Local focus for Google ranking initiative

SEARCH engine optimisation company ineedhits has come up with an innovative way of getting businesses to rank in the top 10 listings on Google.

RankLocal is a Google-ranking service specifically designed for small businesses to attract local customers and coincides with the rising trend in consumer demand for localised search results on the internet.

Clay Cook, CEO of the Claremont-based company, said the difference between RankLocal and existing SEOs was that RankLocal was not about changing or optimising a company’s existing website.

“A lot of clients would love to get on top of Google but really don’t want to do a lot to their website,” Mr Cook told WA Business News.

Instead, a new profile page is created that contains all of a business’s key details, including a link to its website.

For $60 a month, a business can choose a keyword and several nearby suburbs that are used to optimise that profile page to appear on the first page of Google.

“It’s not about the look and feel, it’s all about generating traffic and leads for the customer for a very affordable price,” Mr Cook said.

“It’s all about appearing on the first page of Google and then people clicking. So suddenly they’re getting the traffic generated to that profile page and once traffic’s there we want them calling the person ... or clicking through to the client’s website.”

He said small businesses were starting to understand the power of the internet, particularly the benefits of ranking locally.

“Also, the actual users of Google are becoming better at searching for businesses that they want to do business with so they are searching more locally,” Mr Cook said.

The increased presence of online directories such as TrueLocal, Bloo and Hotfrog reflects a similar demand for localised searches.

Truelocal CEO John Allan said his online directory had experienced a dramatic increase in the number of people using it, from 1.2 million net browsers Australia-wide per month to 2.3 million during the past year.

Mr Allan said part of the reason for this was that there had been massive growth in web-enabled mobile phones.

“All of a sudden in your hand is this device that you can do location-based services,” he said.

Gartner research predicts that 64 per cent of all mobile phones in Australia in 2012 will be smart phones.

“That’s important because it allows you to do all that really sexy stuff online,” Mr Allen said.

“There’s an appetite. Consumers are absolutely using online to search for local business and products.”

In terms of social networking, there are various location-based phone applications available for business and personal use, including Foursquare and Facebook Places.

TrueLocal’s iPhone application has been operational since 2009, but a new version will be launched this week that will enable users to rate and review businesses.

Mr Allan said the new version would incorporate a map view with the product where, with the push of a button, consumers will be able to locate businesses in their area and see any deals on offer.

Users will also be able to login using either a Facebook login or a Truelocal login.

“When you start to push down that path, localised searching will become even stronger,” Mr Allen said.