The Search Maketing Team in Portland, Oregon has found that searches that include a location stand at 20 percent of all Google searches. And the proportion of Google results pages that display a map was at 1 in 13 at the beginning of the year. The U.S. Small Business Administration says that in 2008 there were 29.6 million small businesses across the country, and just 4 million business listings on Google have been claimed by business owners. It’s clear that local SEO represents both an opportunity and an imperative at this point. Smart businesses are poised to overtake any lagging competition, however local SEO doesn’t simply give an edge to brick-and-mortar businesses today – it’s a requirement. Today, if you can’t be found online, there’s a good chance you won’t be found on the street.This is why Search Marketing Team is so influential in helping a business market themselves or their products.
The search engines’ algorithms for local search results are technically unknown, however, a number of ranking factors have been inferred based on testing and performance. Google applies three distinct algorithms used to serve results: the organic algorithm, the maps algorithm and the 7- or 10-pack algorithm. The maps and local-pack algorithm overlap, though are considered separate, according to a presentation during December 2009’s SES Chicago session on local search ranking factors.
With many small business owners busy running day-to-day operations, there’s a need for streamlined instruction on the straight-forward tasks that can improve the chances of being discovered by consumers online. This is where Search Marketing Team in Portland Oregon can be such an asset in your company’s bottom line.
Contributed by– John Smith