It's a Small World

We've been talking lately about local search results. Since we have a global clientele, do we care about and should we work on local search? More importantly, should we do that for our clients? Some have a brick and mortar business with largely local customers, but many sell to national or international audiences. For our own company, we can take a "why not?" attitude toward local search, but with our clients, we want to make sure they get the best ROI.

When is local SEO/ SEM going to give you the most bang for your buck? Consider these factors:

• Collateral benefits. I've written before about the SEO advantages of local search even for companies that don't rely on local custom. These advantages have been increased by Google Place Pages, new micropages based on the Google Local Business Center. You can't edit these pages yourself, but you can furnish info at the Local Business Center, from which Google will compile your Place Page.
• Local fans. Even if you don't rely on local customers, they may be the ones who'll make the effort to write about you at their blogs, post reviews for you, and otherwise spread the word, because they know you. Or, even if they don't know you, because you're home folks, so they want to support you. Why miss out on that by focusing on your citizen of the world identity to the exclusion of local search?
• Local identity. Do you want to be associated with your physical location? I have to admit that there are people who live in my area who worry about our very-rural stereotype and don't want to fess up to where they live. If you feel this way, you might want to avoid local search simply for that reason. If your skin care products company is in Pittsburgh but you want people to think you're in Paris, then you can't use local search.