I just had a conversation with my dad regarding his business and local search. My dad has been in the car business for over 30 years and he still personally reviews all the data to determine what works and what hurts the dealerships.
He said that local search has not been beneficial at all. In fact, it has caused some problems. He owns several car dealerships and he says that they are receiving a lot of credit applications from people that do not qualify and people are sending in ridiculous “quotes” or “bids” on cars. These two issues have resulted in wasted time. He also said he has had less car sales, through the web sites, than he had before local search went into place.
This was very interesting to me. It clearly shows that before we optimize for local search we need to evaluate the demographics and optimize accordingly. It also shows that you cannot only consider local search in your optimization. Additionally, sometimes the old and/or reliable ways of doing things are more effective.
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Update: I might not have been clear in this post. I commented at Sphinn and I will paste it here, “He doesn’t live in Florida. My point is that some are putting all their eggs in one basket. Many also ignore demographics and do not do their research. If the company my father used did some research they could have appealed to the right markets.”
Melissa – SEOAware.com
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“evaluate the demographics” is huge! Not everyone is a good fit for the business. Important to consider that when developing an online marketing strategy.
I completely agree. It is a lot of work, but pays off in the end.