When most people think of the Web, they think in terms of the World Wide Web and all of the content on all of the pages from websites all over the world that search engines crawl, index, rank and serve up in response to search queries from the millions and millions of people who perform billions searches around the world every month.

But Web search isn’t just for the benefit of people seeking content from any source anywhere in the world. Many people who use search engines actually use them because they are looking for information about places close to where they live or work or plan to visit.

The Importance of Local Web Search

Local Web search has been alive and well – and growing – for years now. In fact, according to information published on Google’s blog, about 20% of all Google searches have a local intent to them (that number rises to about 33% for Google searches via the mobile Web).

A Kelsey Group study form May 2010 found that 97% of all consumers use the Internet to find local business information – of whom, 90% use a search engine.

Seekers of Local Information Take Action

People who use search engines to find local business information do not search just for the sake of searching. They search for the sake of finding. And when they find, they take action, as a Nielsen Net Ratings-WebVisible study found:

• 70% will call the phone number on a website
• 60% have referred a business they found on the Internet to a friend
• 52% always or often research online first, then follow up with an offline purchase from a local business
• 14% will send a business they found online an email
• 11% will fill out an online form

How do those conversions compare to your Yellow Pages listings, radio and TV ads, and direct mail campaigns?

Google’s New SERPs Display Integrated Search Results for Local Businesses

It should be no surprise that search engine giant Google – ever obsessed with delivering a better quality search experience for its end users – has been working hard on improving its local business search facility and results for quite some time now.

And this week, Google rolled a new version of its search engine results pages (SERPs) that represent a significant change in the way universal search results are displayed whenever the search engine detects implicit or explicit local intent to a search query.

The new SERPs have eliminated the Local Business 3-7-10 packs in favour of an integrated search result. The new search results for local businesses now combine information traditionally displayed in the Web search results listings (page title, page description, and URL) with information previously displayed only in the Google Places Page listings (pushpin corresponding to locations on the map, customer ratings, reviews, and link to the business’ Places Page).

The map that used to appear to left of the Local Business 3-7-10 pack listings has now moved to the right – directly above the vertical paid search results. It has also been made “sticky,” so it remains in view as you scroll down the page.

Consolidated Web/Local Ranking Algorithms Will Have Implications

Importantly, according to a post on Search Engine Land, Google claims that the ranking algorithm for local/place search has been improved and refined. Moreover, the previously distinct local and Web search algorithms have now been merged or consolidated.

This could have significant implications for businesses that have held, in the past, top rankings in Google’s local business search results and Google Maps.

Local Businesses Have Been Lagging Behind

Local businesses have been – to their detriment – slow to embrace Google Places (witness the fact that about 90% of the 50 million+ Google Places Pages that Google had created in September 2009 were unclaimed, according to the most recent available data). As a result, businesses have forfeited top rankings – and Web and physical traffic that top rankings can drive – to competitors that have only had to make a modicum level of effort at SEO for their Places Pages.

With the new SERP display, local business results take on new prominence on the first page of Google. No longer will they appear as some aberration at the top (or in the middle) of the search results. Now they are the search results.

The Time is Right to Get Your Local Search Marketing Effort in Gear

If your business has enjoyed top rankings in the non-local organic search results – but has done little or nothing with its free Google Places Page – you could be in for a big surprise.

If, on the other hand, your business has been shut out of the top search results – local or otherwise – the time is right for you to make some moves.

The message is clear: it’s time to get off your butt and get your local search marketing efforts in gear.

Local online marketing is big business. And it has been for a while. Local businesses have been painfully slow to embrace the Internet as a marketing tool. This means that there is opportunity for businesses that “strike first.”

Don’t let this opportunity pass you by. The new SERPs were just launched this week. Beat your competitors to the punch and cash in on all of the benefits of getting your search marketing act together before they do.

If you need more “convincing,” then enter your contact details into the form at the top of the sidebar on the right of this page to download a free copy of the Local Search Marketing report, which outlines the opportunity for local businesses to cash in on local search marketing in detail.

Additionally, you can contact me personally for a free and painless – relatively speaking – consultation.