

Another prime strategy is to find business listing data bases that Google may use for specific industries. For example Rustic Rooster and several others in Interior Design were referenced as a business on www.interiordesignersusa.info. With that info in hand we entered Beyond Words Design into the InteriorDesignerUSA data base. The results after 10 days of waiting for the data to be pushed around the internet was:

A. Rustic Rooster
B. J W McCarter & Associates
C. Stems & Co.
D. Sensible Chic Interior Design
E. Id Studios
F. Designcorp
G. Cedros Design
H. Polinara Interiors
I. Beyond Words Design

The next step is getting a similar position on MSN and Yahoo. The other direction is to broaden the Local Search Value of Beyond Words Design to cities close to Encinitas, CA.

Has your Business Identity been Stolen from You?

First, everything else being equal, most people want to do business with a local company. They know it is good for their community and it just feels more comfortable. On the Internet even Google recognizes this and has placed Google Local Search prominently on the key first page of any appropriate search of products or services.

So the good news is that Internet Search Engines like Google and Yahoo are providing high visibility to local businesses. It is surprising that at the end of 2008 it is estimated that less than 20% of Local Small Businesses have taken control of their local business account on any of the major Search Engines. That does not have to be a terrible thing, as the Search Engines can do a good job of at least acting like a web based yellow page and does not hurt your business.

What is alarming is that, either through bad computer algorithms or worse, the high jacking of your Local Business site, the links embedded in Your Local Business may not being linked to your business. This means that the best way new customers can find your business, is being redirected away from your website and ultimately your business. Examples can range from:

• A local franchisee who has a local website going to the corporate site, loosing local information
• A competitor linked to your business siphoning business away from you
• A similar named business being linked to your business

What would you do if you were looking for a Kitchen supply company and a link took you to a Pizza joint? Most people would move on to the next business on the list and you would have lost an opportunity to get a new customer.

Why Should You Care?
Nielsen//NetRatings found in 2004 that 24.4% of searchers on major search engines conducted searches that were local in scope, averaging 4.6 searches per searcher. By 2007 Nielsen//NetRatings saw this increase to 32.6%. Using the Internet to find local businesses is now main stream and can only grow in frequency.

For many local businesses, the question is no longer whether they should begin to market in the local online space, but when. Incredible opportunities are being missed, as consumers search online for local products and services, but the businesses do not have an effective online presence to serve those customers.

I specialize in working with Small Businesses in local markets. As an introduction to my services I will do a FREE analysis of your business and determine if it has been claimed on Google, Yahoo, LiveSearch (MSN), and Best of the Web. All I need is you to email me your Business Name and Zip Code and I will return to you your business’ status on the top 4 Search Engines Local Sites.

Blogs vs Websites - Where to start?

Blogs are the way to go! It is a great way to start building a strong online presence without spending a lot of money and hassling with web designers. You can easily add new content. Search engines (like Google & Yahoo) love them. And if done right, customers love to read them.

For those of you who may not know what a blog is, it’s short for web log, and is a frequently updated website consisting of blog posts, or entries (more often than not, dated entries) that are arranged in reverse chronological order. So when a reader comes to your blog, they see your most recent article or post first.

The advantage of a blog is that blogs allows you to post written text, audio and video and have it online within minutes, unlike traditional static websites which can take hours to update and cost you each time - unless you’re familiar with building or editing web sites.

As you can see, I like blogs as the center of a new marketing effort instead of websites, but it is not just an apples/oranges decision, and it’s not just about which is easier to manage. It’s about which web you want to invest in:

• the current brochureware web, which gives you a static place to refer people to for information about business; or

• the social web, the thing the web is becoming, which has built in feedback loops and a referral system that can dramatically build awareness for your products & services.

Right now, I am a big fan of using blogger.com from Google. Along with it being a Free blog, using the business tools that Google has in conjunction with your blog can quickly provide you with a strong professional marketing effort on the web for little money.