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.

LocalProud is a discount card program to help vitalize local economies. Businesses offer discounts that are honored when consumers show their LocalProud card. They get to determine the offers and are able to change them via a convenient website…

Have you ever wished you could carry around a card that would be honored at any business who offered coupons? Well, we have which is why we’ve created Local Proud – a Coupon program that eliminates the hassles of finding, printing and organizing coupons.

This is the way of future discount programs and we are now bringing it to life. Consumers want great deals. Businesses want to offer great value. Now, Local Proud is bringing the two together buy offering an easy to use discount card called the Local Proud Perks card.

We are pleased to annouce that we have partnered with our first television station as well – an innovative thinker located in Buffalo, NY. WKBW is where you’ll find great deals in western upstate New York. Currently we are offering many deals in the Buffalo and surrounding areas.

The great thing is you can use the card or, if you’re old school (sorry:-) you can also print coupons from the website. Sometimes it take a little while to inform the community as to what a new value proposition is so in the meantime, you can still print coupons via Local Proud. We are adding new offers daily so keep coming back – we’re about to overtake the Buffalo, NY area!

As you all know, we are fans of local search – we’ve written about it, we have even partnered with a local search directory called MyLocalLookup. Well, we now have something new to tell you about. It’s called Local Proud!

LocalProud is a brand new discount card program designed to help vitalize the local economy. Area merchants offer discounts that are honored when consumers show their free LocalProud card. The business get to determine their offers and they’re able to change them anytime via a convenient web interface. No special equipment is required for the business or your customers.

By becoming a part of the LocalProud program, the business will receive Local Proud cards to distribute to their customers as well as a window decal to display in your storefront. The program will be promoted through various local media, including television.

Pre-Launch Phase
During our pre-launch phase, they are offering free enrollment to the first 100 businesses. That means there is absolutely no-risk involved to get started. It’s time that local businesses come together and make a difference in our community. This Program allows that aspect to take hold.

Benefits To Consumers

• No Points to Collect
• No Coupons to Print
• No Waiting for Rewards
• Instant Offers
• Supports Local Businesses
• Keeps Money in Local Economy

Here is where to get started. Log onto Local Proud and hit the Advertise with us tab. It’s free and its a very cool concept! Or you can go to their pre-launch page to get sdtarted. If I were you, I wouldn’t wait another minute – I believe this will be a big hit with both consumers and businesses!

Written by Kevin Conway.

OK, I finally said it publicly, Social Media for business is Crap! .

Maybe because my feeling for the hyped-up benefits of social media was recently confirmed by a top millionaire online guru. If you follow the most successful gurus his name is always at the top of the list. As a matter of fact, he was the first online entrepreneur to make a MILLION $$ in a day. That said, recently he published a PDF where he said “I think social media Su-ks”. When I read that I felt a sigh of relief, “maybe I am not off the tracks after all”. You see when you don’t “follow the pack” you tend to sometimes feel like you are going down the wrong path or at least missing an opportunity. Now, I must admit I use all the major social media outlets including Twitter, Facebook, Squidoo, etc, etc. However, not for direct marketing. And, even though I publish new product releases on Twitter, analytics tells me no convertible traffic comes from that source or Facebook. My primary use of social sites is for building backlinks, but that is for SEO purposes. And, of course the added exposure. i.e. “branding” doesn’t hurt.

However, I never felt like any of the exposure or traffic was ever really serious “convertible traffic”. In other words social media is used for entertainment and communication, ahh, socializing. “Socializing” people are not in the “consumer mode” when they are cruising the social sites. They are looking for friends, maybe a date, etc. Proof of this observation is that these social sites still cannot monetize themselves via paid advertising to nearly the level of search engines like Google or Yahoo. Why? Because you really cannot target potential consumers when they are out at their “buying behavior mode”, i.e. when they are specifically looking to buy a product or service. To try and pull social surfers out of the “social mode” and into a “buying mode” requires many steps before a behavioral shift is realized. Sure, you can start a dialogue and maybe down the road they will recall your business, but the effort to generate business is much more ROI effective using PPC or SEO. The one bright spot for social media as a business tool may be list building, but my own results have been mixed (via measuring quality of opt ins).

And yes, I have read the eMarketer predictions that social ad spend will increase by about 400% by 2013. But, these same groups are also publishing reports like today’s “Does Social Media Work for Small Biz?” where 88% of all small business owners say social media is not helpful to their business. Proof that most of us are not yet seeing the tangible benefits, i..e., sales, leads, etc, from our social media profiles. Personally I am not even seeing much return on creating and maintaining groups within the social media outlets. And, one of the most raved about tools within social media is creating specialized groups.

So, at the moment using social sites for business generation, in my opinion is still highly overrated. As an owner of several e-commerce business I don’t see myself investing advertising dollars in social media any time soon. And, even though there are those that will disagree, I don’t think many of them can show you their own e-commerce business that has experienced any serious ROI using social media. If anyone can show me any REAL results otherwise, please I am all ears. But please Hold the HYPE.

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!

