Mobile Local Fusion - Crazy Money For Google Maps?

I'm a local marketing consultant and every day, more and more businesses are becoming confused about local search marketing and the mobile side of things. Namely, where the two meet, and what they can do to capture an audience who might never hear of them otherwise.

Here's a quick run down of how you can positively affect small business owners website traffic:

Google Maps: Google is paying very close attention and putting a lot of resources into this particular area, maps and Google local. There has been a big shift in the way Google Places listings are displayed on the Google search results, but more importantly there is a massive social shift in the way people are finding local businesses.The amount of people who using their mobile device and specifically Google maps to find a local business is rising at an alarming rate. Local businesses are struggling without it and the ones who are in the know are reaping the rewards.Experts predict 80-90% of people will be DEPENDENT on mobile maps in the next 24 months.

QR Codes: Have you ever heard of a QR code? Have you ever seen a QR code? If you havenâ€t you will start seeing them in more and more places. Soon almost every business and person will have one or more of these codes.

Places Listings: Google has created roughly 49 million+ Places listings for local businesses. Almost 9 out of 10 of these go unclaimed. Meaning they are not optimized nor have any information filled in besides the address (which could be incorrect) and the business name.The Places listing allows you to go far beyond that information, providing detailed hours of operation, pictures, videos, services offered, coupons, reviews, citations, and much more.

Mobile Devices: The current wave of mobile phones and other mobile devices like the iPad and Android Tablets offer some pretty incredible advancements in terms of local search. Now, people are connected enough to do a lot of research before stepping foot into a restaurant and they're able to do lookups about whatever they like on the fly. This is a huge opportunity for small businesses because some of the smaller niches and industries are too specific for the larger businesses to compete!

Even with all of the advancement and media coverage, business owners are still pretty much clueless in terms of what this stuff can do for their business. It's up to you to teach them how to use the technology to further their business in 2011.

About the Author

We covered a lot of stuff really fast. For more mobile/local marketing, check out Mobile Local Fusion. It'll really help you get started in this market fast!

Rating: Not yet rated

Comments