Digital Directory Management: Why Hyper Local Listings are So Important

In 2015, mobile web usage surpassed desktop usage, and mobile web usage has only continued to grow since then. People, particularly millennials, now use their phones and tablets to search for products and services on the go.  This has given rise to hyper local targeting, meaning targeting customers based on their location at any given moment.  They might be in their car, walking down the street or sitting at home.

This marketing trend is also called the “near me query” trend or the “micro moment” trend as more people search by entering the keywords “near me” next to the keywords for whatever service or product they want to find. For example, if they want to locate a nearby veterinarian, then they enter “veterinarian near me.”  If they want to find a neighborhood Italian restaurant, then they enter “great Italian restaurant near me.”  This is why their smartphone wants to know their location.  If it knows where they are, then it can tell them what is nearby.

Businesses that are not optimising for this new way of searching risk losing online traffic and human visitors.  On the other hand, companies that understand the rising importance of mobile search and hyper local searching in particular have a huge opportunity to reach new customers at the very moment that they are interested in a specific service or product.

The key to hyper local targeting is to ensure that your business name not only appears in mobile users’ search results when they are doing a “near me” search but that the information is current, complete and correct.  If you have changed your business phone number but the old one still appears in the hyper local search results, then you will miss calls.  If the search results show an incomplete address, then you will lose foot traffic. There is no point in being listed if customers choose your business but then cannot reach it or find it.

If you want to ensure that your company name, address, phone number and website appear when someone on a smartphone or tablet searches for your product or service while they are on the go, then please contact us. Our team is standing by to help, and we look forward to working with you.