• Search Engine Land
  • Sections
    • SEO
    • SEM
    • Mobile
    • Local
    • Retail
    • Google
    • Bing
    • Social
    • Home
  • Follow Us
    • Follow
  • Search Engine Land
  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Mobile
  • Local
  • Retail
  • Google
  • Bing
  • Social
  • More
  • Events
    • Follow
  • SUBSCRIBE

Search Engine Land

Search Engine Land
  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Mobile
  • Local
  • Retail
  • Google
  • Bing
  • Social
  • Newsletters
  • Home
Local

Sign up for our daily recaps of the ever-changing search marketing landscape.

Note: By submitting this form, you agree to Third Door Media's terms. We respect your privacy.


What Will 2014 Bring For Local Search? 6 Predictions

Another year is closing and search marketers are anxiously looking ahead to what is on the horizon for local search in 2014. As opportunity grows for businesses to connect with customers via search, so do the challenges of determining the best approach and the potential for search engines to change the game entirely, as Google […]

Chris Marentis on December 19, 2013 at 9:00 am
  • More

Another year is closing and search marketers are anxiously looking ahead to what is on the horizon for local search in 2014. Screen Shot 2013-12-13 at 12.37.48 PM

As opportunity grows for businesses to connect with customers via search, so do the challenges of determining the best approach and the potential for search engines to change the game entirely, as Google did with Hummingbird in 2013.

Here are a few local search happenings to expect in the coming year.

National To Local Approach For Brands

The idea of a coordinated national to local strategy will become a reality for more brands and local businesses in 2014. Many local markets (and vertical industries) are very competitive and keyword saturated, making it difficult for national and regional brands, as well as for independent business owners, to win the online visibility game on their own.

National marketers that depend on the success of independent business owners (franchises, dealers, contractors) will find they can create a platform effect with a coordinated national-to-local approach to SEO, social media and content marketing.

Hummingbird Points The Way

Rooted in searchers’ conversational tone, Google’s Hummingbird — along with other local search algorithms — will continue to reward valuable content.

Local businesses will need to take a closer look at their content marketing efforts since producing and distributing informative, fresh content that provides direct answers to searchers’ most frequent queries will be imperative for ranking high in search results. Weaving content development into existing workflows will be most effective for brands and SMBs.

Mobile Optimized Websites

Making sure a business’ website is mobile optimized might mean the difference between being found by customers on a mobile browser or not. With more consumers shopping via mobile, it is clear that site traffic is moving to mobile. In fact, showing the continued growing popularity of mobile devices, InfoScout reported that a full 22 percent of Target’s early sales on Black Friday were Apple mobile products. Being mobile-ready is a must.

In 2013, we witnessed Google giving prominence in mobile SERPs to local businesses that properly configured their websites for mobile devices, and this will be a growing trend in 2014.

Some websites could even be penalized by Google and the other major search engines if they’re not optimized correctly. Also on the mobile front, strategies like click-to-call will become even more interesting as they play a larger role in the digital lead generation strategy for many business verticals.

Google Focus On Ratings & Reviews

In 2013, Google focused on ramping up its local ratings and reviews, including the launch of City Experts. The search giant will continue to try to gather this rich, hyperlocal content from local consumers to grow Google+.

In another sign of this effort, businesses with verified Google listings will continue to reap benefits including having the ability to see customer ratings and reviews in their Places for Business dashboard and the ability to reply to those reviews.

This means two things: first, it will be important for businesses to encourage their loyal customers to write reviews and second, businesses must verify their local search listings appropriately on Google and the entire search ecosystem.

Social Media & SEO Continue To Converge

Impacting local search, social media channels will continue to help drive traffic to a business’ website, building valuable links along the way and driving significant referral traffic. In general, this traffic is very valuable as time spent, number of pages viewed and bounce rate numbers are comparable to organic traffic and other (more traditional) sources of referral traffic like directories.

Social signals will also continue to impact search algorithms since search engines now weight “people links” higher than other links that can be “managed” or paid. Businesses successfully connecting with customers via social media channels will build more loyalty, positive ratings and reviews, natural backlinks and these websites are more likely to have higher conversion rates.

Facebook Can’t Be Ignored

Facebook is the 500-pound gorilla but still has a ways to go in local search to compete with true directories like Google+, Yelp and others. However, the site reaches over one billion consumers, and time spent on the social media cannot be ignored. SMBs will want to make sure they play here.

And, with category targeting and remarketing, Facebook is a great platform for paid marketing, an excellent vehicle to build engagement, particularly using paid promoted posts, and further increase a brand’s or SMB’s online local search presence.

It is an exciting time in local search. Amidst challenges, there is huge opportunity for businesses and brands to expand their local search visibility and reach consumers across multiple devices and platforms. What trends are you watching in 2014?


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.



About The Author

Chris Marentis
Chris Marentis is the Founder and CEO of Surefire Social, the ultimate marketing cloud for local business lead generation, providing comprehensive, results-driven digital marketing technology and services for local businesses and national brands across North America.

Related Topics

Channel: LocalLocal Search Column

Sign up for our daily recaps of the ever-changing search marketing landscape.

Note: By submitting this form, you agree to Third Door Media's terms. We respect your privacy.


We're listening.

Have something to say about this article? Share it with us on Facebook, Twitter or our LinkedIn Group.

ATTEND OUR CONFERENCES

Lorem ipsum doler this is promo text about SMX events.

May 21-22, 2019: SMX London

Sept 30 - Oct 1, 2019: SMX Advanced Europe

November 18-19, 2019: SMX Paris

February 19-20, 2020: SMX West

March 18-19, 2020: SMX Munich

June 8-10, 2020: SMX Advanced

November 11-12, 2020: SMX East

×


Learn More About Our SMX Events

Gain new strategies and insights at the intersection of marketing, technology, and management. Our next conference will be held:

April 15-17, 2020: San Jose

October 6-8, 2020: Boston

×

Attend MarTech - Click Here


Learn More About Our MarTech Events

White Papers

  • The Ultimate Agency Guide for Choosing the Right Marketing Automation Vendor.pdf
  • How Good Partnerships Should Reduce Your Workflow
  • Digital Insights 2019: How marketers confront the obstacles of digital customer engagement
  • 14 Industry Experts on the Future of Attribution
  • The Essential Guide to Protecting Your Ad Spend from Invalid Traffic
See More Whitepapers

Webinars

  • 2020 Outlook for AI in B2B Marketing
  • Build Brand Humanity by Mastering Empathy at Scale
  • The Fantastic 5: Emerging strategies to drive conversions & growth
See More Webinars

Research Reports

  • Enterprise Digital Asset Management Platforms
  • Identity Resolution Platforms
  • Customer Data Platforms
  • B2B Marketing Automation Platforms
  • Enterprise SEO Platforms
  • Call Analytics Platforms
See More Research

Search Engine Land’s Guide To PPC

Master the Elements of PPC
Sign up for our NEW daily brief.
Search Engine Land
Download the Search Engine Land App on iTunes Download the Search Engine Land App on Google Play

Channels

  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Local
  • Retail
  • Google
  • Bing
  • Social

Our Events

  • SMX West
  • SMX London
  • SMX Advanced
  • SMX East
  • MarTech West
  • MarTech East

Resources

  • White Papers
  • Research
  • Webinars
  • Search Marketing Expo
  • MarTech Conference

About

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Advertise
  • Marketing Services
  • Staff
  • Connect With Us

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Youtube
  • iOS App
  • Google Play

© 2019 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.