The dream of the originators of Google Local Business Listing was to create an online shopping experience similar to Main Street, America. Thanks to the gargantuan memory and storage capacity of modern computers, it became possible for the search engines and classified directories to provide web surfers, on request, an immediate list of stores and businesses providing the sought after product or service, within the seeker’s purlieu.
This idyllic solution to Internet shopping was soon shattered, however, because the World Wide Web can only provide the illusion of shopping in a small town, and Google and other search engines had to face problems posed by businessmen vying for a share of the market. Why should a superior plumbing company, located in suburbia, be listed on the search results, underneath the town plumber, when their plumbing company truck can be at the customer’s house in 10 minutes? Why should a high quality Italian restaurant, located in the next district, be ranked under a local take-out pizza joint, when online users willing to travel a few miles, are searching for gourmet Italian food?
Challenged by problems like these, the brilliant technicians at Google and other search engines began adding distance factors related to each industry into their “local search equations,” which distorted and compressed the spatial and temporal realities of small town life. Ranking factors, such as company stability and reputation, were added into the local search equation, and the imaginary small town became further distorted as closeness became defined in terms of the subjective needs of the consumer.
Big multi city concerns began pounding the small town model. Companies offering mortgages, loans and insurance, and national companies, with local affiliates, such as locksmiths, real estate agents and movers, began to fill up the local lists. The local search results, originally designed to inform shoppers of the nearest provider in their geographical neighborhood, were now filling with distant businesses submitted by entrepreneurs using tricks to get their clients top listing.
As the owner and Director of Express Submit,Google Local a company dedicated to rapid and effective Google Local Listing, I won’t deny that I fight hard to get each of my customers a top listing on Google Maps. Local List Submission However, I honestly believe that Express Submit, like most submission companies, is ethical. Before I take on a job, I question each of my potential customers, to make sure they can provide their service in a timely fashion. If they live at a distance from the area they’re serving, I want to make sure that their customers will not be penalized by travel costs. If my listing service will empower my clients to rank above other companies on the local list, I want to be sure they will be providing an equivalent or superior service. I am happiest when I help a client with a quality product to get more customers.
The search engines have adjusted and in some cases facilitated the evolving character of the local search, and at times have bucked. But quaint as the idea is, how can anyone believe that our post-relativistic, futuristic world could entirely be reduced to Main Street in a dawdling, Arcadian small American town?
Access free experiences to website traffic – your own knowledge base.
Related Story:
