Google has gone from being a top online library to an advertising giant. Now, it has successfully combined the two, and its limitless advertising potential provides equal opportunities to both multinational corporations and small businesses. Exactly how it levels the playing field for small businesses is what you should be familiar with if you are planning to put up a business soon or if you want your current business to get ahead of the competition.

The Rise of Local Searches

 As Google becomes more and more flexible, providing information about almost everything, particularly about the businesses it advertises, end-users can now use it to search for specific products, services, and business. Somehow, end-users’ searching behavior has also changed with Google’s development, shifting from the typical general information search to product and business search. They knew Google has become more than just a library of information.

The technology Google uses today allows it to narrow down search results to what is relevant not only to the search but also to the searcher, taking into account his/her location and other personal information. For instance, if one searches for the best restaurant, the search result will most likely be the best restaurants near his/her location. In the past, Google would show even restaurants found abroad, which does not really help the searcher.

Therefore, if you want to be one of the businesses that Google will show searchers within your service area, it’s about time to invest in local search engine optimization. This type of SEO enables you to get to the top of search engine results pages when a local search is made. This way, you’ll get not just online visitors, but actual customers.