LBi's Director of Search and Analytics Allister Blanco argues that optimizing for locality can play a positive role in the development of a search strategy.
Local search can really pay off for advertisers with a bricks-and-mortar presence. Optimizing your physical locations and controlling the messaging can provide excellent opportunity for both foot traffic and Web traffic. It also provides a way to own more space in the search engine results pages, thus increasing your chances of getting that valuable click.
If a user searches for "roller blades," and a vendor has optimized correctly, it will appear on the first page with its main site, in the paid listings and, more importantly, in the local listings with all retailers represented for that IP or ZIP code target. Ideally, a user researching a product will acquire product info from the main site, but can be influenced to buy locally with local listings that carry that specific product. The goal is to shorten the path to sale.
While simple in theory, local search works if you can get all the pieces in line; synchronizing your marketing, technical, and business resources to cover all your points of entry—organic, sponsored, and local business listings.
Businesses with multiple locations can optimize their local listings with a URL that drives to a main site. You still want to provide a local map and phone number for users who want to bypass your site and head right into a store to buy.
Your only real shot at getting traffic bumps are if the users are still seeking info about your product—in which case, they should have three ways to reach you: local ads, organic listings and paid ads. Local search is for Web savvy marketers looking to provide a service to their potential buyers by creating the shortest path to sale possible in the online space.