When you search for something on your preferred search engine, it does a bit of thinking. In fact, it does a lot of thinking, and part of that is trying to ascertain whether what you are searching for is an implied local search or not.
For example, if you search for 'web design bath', or 'web design chippenham', you are implying that you want to see a list of companies whose service is web design, in Bath or Chippenham respectively. The search engine understands that you are implying that you want the results to match that location.
Sometimes though, you might just type web design. It’s at this point that the search engine takes a look at what you have typed and tries to decide if you are searching for a service that would be in your local area. In this example, we of course are, and so the search engine uses its local listings to decide which is the most pertinent.
Google and Bing use their own business listings, so it’s certainly imperative to ensure you are listed on each of these, but other listings help boost your ranking. They also help boost your ranking on the search engine results pages by providing easy to accrue links to your site. Importantly though, when you are searching for something on Google Maps for example, it uses this same information to show businesses in the local area.
Local search is becoming a big part of the way search engines deliver relevant content to us, and it’s important that you are set up correctly and able to capitalise on the opportunity.