While Google still is the dominating search engine, local search is growing by leaps and bounds. 40% of all searches have a local intent – that is a number all businesse should sit up an notice!

Americans conducted 15.4 billion searches in March, with Google Sites accounting for 65.1% search market share, followed by Yahoo Sites at 16.9%, and Microsoft Sites at 11.7%. The Ask Network captured 3.8% of the search market, followed by AOL with 2.5%.

So where does this leave Local Search? As a searcher’s location becomes a standard bit of metadata to be factored into the PPC bid process, geotargeting is likely to become the norm. On the other end of the geotargeting search equation, we see that landing pages are somewhat neglected. Survey results showed that few marketers were taking advantage of geolocation-specific messaging once the searcher clicked through. For retailers, in particular, this is a huge missed opportunity.

Social sites can also help marketers find consumers that purchase wine, clothing and cars. “People who have expressed intent are accessible here,” he says.

Video also presents another opportunity. More than 174 million U.S. Internet users watched online video in February, according to comScore Video Metrix. Video viewers on Hulu watched content on average 2.4 hours per viewer.

The rest of this article comes to us from Mark Dolliver…

Here’s a bit of Internet Age heresy from small-business owners: 46 percent regard it as a “myth” that every company needs a Web site.

That’s one tidbit from a release this month of supplemental data from the ongoing Discover Small Business Watch polling. When small-business owners were asked in an August round of polling whether their company has a Web site, fewer than half (45 percent) said it does.

Among respondents whose business doesn’t have a Web site, the foremost reason (cited by 41 percent) was that “my business doesn’t need one.” Other reasons included “cost” (cited by 19 percent), “not enough time to monitor and manage” (16 percent) and “complexity” (9 percent).

Do consumers penalize small businesses that choose not to have an online presence? Not as much as you might expect. Polling in September among consumers asked, “Are you more likely or less likely to use a small business that has a Web site?” While a plurality (47 percent) said they’d be more likely to do so, half said either that they’d be less likely (17 percent) or that “it would have no impact” (34 percent).

Nor is there a consensus among consumers that it’s odd if a company doesn’t have a Web site. Asked whether they “expect every business, large or small, to eventually have a Web site,” those saying “yes” (46 percent) were outnumbered by the sum of those saying “no” (37 percent) or “not sure” (17 percent).

The same poll also asked consumers whether they would “consider using a service or small business that you heard about on a social or business networking site.” Forty-three percent said they would consider it, but 32 percent said they wouldn’t and 26 percent weren’t sure.

Rev Up announced today the initial launch of The Congregation Pages, a niche local search engine connecting Churches and it’s members’ businesses with other members of the Church…

More and more, Internet search is becoming more focused on specific industries, says Jeff Palmer, CEO of Rev Up. Every where you turn you hear something about search and how “niche” it has become. The CongregationPages is another one of those examples, giving Churches a customized online business directory.

Let’s face it, though Google is great in so many ways, it also lacks in many others. There is no way Google, Bing, Yahoo or any of the big guys can do everything in search. There is just too much information to be able to give everyone a fair chance when it comes to online marketing. What about wanting to do business with like minded people? The niche area allows people to do this and it allows Businesses a better chance to be found by like minded people.

This idea suits me… I like the idea of niche directories. I’m expecting big news about this property, The Congregation Pages is another great idea!

Texas Mexican Restaurants… I love it when a real blogger takes notice of a nice website and takes the time to write about it. We’ve talked about Growmap.com before

Here is a little from our friends at Growmap…

“Texans who love Mexican restaurants have a new resource for experiencing the best Mexican cuisine in the DFW (Dallas Ft. Worth), Austin, Houston and San Antonio Metros. JoseGoes.com is a great example of how niche sites can offer great value to consumers through geo-targeted marketing while simultaneously creating exceptional opportunities for businesses”.

To read more Click here: http://www.growmap.com/texas-mexican-restaurants/

While doing some research about My Local Lookup, I found an online promotion that this site is having where they are giving away free upgraded listings. I also found their sign up page so you can get a feel for their pricing and what you are receiving for free.

I have to tell you, this little My Local lookup search engine is nice. They get good traffic with around 200,000 to 300,000 unique visits a month. I also learned they are partners with over 40 television stations. Their pricing is right, ranging from $10 a month to the high end of $100 a month, much less expensive than the other options. The high end package includes video and much more. Keep an eye on this search engine, I think it could grow into much more.

So business owners, take a moment to fill out the free upgraded listing, it takes like 2 minutes and your off and running. Let me know your thoughts once you have checked it out by leaving a comment. I’ll be looking at a few other options down the road…