I recently asked the question to a few small businesses and clients that I’m close with around the country… How effective has Local Search been for your business.  The answers that I’ve been given have been all across the board, some good, some bad but more over what most people say to me is “we don’t use it at all” 

For the businesses that use local search as part of their Internet strategies, you get it… but for the latter, I find this to be fascinating. Let’s look at a few facts about local search and how consumers are online today.

92% of all people are online today and let’s face it, the Internet has become our lifes, both personally and professionally.

97% of people with online access will research products and services online before they buy – we still like to buy from the bricks and motars. 
Interesting enough, 35% of all searches are done with an intent to buy.
and 55% of all local searches are done with an intent to buy.
Of all local searches, 8 out of 10 call or visit a store and 60% of those result in a purchase of some kind.
Times are rapidly changing and traditional advertising mediums are losing their effectiveness.

The internet has changed the way the world communicates, gathers, stores and sends information. However, this global connection has created a problem for the local business in their local markets. Why? Traditional print advertising has become less effective.  Most people have thrown their Yellow Pages away and search online instead and Newspaper’s readership is down over 50% and many papers are declaring bankruptcy.

On the other side of local business and local search is big business. It’s true that search results in general are dominated by large companies. That is proven to be true with Local search as well. The big guys understand that us consumers are smart and we’re looking everywhere for the best deals, including using local search engines.

Business owners reading this post, I hope by now you are reading all there is to read about search, search engine marketing, blogging and anything else related to getting you better exposure with your online presence. We’re doping everyday and we’re a small business just like you!

JoseGoes.com is a nice looking niche website focusing on mexican and latin restaurants in the state of Texas. The idea is to completely define who your customers are, who the target is for potential revenue and the next thing you know, you have a business model. We really like this site!

What we liked about Jose Goes other than the business model is the fact of how easy it is to use and the potential opportunities it brings for restaurants. You can upload videos, incorporate your menu as a pdf, include pictures, google mapping and much more. Though the site is very niche, it certainly has a lot to offer both the restaurant and the visitor.

Though it looks as if they’re just getting the site up and running, It appears they have plans on incorporating television advertising as well. Just click on the video player to watch it.

We are going to keep an eye on this site… in the mean time, have a look for yourself – we’re including a link to the site itself and to one of the featured members. Good searching!

Before I introduce this site to you, I want to ask you a quick question… How many emails do you subscribe to, to stay current within the media business? If the answer is more than 3, you need to check out this site.

The site is called Media Biz Headlines. What I love about this site is the fact that instead of subscribing to all the different daily email information sites, I can now just go to one site and see all the headlines within the media industry. Pretty smart idea here – I know in my daily inbox, I receive at least 25 emails a day that I have subcribed to to stay current with what is happening within the media world.

So if you work in TV, radio, newspaper, billboard, Internet, SEO, SEM or whatever else you are involved with for marketing and advertising, I encourage you to visit Media Biz Headlines - You need to “add” this site to your favorites and visit everyday!

Well it’s really not rocket science, maybe one needs to understand the propulsion portion of rocket science in order to understand local search. Local search is about being in the right place at the right time when someone is looking for what you are selling. Here is an interesting fact about how consumers are searching today…

Research shows that 85% of all consumers go online to research whatever it is they want to buy before they decide on where or who they are going to buy it from. The recent Cash for Clunkers is a testiment of this. 85% of consumers who participated in the government funded Cash for Clunkers had already made their decision on what car they wanted, the color, and from whom they were going to buy it from before they walked into that dealership. In other words, they searched online and made their decision based on what they found via search.

Who benefited from this process? I’ll tell you who benefited… it was the local car dealers who made the investment to use local search as part of their strategy. And I don’t just mean Google or Yahoo, these smart marketers also use local search as part of their complete online marketing strategies. Here is a great example of local car dealers using local search in San Antonio, TX.

The thing I like about this site is the listing page for the premium advertisers – this is there exact listing, one that demands respect within the search business.

My point is, you must be using local search as part of your strategies, if not you are missing out on some great opportunity for your business.

Which brings me to why I’m writing about MyLocalLookup.com. WhattheYahoogle has formed a partnership with mylocallookup in order to provide our readers a great tool to find local businesses. In addition, we want to add that you can now get your bsuiness featured with a Jet Package for 75% off the annual subscriptions rate. Simple type in the code “Yahoogle” to receive your 75% off at check out.

This is a great opportunity for small businesses who want to get involved more search engine marketing but don’t have the budget to afford the big guys. With this discount, the cost is $25.00 a month and can be cancelled anytime.

As our friends at Growmap wrote a few weeks ago, MyLocalLookup is the only local search engine promoted in 44 TV markets across the country. They have built a unique startegy partnering with TV stations and offering great solutions on a local level. If you haven’t already checked out MyLocalLookup and their TV commercials, you can view their TV commercials here.

SEM (Seaarch Engine Marketing) is a term all of us need to get use to and an action we all need to take. Give your business every opportunity to be found when a customer is looking for you and you accomplish this through SEM.

Business owners… It’s time take control of your business. Get involved with local search, hire someone to help you with SEM, be a part of the Social Networking opportunities. If you don’t have the time, let us know, we can direct you to the right company.