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Where are the restaurants at?
By Doug Jakobsen | February 21, 2008
Let me preface this by saying that I travel a lot, for work. As I make my way through this amazingly eclectic country I’ve come across a monotonous obstacle: where is a good local place to eat? I have what you might call a routine. If I’m up for getting back in the rental car at 7pm and traveling a few miles for a decent meal, I’ll open up a few browsers on my laptop and begin my search. To my aforementioned point a lot of where I travel, is not to the most populated cities and towns. Now you might be starting to wonder - what does my travel schedule have to do with SEM? My most recent dilemma, which just happened this week, will explain the connection between the two.
I was given a recommendation for a restaurant in what happened to be a strip-mall landscaped area of the Midwest. During the “search” portion of my routine, I was unable to find the recommended restaurant. I first looked in the organic search results and then in the sponsored links section. I tried different keyword strings with different geo-modifiers. I searched UGC sites hoping for a review with an address. I even went to a couple IYPs. Unabashedly I abhor chain restaurants and fast food so I steer clear of them, so I set out, determined to find a local eatery. I was appalled and chargrinned with the search results, but decided to conduct a physical search. In doing so, I was able to find more than 5 non-chain, and non-advertising, locally owned establishments within a 5 mile radius, including the one I was searching online for! For me, this further stokes the fire of urgency for SMBs to proactively submit their free listings across the multiple directories & engines as well as advertising online. Particularly in the small towns where finding this information can be extra challenging. We all know this continues to be an issue, just take a look at Solving pain = opportunity… for SMBs. With millions of small business owners in this country alone and only a small percentage of them actively doing SEM, the opportunity for growth continues to be huge. And, I have to admit, it’s exciting to be the first to add a review of a great seafood restaurant in Livonia, Michigan.
Topics: Local Advertisers |
February 25th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
I got so frustrated with the whole local search area that I started to collect data for myself and friends.As more and more people asked me for my directory, started a web site. You can search by road as well business type. Google love the way we present the data as it’s crisp and clean.