Acorn Web Studio - Melbourne web design and web development

Here's an important opportunity for all businesses that offer a regional service.  Google is rolling out its local business search – an additional service that Google is adding to their google maps application.  They are looking to map businesses and services to their geographical location.

Why is this important?  Because Google will display the first 10 local businesses listed on any regional search. Not only is this independent of organic google searches, but it is displayed high up on the page with a large visual weight. Its a very important way to gain traffic from Google.

I recommend that you get in early and don't be disappointed.

Just visit http://www.google.com/local/add/ and complete the application.

I was reviewing our search engine results the other day when I discovered first hand why Google dominates the search engine market so comprehensively (Google currently holds %62 of the market.  The second place holder, Yahoo, holds 13% of the global market).  I was testing the search results for the phrase “web designer brunswick”, which we rated highly on in Google. However when I tested the same phrase in Yahoo I found that the results were heavily dominated by websites from New Brunswick in America.

Google is obviously taking notice of the region where I am searching from, and tailoring the results accordingly. Its only natural that an Australian is going to be more interested in Brunswick, Melbourne rather than New Brunswick.

Yahoo isn't applying any regional bias, or perhaps it has a US bias built in.  No wonder it is struggling to compete with Google. I think I will going back to using Google exclusively as my search engine of choice. Its a rare day when it doesn't deliver what I want in double quick time.

I just read a great article on search engine optimisation in the Sunday Age.  It provided a good summary of the topic and a basic overview of typical costs, and the typical rewards.

One thing I didn't know was that  the top search listing in a Google or Yahoo search receives 3 ½ more clicks than the second entry. By the time you get to the listings on the second page (11th place or more) the value of appearing in the search must be starting to dwindle alarmingly.

There is also a good description of the bidding process for Google Ad Words that takes place on any given day, particularly over highly sought after key words, as well as a quick discussion of website optimisation. It is this latter area that we are particularly interested in at the moment.