According to a 2009 study by the US-based ComScore, local Internet searches are growing at a much faster rate than search as a whole.

During 2008, there was a 58% increase in local searches, compared to the ever increasing local searches throughout 2009 and 2010.  This suggests that attention to geography is becoming more important when considering an SEO campaign.

Local phrases account for over 12% of all searches, which is good news for directories and other websites that focus on a certain town, city or county.  This is obviously also beneficial for well advertised business directories like yell.com, which are used by people looking for businesses in their area.

Internet users have always been keen to make use of the net to find information and the bargains that may be found with such a huge choice at their fingertips. These figures may suggest an eagerness in consumers to deal with local businesses.  For website owners, this may mean that while the Internet can open your doors to potential customers across the country or even worldwide, it will also pay dividends to optimise your website for your local market.
By targeting local searches, you are going to be driving relevant traffic, rather than someone looking for “cleaning services” in Basingstoke when you want “cleaning services” in Cheshire.

It also means that by targeting longer tail keywords, it will not be such a competitive market, than if you were targeting more generic keywords, of which you are going to have to compete a lot more aggressively to knock the major competitors off the number one spot.

That’s not to say that targeting local searches isn’t going to be hard.  Think about how many cleaning companies there are in London for example.  Keywords such as “cleaning services London” are probably just as competitive as “cleaning services.”
The key to successful local searches is a well managed, effectively ran campaign.

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