Truth 30. Everyone is local somewhere

As far back as 2004, local search accounted for up to 25 percent of commercial activity on the Web, according to a Kelsey Group study. No wonder large and small players alike have been striving to build a better local search mousetrap. Of all the large and small search verticals out there, local is the fastest-growing and, probably, most important.

It’s not hard to understand why. A dentist in Des Moines may have a Web presence, but it’s unlikely he’ll be filling cavities in Cleveland. If your drain clogs in Denver, a plumber in Pittsburgh isn’t what you need now. The major search engines know this, in fact. Various geo-location technologies are baked into their algorithms. So when someone with ...

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