Far too often, small business owners in the offline world make the mistake of not taking full-advantage of the online advertising opportunities afforded to them.

During each calendar month, there are more than 10 billion searches conducted online, using a multitude of search resources and search engines. Of those 10 billion searches, it is estimated that 4 billion of them have a “local intent”, in other words, people are searching for products and services they can buy from local businesses. From the 4 billion local searches made each month, it is also estimated that 3.2 billion of those searches are handled exclusively by Google.

That means that if you as a business owner would desire to tap into the online advertising resources for offline, brick-and-mortar businesses, then you should seek to attain a top local ranking in the Google search results.

With every search, Google is running algorithms (software-driven calculations) to determine if a particular search has “local intent”. For example, anyone looking to find a barber shop in Google is clearly looking to find someone to cut his or her hair, and a hair cut is one of those things that can never be purchased online.

When Google sees a search of this type, it queries its local IP Tracking database to see where the searcher is located in the world. Every computer that accesses the Internet across the globe has an identifying IP address connected to its Internet connection. Each IP address is licensed to a particular Internet Service Provider (ISP), therefore, Google only needs to query its database to determine which ISP you and I are using to access the Internet. With rare exception, a computer programmer can query an IP Address and determine the city from which a request is being made.

Once Google knows where you are in the world, they are able to present you local search results for your local search query.

Unless you actually type into Google some geo-modifiers, such as city / state, when you make your request to Google for information, Google will present local listings below the 4th search result. If you do type into Google the geo-modifiers, then Google will present the local listings at the top of its search results.

Google’s local search results are presented in what is called the Google 7-Pack, which includes the names and websites of 7 local businesses, a map of the local area, and balloons to indicate where the local business is located on the map.

When Google presents the name of the local business, the name of the business appears as a link that you can click to learn more about that business. Directly below the name of the local business and the link, it presents the actual Domain URL they are going to send you to, to help you learn more about that business.

If a small business location has its own website, then Google will link to the small business’ actual website. If the small business is part of a national chain and does not have its own local office website, then Google will present the link pointing to the national chain’s corporate website. If the small business has neither the local office website or the corporate website, then Google will point its users to maps.google.com.

Herein lies the missed opportunity that I speak of…

If your small business does not have its own website, and your parent corporation does not have a website, then Google is going to point its users to your local business listing within Google’s search results, as shown in the video below.

If Google points its users to your business listing inside of maps.google.com, then Google will show its users your business name, address, city, state, zip, and phone number. Google will also show the location of your business on the map and a picture of the building where they think your business is located. They will also present Customer Reviews of your business that they have found online. AND to your dismay, they will show your competitor’s information on YOUR Google page…

When Google’s users find your business on Google, wouldn’t it be better if your prospective customers only learned about your business, instead of your business AND your competitors too?

Fortunately, it is in your control as to whether Google shows your competitors on your sales page or not… If you would employ a website design specialist to build a website for your small business, then your Local Business Listing in Google could point to your website, instead of Google’s review of your small business.

To find someone to help you build a website for your small business, we recommend Chris McElroy at SEO Service Provider. Chris can be reached by phone at: 1-786-317-8774 during regular business hours, Monday through Friday, EST.

We can help you to improve your placement in Google’s Local Search 7-Pack…

If you have a website for your Main Street Business, then your Google Local Search 7-Pack can put more prospects into your website…