A study by comScore Networks and TMP Directional Marketing, found that local search grew 24 percent in 2007, while general Web search grew only 14 percent. Piper Jaffray notes that 30 percent of all queries conducted today contain a city, state, or ZIP code. According to Yahoo! Research, 88 percent of sales revenue generated from online advertising is derived from consumers who have conducted their research online, then made their purchase in a brick and mortar store.
So what does this mean for your business? Your internet marketing and corporate blogging strategy should include ways to include city names, counties and zipcodes in your site and blog copy.
Compedium Blogware goes as far as recommending you have a separate blog for each location you serve based on key phrases.
At Clarity Quest, we use this strategy as well. Although we serve clients throughout the U.S. and the world, we concentrate our search efforts on “Michigan marketing” based on the location of our headquarters. Next up: More location-based blog posts and individual web pages for our Seattle and upcoming Oregon offices.