**by Hanan Lifshitz
**
Lately I've been speaking with SEM experts about what small business
owners should do to increase their online visibility. While opinions
vary, most experts agree about the importance of ranking high on
Google's various organic search results.
Listening to them explain what a local business can hope to achieve,
I found that the language was hardly ever about being the "only
winner" in a category, but rather being in the "leading group of
search results". This is consistent with the reality of search,
where we are used to seeing multiple results in each page. Being
"among" the 10-pack is often considered a great achievement, not
to mention having your website or profile page appear in the first
search results page (i.e. along 9 other links). In other words, in
every category within a given market, there are usually a handful of
winners who enjoy a good deal of online visibility.
And then, during a chat with Will Scott from Search Influence
<http://www.searchinfluence.com/>
, I ran a Google search for "New Orleans Chiropractor" which
brought up this page:
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/23148333@N06/3678585637/>
What I found striking about these results were several things:
There was just one "one box" result (not a 10 or 3 pack),
dominated by a Dr. Dubois.
Above the one box, there was no typical "Local business results
for…" link that usually takes the user to a list of other
chiropractors.
The first organic search result below the one box belongs to the
same Dr. Dubois.
The following (indented) link is from a page on Dr. Dubois' site.
While the next link (already mostly below the fold) directs to a
different chiropractor (Dr. Thompson), a quick investigation shows
that he and Dr. Dubois share the same phone number and are probably
affiliated.
Most of the remaining links on the first page are directory sites,
but even there, Dr. Dubois managed to dominate a couple (e.g. on
InsiderPages).
While this is no LA, I should note that there is no shortage of New
Orleans chiropractors in Google's database - you can find hundreds of
them if you run the same query on Google Maps:
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/23148333@N06/3678585999/>
There is no need to expound the benefits of such an overarching
domination of the search results. Consumers using these keywords on
Google would be hard pressed to find other chiropractors in New
Orleans, and the impact on both Dr. Dubois' business as well as on his
competitors is probably significant.
As far as I can tell, Will's work in this case was a mix of some good
old fashioned SEO and a not too competitive landscape. But the end
result shows just how much this industry can do for those SMBs who are
ready to take advantage of the opportunities presented by local online
search.
(I should note that I am not affiliated with Will or with Search
Influence in any way.)
Opinions expressed in the article are those of the author, and not
necessarily Search Engine Land.
Hanan Lifshitz <http://searchengineland.com/author/hanan-lifshitz/>
is CEO at Palore <http://www.palore.com/>
, a provider of local businesses' advertising data and information on
their online activity. He also blogs at The Palore Blog
<http://palore.wordpress.com/>
. This column is researched and written by the marketing department
at Palore, which is led by Hanan.
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