A Return to Local

I maintain that Google is on the right track with their approach to local.  Now, I know that Google’s motivation for allocating more real estate on their search results pages to maps, local, place pages and reviews is to extend their inventory options and meet the wants of searchers. But as a side benefit of their shift in SERPs (search engine results pages), Google is creating visibility for, and of, local indie retailers, restaurants, coffee bars, dry cleaners and barbers.

During the heady “big bang days” of the late nineties and early 2000’s there was much buzz around the new global economy.  The Internet enabled and expedited international communication and commerce at a leap-frog pace never before seen.   Simultaneously, we saw massive growth in big box retailers dominating the physical landscape with new suburbs and strip malls popping up in heretofore cow fields and corn rows.  Companies like Target, Walmart and Starbucks took their wares abroad and spread across the North American landscape like a swarm of prodigious locust.  And we, as consumers, reveled in the proliferation of affordable, quality home goods and frivolous frappes.  With the deflated economy over the past few years, and a return to simplicity, basics and community, I see (and welcome) a return to local.

Here in metro Phoenix (Urban Sprawl, party of a million…your McMansion is ready), I try to do my best to patronize local retailers, indie shops and restaurants, and service providers.  I’ll admit it – I love “Tar-jzhay” as much as the next guy, but whenever I can, I shop locally.  And that can be a challenge if you don’t know what’s out there to enjoy.  Fortunately for me and my neighbors, we have a strong coalition of locally owned, independent businesses called Local First Arizona.  Their site is a handy resource for all things local in Arizona as well as business resources, networking opportunities and local shopping directories.  I love these guys!



The members of Local First Arizona are precisely who Google is pushing to get in and set up their Place Pages (formerly Google Local Business Center), which, as a local marketer, I recommend to each business I visit.  Google offers great resources and marketing options to companies that set up and verify their profiles.  One of the coolest offerings is a Google Favorite Place QR code that indie business owners can print and put out in their storefront.  The code can be scanned with a mobile device and the code takes the user directly to the business’s Google Places page.

This adds an interesting dimension to the ever increasing integration between online and offline. For example, now as a consumer I can stand out front of LaBocca Urban Pizzaria and Wine Bar in Tempe, AZ., scan a QR code in the window with my smartphone, go to their Google Places page, read consumer generated reviews (see my post about the importance of consumer generated reviews), educate myself online and then walk in and saddle up to the bar for a killer glass of house-made sangria – offline.  That’s “bricks-to-clicks-to-bricks”!

As the adoption of mobile devices continues to explode (there are three times more mobile phones than desktops), there’s no waiting around to get your local ducks in a row.  So regardless of your size or corporate ownership – from a one-man-band to a Fortune 500 company with hundreds of locations – adoption, verification and proper leveraging of your local marketing options is paramount to your success now.

Tagged as: Arizona, GLBC, Google, Google LBC, Google Local Business Center, Google Places, google places page, LBC, local business, local first arizona, Mobile, QR Code, Search, search engine, Search engine results page, smartphones, Web search engine