A significant change took place in the later part of 2010 in how Google handles local searches.

For years it had remarked that one in five of the lookups people did on their search engine were locally oriented. While folks needed specific information about thousands of different topics, a strong minority were seeking local information, often in the form of finding their local butcher, baker and candlestick makers.

Google has always been testing its mapping capabilities and GPS combined with its superior access to the universe of data online. Today, Google can determine the physical location of your computer when you do a search. It also is aware of the physical locations of all the businesses in its data base. Consequently, it can plot their relative proximity to you when you (or a prospective customer) perform a search.

Google has made its way into the behemoth it is by stressing one specific goal: providing the browser with the most relevant information possible in response to their search. Google Local Places is just one more major step they have taken to dominate the search market, by providing its users the appropriate information they want.

This has been an evolving capability. Until recently, if a person searched for a "chiropractor" on Google, or any of the other search engines, they would get millions of possible results. The first page of results might display a national chiropractor institute, or possibly individual firms in New York or Los Angeles. Rarely would the searcher see a result from their immediate area. This caused the person looking to change their search to something like, "chiropractor, Minneapolis." When they did that, the results were much better. Websites would be listed which incorporated both terms, and therefore more relevant to the Minneapolitan who was looking for a chiropractor.

An entire industry had sprung up called Search Engine Optimization or "SEO" to help organizations win the battle to appear on that first page of Google results. I and other SEO experts advised businesses to get their web sites to show up for local terms having, 'long tail geographical keywords.' This is why I named my consulting business, Minneapolis Internet Marketing Consultant and picked a url for my web site of MinneapolisInternetMarketingConsultant dot com.

It worked for me and for many companies. Now those of us in the industry know a variety of additional steps that a business can take to get their web site placed at the top of the search engine results. These fall under two general categories, on page and off page factors. These still matter when a business wants to get itself or a product line rated in the organic results on Google and also the other search engines. (Organic results are the natural search results that Google finds for any given search as opposed to the paid ads.)

They remain particularly relevant to non local companies, national brands, etc which cannot take advantage of the local search gambit discussed here. These are beyond the scope of this report. For the most part, local businesses could get on the first page of Google results just by paying attention to the details I will be outlining in the coming pages. They still remain powerful and crucial in highly competitive fields and markets. For many "main street businesses, mastering Google local places will be enough to get you the lion's share of the available visibility in your marketplace.

Now the question is how to get on Google maps. That's another story in this ongoing series.

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