Gathering information online about a brand’s national presence isn’t difficult: Most organizations of any size have Web sites capable of pulling in general queries made through the larger search engines.
Searches get trickier, however, if a consumer is looking for information about a specific outlet, such as hours, or specific services offered, or even location. Unless the parent organization has built a robust, easy-to-use retail location finder into its main Web site, finding a local outlet can be time consuming and frustrating.
For companies whose offerings focus on immediate needs – think restaurants that satisfy cravings, pharmacies or nearby attractions when traveling afar – local search engines such as Yelp, Citysearch or Tripadvisor play significant roles as traffic builders. But their ability to generate store visits is curtailed if information about what various outlets offer, when they offer it and where they are is inaccurate or missing.
Consider Moneytree, which through its 128 locations provides check cashing, retail loan and retail financial services throughout five Western states. Those outlets which offer Spanish-language services or which will take a given credit card, and which can have those services incorporated into their keywords, will have an advantage when it comes to specific local searches.
Enter Localeze, a content firm that feeds individual location listings into local search engines. “With Localeze we are able to be found in 100 microdirectories,” says Chris Rosser, Moneytree’s Internet marketing specialist. The company continues to use television, online advertising and outdoor advertising, but Rosser strongly feels the local search helps keep the brand in front of customers who are closer to being ready to use his company’s services.
What does Localeze do that the larger search engines don’t? To a certain extent, Localeze serves as a data aggregator, collecting information from individual locations which it then allows each site to verify and augment. This provides a way for a small franchise location to have a tailored Web presence without having to build a full Web site says David Dague, VP of marketing at Localeze.
Large firms that have a top-level page listing all of their locations by address have a shot at being indexed by a large search engine. But those that use store locators which link to an internal, proprietary database are likely to be overlooked, according to Dague.
Localeze pushes its information out to more than 100 search engines, including the biggies Google, Yahoo and Bing, as well as smaller, local-information-focused search engines. And it does so on a regular basis, meaning that information reflecting individual store closings or moves, or new telephone numbers, is fairly current.
Given the regular schedule of updates, a store can tout specific offerings – snow shovels during the winter, for instance – within its listing, which will enable it to come up as offering that merchandise when consumers use local searches.
Moneytree’s Rosser didn’t offer hard numbers, but leads generated through local search “definitely have grown”, he says. And given the across-the-board appeal of his company’s services, Moneytree can, to a certain extent, circumvent the strategy of appealing to specific demographics, instead focusing on attracting those prospects with immediate needs.