One of the sessions at this year’s Search Marketing Expo (SMX) was called ‘Search 3.0: Local Search & Blended Results’ and focused on how local listings are being blended into the regular results of major search engines.

Susan Hallam of Hallam Communications referred to a review carried out by Hitwise, saying that there are several new entrants in the local search industry that should not be overlooked when marketing your business, including Accessplace.com Business Directory (one of the business sites that are powered by Bizwiki).

Businesses are also advised to encourage their clients, partners and customers to submit their feedback and reviews to third party sites, since search engines are pulling in business contact details/ review information and blending them all together.

According to Heini van Bergen of Tribal Internet Marketing, nearly 30%-40% of searches have local intent, and for a local business like a dog grooming business in Leeds it is vital to show-up well in search results when someone searches using a keyword combined with either a location name (Leeds) or a postcode (LS7 or LS22).

Among many useful search marketing tips, several stood out. If you do have a business, ensure that:

- its website is linked to from other local business sites (i.e. Leeds pet owners clubs, Leeds pet stores etc.);
- it is added to local business directories (especially if you don’t have a company website yet or do not intend to have one);
- it is added to nationwide online business directories;
- it gets genuine reviews on independent 3rd party sites.

“Personal reviews are the most trusted form of advertising, and they have to be on third party sites, not your own website. But please, do not be tempted to write fake reviews”, - concluded Susan Hallam. Sound advice for anyone who is looking to promote their business online.

Ready to get started? Add your company to Bizwiki, or start contributing additional information and details if your business is already listed.

A new study of 3000 US consumers puts local search at the top of the charts for ways people use to find local business information.

TMP Direction Marketing’s Local Search Usage Study confirms that in 2008 the web comes out ahead of print for local business information searches. Last year’s study showed printed phone directories as having a slightly larger following with 33% of respondents citing print as their first point of call for local information and the web following closely behind at 30%.

This year the tables have turned and search engines top the list at 31% with printed directories falling to 30%. It’s a close race, but as Screenwerk’s Greg Stirling puts it, we have now passed the tipping point. I wholeheartedly agree with Greg’s comment that there will be differences in the web/print usage depending on the category and market but the trend is definitely moving towards the richer data consumers can find online. Printed directories simply can’t provide reviews, opening hours, product and service details in the same way that online local directories can.

What this means to local businesses is that it’s now essential to have a good local search presence. A listing on Google Local, Bizwiki (and the sites Bizwiki powers) and other free online business directories and local search sites help to put your details in front of your potential customers. The good news is that, unlike some of the print directories, Bizwiki is free and you’re not limited to just a phone number and address. And Bizwiki also saves you time by placing your listing on not just the one (albeit fantastic!) site, Bizwiki also powers other major local search sites such as Accessplace.com, TownPages.com and British Services as well as industry specific verticals such as BuilderNet.

Have you signed up for your free listing?

Yesterday’s post on the Kelsy Group blog highlights the fact that people no longer want to search through categories to find businesses, they want to search by service or product or other “keywords”. They want to use “natural search”.

This is where Bizwiki is leading the way in local search. Bizwiki provides the standard categorisation for anyone wishing to search that way, however the majority of our users use the free form search box. By building a unique synonym set and merging it with our own proprietary algorithm Bizwiki is able to provide relevant local results in seconds.

Here are just a few examples of the relevant results Bizwiki’s NaturalSearch functionality provides:

Looking for a curry house in Birmingham?

Has your Selby office run out of printer ink?

Do you need help selling your Essex based business?

Want to know where the all night petrol stations in Warwick are?

Going on holiday from Swansea and need travel money?

NaturalSearch is the way forward. Why limit users to selecting a category? Why confine them to some archaic taxonomy?

Bizwiki’s NaturalSearch technology is still in the beginning stages. If you think it’s good now just wait til you see what we have in store!

In case you needed another great reason to add your business to Bizwiki -or to add more information and details if you’re already listed- Bizwiki has just joined in powering the TownPages.com local information website.

TownPages is a popular destination website that has hundreds of thousands of unique users every month. Their goal is to provide information about all the towns and communities outside the main centres, the places that are often over-looked online. Bizwiki information is being added alongside The Local Data Company’s, helping build this useful site into an even more comprehensive resource.

Adding a company to Bizwiki is quite simple and completely free of charge, and any company listed here will also appear on TownPages.com free of charge. You can manage your company’s internet listings from a central location on Bizwiki, add much more detailed information than was previously possible, and best of all benefit from a larger online audience without any extra effort.

Visit the new TownPages website, http://www.townpages.com

Register on Bizwiki, http://bizwiki.co.uk/user/register

Add a company or business, http://bizwiki.co.uk/addcompany.htm