Google – as of this past week – has added more advanced location-based functions to their search.
I write this not as a news item, but to further expand on why this social networking stuff is so important for a small to mid-size business to hop on.
Google is doing this for the localized businesses and their customers, make no mistake.
I think everyone can rationalize why the big companies like Best Buy and Pepsi can optimize and thrive in social networking – they have the massive awareness and such built in.
Add this in with Social Search and Real-Time search – which I explained here – and the usefulness for the more localized companies starts to clear up a bit.
You’re basically saying, “Hey Google, show me a foot doctor in Akron, Ohio who is connected to my social network and said something in the past 36 hours.”
Those results are far more valuable than the basic Page One feedback – it just seems more alive, current, and reliable. (Making sure the social presence that’s found is optimized, monitored, and linked correctly with your main website is a write-up for another day…)
The implications for the time when everyone is doing searches from their mobile devices is huge, as well.
Optimizing for Local Search is definitely some we’re going to be including in our Social Page One program – hopefully this sheds some more light on how important this is.
