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Proceptive Dental Monthly Email Newsletter - November 2007 | |||||
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| Thursday November 15th, 2007 : The Local Initiative... | ||||||
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The Local Initiative... Times they are a changing... Most people may think of Bob Dylan and his celebrated song that captured the character of political and societal upheaval prevalent in the 60's when they hear that phrase. For those of us in the search engine marketing industry, we are thinking of another type of upheaval capturing the online industry. That upheaval is in the form of local search.
Now I know that comparing this self conscious protest song of the 60's with the changes in the search habits of the general populous might be a bit of a stretch. But not as big of one as you might think.
Times they are indeed changing, as according to the Kelsey Group's Blog, 74% of US households surveyed by Nielsen/Netratings for WebVisible now use the internet when searching for local products and services. That is a staggering percentage and perhaps helps to shed some light into why the major search engines have put such focus on developing and improving their local search capabilities.
To be honest, these numbers are not surprising, especially when you consider how search engines and the Internet have become integrated into our daily lives. We turn to it for travel information, managing our bank accounts, searching for new homes, finding movie times, staying in touch with friends and family; all tasks that were previously accomplished through other avenues. So why wouldn't this move to searching for local services?
It is called progression and we will continue to see that dusty old Yellow Page volume get pushed farther and farther back in cupboard, as the speed and convenience of the Internet make it the resource of choice for most homes. In fact, this same Nielsen/Netratings report states that 67% of those surveyed would prefer using an Internet Yellow Pages over a print book, noting that the Internet version is "faster" and "more current".
Another point of interest from this survey: local search use increased dramatically for those with household incomes of more than $75K. This is an extremely attractive demographic for dental offices looking to increase their practice's patient base. Among those users, the rise in local online search coincided with a drop in telephone directory use, which fell 62 percent.
So as we see the search engines put more of a focus on local search, and we seen more and more people turn to the search engines when searching for local services, the need to get "online" with a professionally designed website becomes more and more imperative. This is why Proceptive Dental has added "The Local Initiative" as part of all of our online marketing campaigns.
The Local Initiative is Proceptive's Dentals new local search engine and directory inclusion program. This program has been designed to gain inclusion for our clients in the top 15 search engines and directories currently used for local searches. This includes Google Maps, Yahoo! Local, Ask City, Local.com and more.
Yes, these times they are a changing... is your practice ready for that change? If you have any questions on local search and how it can increase your practice's bottom line, please feel free to contact me. I would love to have the opportunity to talk about the changing landscape of online search.
 Chief Marketing Officer
Proceptive Dental Dentist Spotlight - Latest Hometown Dentist Addition Dr. Arthur Freedman of Freedman Dentistry - Dr. Arthur Freedman is a general and cosmetic dentist in Manchester, Connecticut. - Welcome to Hometown Dentists Dr. Freedman!
~~~ That's all for now! ~~~ Join us next month for more news, articles, tips and advice! Regards, |
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