WebProNews

The appeal of local search to people wanting to buy comes from a basic need to control their environment.

Online advertising firm WebVisible has applied Bill Ockham's razor to the concept of local search. It appeals because it provides a modicum of control to the searcher, and their desires.

Unsurprisingly, search engines that feed the desire rose to take the spot in a WebVisible and Nielsen//NetRatings survey of what people use to find a local business. 73 percent of those surveyed cited major search sites like Google, Yahoo, or MSN.

Compared to a couple of years ago, people use the Internet more, and the venerable telephone directories much less. The trend on Internet usage for local businesses, according to the survey, comes at the all-important purchasing point.

Webvisible found that people look for product or service information online. They want to enter a business relationship as well-informed as they can be, but when they buy, they wish to do so locally.

A twenty-minute drive won't daunt these researchers. If a business within that geographical area can deliver on a transaction to a customer's satisfaction, they will put the $3/gallon gas in the SUV and make the trek.

The survey reinforced certain search marketing points our readers likely understand now. Have an online presence, something that searchers will find when they look for keyphrases relevant to a local business.

Target search marketing by location. Remember that 20-minute drive? That's at the top end of what the survey found people will do to reach a local business.

Since people want to research first and buy second, why not be that authoritative source? Vendors for a business likely have product information that can be republished online. An authoritative piece on a product can help with consumer confidence, and may be what encourages a shopper to drive a little farther to the local business that provides it.